Daimyo WIP

Here's a little look into my process. After a reference photo session (that I didn't end up using) and several attempts to set up the scene, I finally came up with a satisfying solution for this illustration. This is as far as I go with grayscale and the next step would be placing general colors and over-painting everything to get the look and the details that I want. And I think I finally starting to become comfortable with character art that was and still is my biggest weakness.
Oh and, does that look like a dog? I've been getting a lot of "hey, cool bear"s.