The top left image was my first design; here I incorporated the betta fish fins I talked about in my previous post, however, although aesthetically I like how the fins look, I decided that a soft, scaly, fish body wouldn't be suitable for my creature. It is intended to be a predator, and would need more robust protection from potential threats.
This is when I came up with the bottom left image. It is essentially the same design, only with a shark-like body. A shark's tough skin would provide adequate armour against any "enthusiastic" prey, as well as its fins and tail allowing my creature to be that much more maneuverable. While a thin, floaty tail fin is nice for show, it wouldn't offer much in terms of speed and turnability.
I was fairly content with this design, but I thought something didn't feel quite right; if this creature is intended to be a predator, it needs to have something that gives it the edge on other animals. Right now, the tentacles are flowing backwards to emulate a mane, so I decided that turning them around, making them able to shoot forwards and entangle themselves in their victim, would be a much better use for them than simply "being". This is how the top right design came to be, and I am very happy with the silhouette as it stands.
The loose sketch beneath it is how I imagine the head (specifically, the mouth,) of the creature to be. The jaw would be able to dislocate itself, much like a snake's can, in order to more efficiently swallow larger sources of nutrition, or alternatively to achieve a larger bite when attacking.
The teeth themselves point inwards, allowing for anything to easily enter the creature's mouth, whilst also meaning that trying to struggle out of a bite, if successful, would still leave great, potentially fatal, gashes.
With this design in my head, I quickly worked out the complete sketch in my sketchbook.
And promptly loaded it up in Photoshop to brush on some very loose colours.
Red and blue were my first choices for this creature, as I didn't feel green suited the creature itself, and yellow I think would end up too bright, and doesn't really strike me as a particularly "oceany" colour.
I went with the red in the end, as I still really like the colour scheme I used in my initial watercolour mockup in a previous post, and ended up with this as my finished design.
Colour-wise, I might also rethink my palette to use darker colours. Where I went wrong when I did the blue mockup was I chose colours that were far too light, they ended up looking too similar. These contrasts translated better when I adjusted the hue to be more red, which I think in part influenced my choice in colour.
The addition of barbs, more dynamic shadows, and also perhaps a darker colour palette, would all positively contribute to a more striking design, I believe. However, I think that I have in part achieved my goal in that I created a design that I believe could be imagined within a natural environment.
