"Seen the Cat Lately?" (Things Are Gettin' Hairy)

Demo panel for pen & inking: showing how to use a range of different marks for using value to render forms.  Thought this particular one would be appropriate given the potential textures, and chance to see the entire evolution from concept to publication. Also this roughly marks the two-year point of ditching the previous SOP in using vector images (converting the pen & ink line drawings in Freehand) and just using a straight Photoshop scan in grayscale instead.

Here's the doodle (above) as it appears in the omnipresent sketchbook, rendered in first pencil and then black ballpoint pen. A couple add-ons in pencil can be seen in the cat tucked up in the speaker's coat/underbeard + snowshoes, along with a couple edits for the dialogue.
Anybody who even glances at any darker-colored article of clothing I own will immediately ascertain the tell-tail signs of habitual snuggling left behind courtesy of one very large orange kitty in the cabin.

This is a raw scan off the original drawing (approx. 9.5 x 12"): all the gradations rendered by cross-hatching and stippling were done with Micron pens (.08, .03, .005), everything else done by dip-pens (Hunt #102 crow-quill and Globe No. 513EF + 512 nibs) + Winsor & Newton Indian ink + Strathmore 500 series Bristol.

Reproduced on newsprint the image measured about 4.5 x 6" and the reduction in scale meant all the marks pulled closer together which in turn meant the values were pushed even darker, plus the additional tone effect from the newsprint. I almost think that the initial sketch version is better than the end result, chiefly on account of the quality of "hairiness" inherent with the scribbly lines, which helps to underscore the premise of the gag. That and I also occasionaly forget that stippling snow tends to make it look more granular, like sand.
Oh well. Next.
UPDATE: here's a color wash version posted a couple months later.