It says 'barbarians' on my commission list, but I tend to think of these critters more along the lines of Ghengis Kahn. Sub-Siberian raiders, tooth and claw and feline and all that stuff. Civilized in their way just fine; only considered barbarians by outsiders. Which tends to be the case for pretty much any culture when perceived by another. This one has a kitten in it! with a dagger! cute!
Very upright and square design to this image, hopefully makes her seem cool and aloof, masking some of the face and placing her up high on a precipice might also work to get that across. Again, I don't particularly like the idea of portraying the "barbarian" as, well, terribly barbaric. Since, to me, that is likely only the outsider's view. She seems more like Nature's sentinal, to me. I guess I was in a Princess Mononoke mood at the time. Alas, no tail to play with here. But lynxes have nifty fur patterning that was fun to render.
These I tried to make more feral and "White Wolfish", since I think that's what was wanted for the commission. Hopefully, though, there is still some air of focused and predatory intelligence about them, not just bestial rage. The mindless barbarian image really bothers me, for some reason.