Ugh, I soent way too much time on this. At least it's starting to shape up. Getting that texture effect in GIMP worked well. Basically I went over the area lightly with various brushes till I got close to what I wanted. Tons of layers too.

I'm pleasantly surprised how well my paws formed. Better than I hoped. And my mouth almost there. Just a couple of things to fix. Next I plan to do the fur on  tanukisan and I hope I can get as much detail as myself. I got a few ideas to try. Then I'll do the slobber effects which should be fun.

After that, I need some sort of background. I probably chicken out and slap some clouds there which I can do pretty decent.

I think these are becoming some of my best works, though I hardly get any comments on these (not like I get a lot to begin with). I could some tips or even some encouragements. The more comments, the more I want to work on the arts (hint hint).