This artwork was commissioned as a critique of the Lipped Smilodon reconstruction trend, which proposes these animals having lips would protect their fangs from dessication. The fact that many modern animals, including Musk Deer, do not have these lips protecting their tusks, weakens this theory quite a bit.

The idea behind this design was to show how this reconstruction trend reflecs on a modern animal, a Musk deer, which also has exposed tusks. I also added a muscular chin to give the tusks a "sheath", also based on these reconstructions! 

This artwork was commissioned asking for a post-human species that showed an exaggeration of the physical differences between non-human apes (such as chimpanzees) and modern humans. I gave it a more enlarged cranium / brain, bigger nose (with added muscles to help the nostrils close, preventing the entry of debris), bigger eyes with smaller irises and pupils, a more delicate jaw with thinner teeth, more prominent chin and "longer" face, along with more developed neck and shoulder muscles to help hold up the head.

I also tried to make it look somewhat neotenous while giving it a "mature", adult look to prevent it from looking too childlike, making the distinction between it and a modern human more obvious. The background I tried to give an all-tomorrows-ish feel. 

The commissioner for this artwork gave me the biological details of this creature to work on!

The idea is it is a vertebrate terrestral hexapod, descended from ray finned fish, as opposed to lobe finned fish, as modern tetrapods are. Its legs are formed from its anal, ventral and lateral fins, and its back sail works as a way to signal other members of its species! It uses electroperception to hunt for bugs in the island it inhabits, and its pharyngeal jaws allow it to catch them more easily!

The commissioner for this artwork gave me the biological details of this creature to work on!

It is a sophont (somewhere around human-level intelligent) descendent of Dolphins, having lost almost all of its blubber and, with it, its streamlined body. Its long tail allows it to crawl on land for limited ammounts of time (bottom), and its mouth  appendfages and bifurcated fins help it manipulate tools!