The next stage in the drawing has me darkening the lines i want with a slightly softer pencil. Next step will be to either ink this and work on details or work on some details here before the first inking.

Btw, a quick FYI, the reason there is a non white background is i'm scanning it in the high darkness mode to let you see the drawings at all.. normally after inking the lines are dark enough to switch to color which has far less of a greyout feel... I DO gotta replace my scanner one of these days... still using the backup