Look what I did! :D

This was done in Gimp using the built-in brushes "Galaxy (AP)" and 3 x 3 Spherical, because I couldn't figure out how to create a new fur brush.

Luckily, Galaxy worked very well when I reduced the spacing to 2 and the opacity to 20%. The base colour is a gradient shading from a dark greyish brown to white, with the brush set to fade out at 100px. It's got some white and some black-to-white added over the top. Finger-pushy tool and dodge tool were helpful here and there.

Please excuse the stars - I managed to create a new star brush and had to use it.

Very pleased with how this came out, will practise a bit more, then maybe I can offer digital commissions in this style! Should be able to manage a background if I did it on a separate layer.