Creation of the Cephalopod Mermaid

The inspiration for this piece came from cephalopods. This exclusively marine creatures with their prominent head and set of tentacles are graceful and scary at the same time, which gives them a unique beauty. 

I wanted to create a creature to capture both the beauty and creepiness of the cephalopods, and the shell-headed tentacle-haired mermaid started swimming around my brain.

This was the initial sketch:

Project: Zodiac. Ups and downs, and the faith of the 12.

Well, I started this project two years ago. That's a really (relatively) long time ago.

In my teenage days I found horoscopes to be pretty entertaining - no matter if you believe in such things or not - and since then I like to read about all the different zodiacs from different cultures. Great inspiration hides in all those mythical signs, for me anyway.

I decided that it'll be fun to tackle the 12 zodiac signs as a series of themed illustrations. And the brainstorm began! Having so much art styles and options can sometimes be overwhelming for me, and then I get excited and I go something like this: 

I'll do classic representations - animal and human form respectively... um... no, no that's boring and least challenging... hm... I know, I know art nouveau - that's awesome style, kind a vintage looking... no, no too restricting for what characters dance around my brain... all mermaids, all unicorns... no I got it CATS! No, no...

And so on and so forth, until... Who am I kidding, I'm a sucker for steampunk.

It was decided - Steampunk zodiac ladies.