Mr. Squid's Takoyaki - Another Squid Art Creation Process
- Jun 9
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 25
This is the very first stall in the Night Market Under The Sea collection. The art piece shows a squid character, Mr. Squid, is making full use of his many tentacles, simultaneously cooking takoyaki, folding containers using seaweed for serving the takoyaki, and drizzling mayonnaise over the finished ones.
Takoyaki is a popular snack even under the sea. Although Mr.Squid has so many tentacles, he can barely keep up with the demand!
Inspiration for a squid's booth
When I first decided to showcase the collection in small illustrations, I made up my mind that each character would be followed by a painting of their booths. For creatures with many tentacles, I especially wanted to show them multitasking, doing several different things at once. The next one, featuring Uncle Octy's booth, follows the same idea.
As for naming the booths, once I finished painting Mr. Squid and decided to call him “Mr. Squid,” I already knew his stall would simply be called Mr. Squid’s Takoyaki. I figured he’s a pretty stiff and serious character, so coming up with a fancy or clever name didn’t feel right for him.
Now, a quick word about how there can be “open flames” under the sea. When I was painting this booth, I realized that’d be a problem. Not just the flavor of grilled food, but even the basic act of heating things underwater is tricky. The only solution I could think of was using lava. After all, there are underwater volcanoes, and they do erupt. With heat from lava, cooking food should definitely be possible.
So I added two more settings to the Night Market Under The Sea:
It’s located near an underwater volcano. I might try drawing this in a future wide-shot.
Anything labeled as “grilled” in the night market is actually cooked in hot water near lava, not literally grilled over flames.
Squid Art Painting Process
Surprise
This was the first stall I painted, and since it's more complicated than illustrating a single character, it naturally took more time, which I expected.
What did surprise me, though, was how effective the lighting turned out after I added it. This was actually my first time using blending modes (Add) and Gaussian blur to create lighting effects in an illustration. And it worked really well.
I also made sure to emphasize the reflected light on each object that’s hit by the glow, which pushed the effect even further. As someone who loves high exposure and vibrant lighting, I’m super satisfied with how it turned out!
Challenges
Aside from the small items taking more time than I expected, everything else felt pretty much under control.
Since this was the first booth illustration, I was still getting used to the overall workflow. But once I established my own process, things definitely started to speed up in later pieces.
Comments