It's been a while since I drew up that first sketch, and though I still like that one -as a sketch- I thought it'd be best to get something a little more interesting going for the posing and expression and everything. After several tries that fell apart before getting anywhere presentable, I was just about to give up for a little while when this sketch pretty much jumped out of my pencil in about 15 minutes. Little bit of refining and tweaking a couple hours later, and It's nearly ready to ink as-is.

Gotta get the bad ones out before you can get to the good ones.