Austin Dern is a coati, which is a raccoon-like creature that lives mostly in Latin America. He is a nonanthro coati, having the appearance of any of the creatures you might spot stealing a tourist's lunch. When you need a pick-me-up do a video search for ``coati steals sandwich''; you're welcome.
The side effect of this is pretty much any photograph of a real-world coati is a valid reference. On the right here is a picture that I ran across in the early days of the Internet, in 1995 or 1996, and that stood for me as iconic of what coatis are and how good we look. So far as Austin has any specific look it's of this creature. I regret that I cannot give a source for this picture. It was just one of the four or five decent pictures that came up when you searched for ``coati'' back in the day. I never imagined I'd have it nearly 30 years later.
Austin was created for playing on mucks, a text-based medium for roleplay, so he was created and set in place without any specific visual identity being important. The result is that there's no canonical markings or even exact colors. The important things are:
Here's some pictures that show off Austin, from realistic to cartoonier. Each picture is a link.
A sketchbook commission my dear bride BunnyHugger got from Hibbary, showing off some of our favorite activities but also getting the coati shape just so. The original is on FurAffinity.
Another of BunnyHugger's sketchbook commissions, this one by Lyanti. The original is also on FurAffinity.
Commission by LiimLsan showing Austin fairly realistically while still enjoying a spot of transmutation, which is always fun. Original on FurAffinity over here.
Icon by Candy Dewalt, that's especially good for showing a normal and realistic color scheme for Austin. As mentioned above he doesn't have a canonical set of markings, not even specific colors, but reddish-brown base and light highlights is a reliable way to go.
Another picture showing a more or less naturalistically colored Austin. This picture by Robo Bunny Jane on Mastodon.
And another realistic-colored picture that features some really good head and foot anatomy. Original art by Kubo and posted to FurAffinity here.
Among Austin's favorite little side things is getting painted, as in this picture by techno.
Getting a spot elastic or outright rubbery can be quite fun. This picture is by Akaji_Yui.
And as you may have gathered, a bit of crystallization or other strange texture is very welcome. This picture by Hornbuckle also shows how little a specific color matters; it's all light eyemask and tail rings.
While coatis are rare in American pop culture they're not nonexistent! There are some sources that may offer inspiration for how to tackle the problem of coati shapes.
Pepe Rubanosa is a minor character in the Animalympics movie, competing in the marathon. You can find this and other pictures of him here. He only appears at the start and first few scenes of the marathon thread. I have an animation cel from this that I mean to scan and put up here.
In the otherwise-unloved episode Chocolate Chips, the Rescue Rangers meet up with a coati named Tito Manuel Iago Jones who bemoans the loss of habitat to mind-controlling chocolate-makers. Yes, you forgot the episode too. Still, the episode comes up with a pretty good design for a character that works as quadruped or biped.
As a series set in the Brazilian rainforest Brandy and Mr Whiskers had coatis, mostly as background characters or in other minor roles. The biggest exception was the episode The Fashion Fascist in which a ringtailed coati (voiced by Jeff Bennett, who did not know 'coati' is pronounced 'kuh-wah-tee') makes it all the way to secondary character. There is another coati appearing in the end of the episode Cyranosaurus Rex.
A couple years ago a movie named Koati debuted in over one theater worldwide. The lead character, Nachi, is ... well, it's right there on the tin. The movie's web site is still up, and shows pictures of Nachi as well as sketches and such. I think Nachi doesn't have enough snout, and has maybe too high a forehead, but inspiration can come from anywhere.
So you know what's weird? Eugene the Jeep, the magical four-dimensional dog of Elzie Segar's classic comic strip Thimble Theatre, or as any normal person knows it, Popeye? He's ... well. I am convinced that he's there because Segar wanted to have a character that looked like George Herriman's Krazy Kat. (You can get very far drawing one and still divert it to the other character.) But his proportions? His big nose? His upright tail? This is surprisingly close to a coati's look and using a Eugene model will land you pretty close. Lengthen the tail some more, that'll get it.
Every now and then, the Internet rediscovers that coatis and brontosauruses have about the same profile, just backwards. So, you know, take your brontosaurus picture, put rings on the neck, put a face on the tail and you're at least in the ballpark.