Invader

I was on the computer yesterday when suddenly the idea came to me to paint an old school, pulp magazine, raygun-toting, bug-squid hybrid alien invader. So, I sat down and painted this guy in virtually one sitting. It is, in my opinion, my best creature rendering ever, and I'm proud of what I did. I even gave him some halfway decent-looking technological devices, as well.
As far as creature concepts go, this is a highly intelligent alien species native to a low-gravity world with a warm, humid climate and at atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide and chlorine. It evolved from mud-dwelling ancestors that looked somewhat like crosses between sandcrabs and cuttlefish. It is omnivorous, with three sets of powerful mandibles to process its foot. Its eyes are set atop dark stocks on the upper part of its carapace, while its ears are those crater-shaped structures near the mandibles. Its olfactory and respiratory organs are located on the back of its carapace, and in this image are covered by a gas filtering apparatus designed for traveling in an alien atmosphere. The three pairs of limbs can function as either arms or legs, interchangeably. Though these aliens can communicate by sound, they prefer to communicate by sight. Their wide, black eyestalks can shift to any color in the visible spectrum, and this ability has evolved into a highly complex visual language. The device attached to the eyestalk of the individual pictured is a communicator: it allows information in this visual language to be sent long-distance and fed directly to the aliens' visual centers. They can also communicate through the use of chemicals and pheremones.
I wrote a much, much longer natural history/short story about these creatures in my Deviantart gallery: link. I enjoy writing, as you may be able to tell.
Also, some alternate color schemes.