...a sneak peek of part of my creative future, XPosted at haste from r/DrawForMe. (As usual, wish I had far more time on my hands, but too many expectations from what I'm about to delve into--and a couple more obligations elsewhere--have held things up for a while.)
Also wishing season's greetings to 
I've searched around here at r/DrawForMe for opportunities, and one fine day early this month, along came u/WhimsicalWillowfern. Willowfern offered five feline ferals, the last of whom--Pumpkinpaw--I chose to practice my headshot skills with. (Dealing with another two as time and nerve permit.)
I wanted to get it done before the end of my first week, but the earliest attempts were hardly up to my satisfaction, and three days in (16/12) I rested it off as personal obligations, info-loading, and a few nightflighting sessionsremember USA Network back in the '80s? took over. With Christmas Day approaching, I decided to get time to finish the portrait; were it not for chores and a Disney+ viewing party last night, you would've seen this in time for the last several hours of Christmas Eve.
As for the fancy footer text? That's the name of Willowfern's OC in my conlang of Tovasala, né Relformaide--which remained part of our plan from the start. (An early version of Tovasala was once drafted in 2009 as part of research duties for my Sevton Saga; another attempt came and went in late 2014. The modern version was launched on a now-dormant Referata wiki in September 2016, officially divorced wholesale from Sevton; I've recently started over on ByetHost--but more on that another time.)
The RFM name (as I originally translated it before the fact) consisted of mekuan (pumpkin), derived from Chichewa mnkhwani; peslen (paw), a blend of Latin pēs and Lithuanian letena; and -e, the termison denoting nouns in the neuter. (Sadly, now that I think about it as I type, I plum forgot to change that into an -o, because we're dealing with a male subject. Never mind that root #2 could be mistaken for a potential past-tense term beginning with pé-.)
Mekuanposleno (the corrected name) was originally tested in handwritten form, but unsatisfactory output led me to spring for Infinite's text pack (for half-price at GPlay--99c) and move on from there. Out of several dozen fonts, I chose the nearest one that suited the portrait well--and now you know.
Two days late, but here's the obligatory technical rundown:
To think that my prowess in geofiction/cartography (via QGIS and Wilbur--search out my past posts) and conlanging pursuits has thrived at the expense of my artistic potential for the past six years and counting--which really shows in the above portrait. (Yes, I know--"experience points".) Not to mention, yes, Unspooled #1 (the one with raccoon cousins Sam and Alfred) has now hit the first-draft stage; the first 1,000 words have begun to circulate, but revisions and new reposts are taking their sweet time.
So from this Captain, enjoy your season...and I'll see you on my long-awaited anthro commission line. ($9.99 each--will take higher offers if they come; up to ~ 3 months to deliver.) Again, stay tuned for reposts with the amended name on Inkbunny and Patreon (donations still welcome at the latter). Till then, joalKristtuelfest--nend joalanovaubrat!
P.S. In case these three recent guests are noticing in some capacity:
P.P.S. Can I now pitch my service here?
(With greetings to the fine folks at r/conlangs)
And apart from revising the Ink Well dispatch with those first 1,000 words of Unspooled #1, that's it for what has been a really challenging year all around. Next we meet, selections from the 2021 edition of our New Year's movie marathon (still a time-honoured tradition of mine); going into February, highlights from our recent editions of Night Flight (one of which I'm engaged in at press time); selections from our commission line; diverse subjects in our next "Cabbages and Kings"; and everything in between. From all of us to all of you...
This is Reginald Routhwick. So long.
Onward and upward...
(3108)
