Phantom Cowboy WIP + Step by Step

So I'm working on a character, a Phantom Cowboy. This is a work in progress, and I added the steps to see how I got where I am:

This is where I am at the moment, I'm not sure about the smoke..it might be a bit too much, but the character is supposed to be emerging from a hazy cloud of smoke:

I started by sketching out the rider and horse:

Then I filled in blacks just to see if the silhouette was working:

So now we are ready to start! I selected a medium grey and made the character a bit darker to start off with. Then I basically started "looking" for the character and carve him out almost as if I'd be working on a sculpture. You'll see I flip the canvas once and a while to get a fresh look on things.