I'm not understanding how this is better than the colour version? At least in my untrained eyes it isn't. :)

*facepalm* I retract my earlier question of doing the lines after coloring. *DERP*

Don't be too harsh on yourself, it could have been a value or colour sketch, you couldn't know before you checked :)
I usually go sketch, lineart, colour, background, but in this one I worked out the background first (BECAUSE I HATE THEM! AND THEY HATE ME!) and that felt good. In total it was a complete mess of my workflow but I guess it can be healthy to shake things up a bit

Funny I do the same thing. Backgrounds are always last, but I find that I enjoy them a lot, especially when I use them to bring out a theme.