I wrote about my process here, in which I basically dumped the entire email chain into a (free) patreon post.
www.patreon.com/posts/106123...
It also highlights my evolving relationship with #SciArt commissions, as we went from this set of realistic cephalopods in 2019 to what we have above.
I find it interesting how the landscape of commercial art has changed in the last decade.
I've been drawing like the "new" style forever. It's heavily inspired by various traditional art forms in my region, but only recently I managed to make reasonable money out of it.
When I was a fresh grad circa 2010s, if I mentioned my influences by name, I'd get pigeonholed into "ethnic" projects.
There was no possibility of drawing "ethnic-style" animals for a science project back then.
Last year, my biggest income was that crab calendar where I doubled down on the style.
I think seven arms thing is fitting because of how many confusing names cephs have. Vampire squids that aren't squids, paper nautiluses that are not nautiluses, bigfin squids and bigfin reef squids that are nothing alike, etc.
