New Years Base picture

Hey everyone! Hope you guys are having a nice 2009 so far :D
Mine's going well (so far) even though nothing happened.
Also, since last year, I've drawn a "base"picture at the very start of the year to compare to at the end for a display of improvement.

Last year was from

Elfen Lied: Never looking back by ~starlacyi on deviantART
(beginning)
to

Re EL: Never looking back by ~starlacyi on deviantART
(end)

See any improvement? Well...um...at least the coloring improved right?
Anyway, this year's picture is a little bit more complex. Last year's was just a drawing 100% digitally made. This year, I'm going for traditional.
That being said, here's the sketch


The media is watercolors (aside from the pencil sketch), and will take a while. I'm sorry, but I just happen to be a slow painter XD

Also, it's actually my first time doing something like this, so I have a question for all of you who's done this before:
When it comes to lineart, what works better? Pencil sketch or pen lineart?
I've honestly never tried pen ever, so I don't want to ruin the picture with it D:

Ok, enough blabbering XD See you next time!
There isn't a lot on my Wordpress this time either, but feel free to have a look if you've got time to kill.