Stroking the Ego

We both learn Spanish so we do Spanish bits any time we can. The prompt here was "Acariciarse el ego – Echokammer" and stroking one's ego seems an expression in all languages I know so I went with that; if Ego was a creature I bet it'd be a cat. I lassoed the shapes over a quick sketch, and afterwards applied a poster filter in Photoshop (I don't always enjoy line drawings so have to use workarounds for that to keep my sanity). I took some back and forth and touchups trying to get that right but I like how it turned out.

The challenge:
I absent-mindedly complained to my significant other that I missed doing challenges because I hadn't gotten around to any in '23. He was happy to provide me with a multi-lingual list of prompts the likes of which I hadn't seen before and gave me a schedule until the end of year I couldn't possibly keep - who has time for art during the winter holidays when there are games that need playing and way too much food to think creatively? But I went on regardless.
I decided before that I wanted to start working with a more reduced and clearer style than my usual paintings; I would love to get into editorial illustrations. I worked in Photoshop, Painter, and Rebelle; leaving out trad tools to speed things up.