Ethan

[Gregg Claussen]

Please don't hit me too hard....but,
Lot's of portraits have the 'sitter' involved in action. Portraits of sports players prove this point. There have even been portraits of rock climbers involved with their activities.
If we are talking business, the most important 'aspect' is customer satisfaction, meaning a happy client. No reason you can't have a happy client and a work of art.
Photo #3 seems ready made for a painting, including the background. The values are almost 'ready made'.. The cloud bank in the upper left corner might need a bit tweaking or changing to maybe distant fogged-in mountains? <--just what I would do, not what you should do. If you do use photo#3, then you might want to give a bit more room between the bottom of the figure and the bottom of the picture. At least that way, it won't be even on both the upper and lower parts of the photo, and give the shadow more 'room'.
Very nice reference photo's. What camera did ya use?

Cheers and Good luck!