This digital painting was done entirely in Photoshop. I tried to do it without reference and in the end I only used it to confirm detail. I have about 16 hours of total time into the painting.

This is the first in a series of related painting on generally the same theme, which comes from a personal encounter with a Pacific giant Octopus while diving in Puget Sound. I was using my light to look into a jetty wall, and a big orange tentacle came out and grabbed my light. Slowly the rest of the octopus emerged and attached more and more tentacles to the light. So I let go of it. The octopus seemed to be checking it out. once it decided it was neither threat nor food, it let go of the light and went back into it’s lair.