We'll open this contest later this week: this is just a bit of a head's up to get people thinking about their designs!

This guy over here!
If you haven't seen him yet, the little guy in the link is a new cast and we call him a barbary whelp. The immature version of a barbary drake (who we'll be making as well), these hatchlings come fully armatured, hand painted and sewn. They're quite poseable, and can have a small loop added to their belly upon request so that they can be pinned securely to your shoulder. Alternately, we recommend a small harness or halter.
Even small, barbaries have a reputation for being a bit... nippy. That wouldn't ordinarily be too large an issue given their size, however immature barbaries are a touch venomous. Mind your fingers!

Want one? If you don't mind the nipping with the venom and all, then this might be a contest for you.

In a few days time when the contest opens, we'll be posting an uncoloured line-art character sheet much like this one for Scugog pre-orders. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to design a barbary whelp the likes of which we've never seen. Which won't be TOO tricky since we've only made a couple so far! Colours and patterns are entirely up to you, and you may use any media you like. You don't have to use our line-art either: if you'd prefer to draw your own, no problem. We'll judge submitted designs on uniqueness & aesthetic appeal, and come up with a winner and two runner ups.
The winner will have their whelp made and sent to them (we're not responsible for any injuries incurred while handling your whelp. I suggest gloves.).
The 2 runners up will receive something as well: what we haven't quite decided yet.

How do I participate?
1) Design a whelp.
2) Post your whelp! DA, FA, Tumblr are all options, make sure you include a link back to our DA page in the comment, and the contest journal.
3) Spread the word!

Now the questions!
The jury is still out on how long we should run this for: anyone have any thoughts there? For runner-up prizes, would you rather have something like a discount coupon for custom casts, or a physical thing? Maybe an imp?
~W

ETA: We haven't yet decided if we'll consider multiple entries or not at this point, still thinkin' about it. What we may do is say if you'd like to submit multiple entries, post a journal about it as well. Dunno, just a thought!