This project started about one week ago, and being finished almost exactly a week later makes it probably the quickest project finish I've done in a couple of years.

What you see here was originally based upon a human skull Bryce rendering which I've actually reused on a couple of different projects.

I imported the raw, untouched Bryce render just so that I'd have a color and texture foundation to start with- pretty much a shortcut since I was working under a deadline for this one.

I started customizing the texture a bit more, adding in an old wood and fractured rock texture which I've had for a couple of years now and blended it with the existing skull texture and then digitally airbrushed them resulting mix into something unique.

The shape and form of the project developed as I worked, changes which seemed "right" were made and I allowed the overall appearance of the work to shape itself based on what I saw and what seemed to be needed.
This has the ultimate affect of forcing you to discard entire areas of work which was done just the previous day; The snout changed shape at least twice, there were two completely distinct sets of teeth and the area between the eyes and the nostrils changed at least four times.

Overall I am pleased with the results. The final work here is almost entirely airbrushed and very little of the original starting image remains at all.

Detailed closeups here