Bugs Bunny is a Ninja...actually it's Usagi Yojimbo

I had a new challenge!  

The following is a line art from "NeMAfronSPAiN" on Deviant Art.  He was kind enough to let me use this drawing.  This one is for Nema!  Thanks!

Using the following line art, I placed it in Illustrator and traced the outlines.  As I went along, I have used approximately 20 hours of tracing and adding colour and shadows.

NeMAfronSPAiN's: Usagi Yojimbo

After the first few hours of tracing, it slowly, but surely started to come together.  I traced the ears and head into one layer.  Then the rest of the face in another layer.  Thus, the hands and arms in one and shirt in a separate layer as well.

The legs and shoes also in another layer and the ribbon/rope also another.

Here and in the previous image, I started to play with some colours.  At first, I had the face in plain white or actually, a colour that is off white that has hints of gray in it.  You will find out later that I changed it to something I believe is better.

While I was tracing, I had the original in the back as a reference.  While being zoomed in, I might sometimes see too much detail and would not be able to see what I am actually tracing.  I also had the jpeg file opened so I could compare my trace to the original image without that one being zoomed in.

This part of the feet, legs, and slippers is what took me the longest.  Tracing the part took me at least 3 hours per leg and foot.  I believe I've spent about half of the time on this alone.  I couldn't get it right for a long time.  The tracing part has to be skilfully done so I could have each part replicated as close to the original line art sketch.  The first trace of the legs and feet I had to delete and start from fresh.  It finally started to look right.

With more colours added, the tracing is finally coming together and more animated.  A few more things, like the shadow and a light source would make it look even better.

After filling in some more colours, I noticed that the final product is lacking something.  I added a background colour to it with a light source and it was still lacking.

For the final product, I gave it more character by making the skin a little pale red.  Now it looks fiercely jumping for an attack.  Alternatively, it could be jumping in defence from an attack.  I prefer the latter.  How about you?

Doesn't matter.  Here's my final product and thank you so much, NeMAfronSPAiN!  You're the best!