May I introduce: my water creature. I started in ZBrush, where I sculpted the rough blockout. I then did the retopology in Maya and created the textures in Substance Painter. My goal was to create a realistic looking creature that was a mix of alien and fish. I particularly focused on the subtleties such as scales, wrinkles and scars to bring the creature to life. Texturing was an important step in making the skin texture look realistic. Finally, I created a suitable scene with the right lighting for the water creature.
I hope you like my project and inspires you! I am very happy about constructive feedback.