sketches for the sign

I began this image by trying to fill as much of an a3 page with rough sketches from reference, I used two brush pens for this, a pentel gfkp for the lines, and a worn out Faber castell Pitt artist pen for the tone. The latter gives a nice mid tone which with pressure can become shadows. From this I had a clear idea of the elements needed for the composition and which reference would be useful, I pencilled the sketch to a clear resolve however the scanner failed to recognise any detail, which was quite frustrating.