Well, thanks, that makes me blush. I made these artworks by following the same process. I first draw them on paper, then take a (crappy) photo -probably would be better if I scan it, but I got no scanner "orz and I'm too stingy to pay for scanning >:D-.
Then I use the photo as a base. It's probably too time consuming, but my intention with that is having the lineart interpretation more like the lines outside of pixel art. With softness and antialiasing. I learned a lot by observing these images at 8x or more.
Another thing I want to say is that I draw them first naked. All the clothes were added after defining the body. It was sort of an exploration.

I don't remember if I did some blog post about this on detail, but if not I will.