(So I find myself adding more and more complexity to the drawings. Let us see how far I can sustain this.)
I went through one extra drawing step: tidying up the pencil sketch. I started with pose sketches during train ride as the previous few times. However, I found myself drawing poses I didn't like. So I consciously changed the gesture lines I started with. (See the right-most picture.)
I thought multiple lines, one roughly perpendicular to the other, may help. One would be the character pose, the other could be a weapon (I was thinking a staff). My first thought was a kid leaning backwards (to our right), holding a long staff. For a reason I cannot remember, I decided against this and drew the head on the staff line instead. The main gesture line turned into the legs outstretching.
(Bonus: You can see rectangles near the hands. My first thought was drawing fists. However, as I added more curves, I thought open palms would look more elegant.)
Next, while tightening up the sketch (see the picture second from right), I experimented with effects around the character to make the image more interesting. I wanted an element that had elegance and strength; and I decided a wind current so strong it could slash was the element I wanted.
Inking the character was straightforward. (See the picture third from right.) Inking the wind, though, was tricky. For this I used what I learned from my days of copying effect panels, such as this one, from the manga "Break Shot". I was impatient, so the wind ended up looking too solid.
Still, I was happy with how this one turned out. What do you think? If you have ideas you want me to draw, let me know in the comments :)