This was a big pic, but I had so much fun with it. I got a lot of characters with some really interesting designs that gave me tons of room to play with for designing their transformed states. So, let's go through them, shall we? From left to right:

1. Kyle White's (https://www.deviantart.com/kylewhite98) character Oceana. A young, naive mermaid, she was apparently a huge fan off Legolas. She made a deal with the sea witch to get to spend time with Legolas, and all she had to do was bring back Galadriel's mirror. You might think this is an impossible task, and that was the intent, but Oceana spent so much time fangirling over Legolas she completely forgot to even try. Now she spends her time wishing she'd thought a bit more before signing the contract.
The original character design on this one was super similar to Ariel, though differently colored. It took me some time to decide what to go with for the design. What I ended up is a bit bland in overall shape, but that is probably the best "lost in shock" expression I've ever drawn, so I'm pleased with it.
2.  EduartBoudewijn's character Cerice. This young witch was looking to expand her magic skills by learning a little undersea magic. She went to Ursula to ask her to teach her a few tricks. Ursula agreed and the only condition that was that Cerice would have to help the sea witch with a few simple magic rituals afterward. This was a case where Ursula actually wasn't trying to trick a customer, but when Cerice learned that the rituals were meant to help Ursula overthrow the king of the sea, she had an attack of conscience. Ursula, furious at being refused, invoked the clause immediately. Out of sheer spite, the sea witch made Cerice an especially knobby and ugly polyp. While the poor girl isn't happy with the transformation, at least she's got a clean conscience for refusing to help the evil sea witch take over the ocean.
3.  98Sparkz. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how he ended up here. Whatever his bargain was, it clearly didn't go well for him. Better luck next time. Except there won't be a next time.
Design-wise, this one was pretty obvious to me. There were two lion-based characters given to me and Sparkz design stood out from the other because he had a big mane and tail. I decided to go with the "just a head" polyp type to emphasize the mane and added his long, tufted tail to complete it. I feel like I didn't draw this one as well as I could have. Something just doesn't look quite right to me, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what's off.
4.  darkwingdork. DWD has had trouble with getting respect after a magical accident left him turned into a three-headed, six-armed centaur. Everybody's mistreatment made him so desperate that he decided to go to the sea witch. He asked to have some respect and she gave it to him in exchange for working in a location of her choosing for one year. It seemed fair enough. Only, when he got there, he found out the job was working in a circus side-show, where people paid tons of money to see him, ride him, challenge him to games that tested his skills at using his six arms all at once, stuff like that. He made TONS of money, so the circus owner was so happy to have him there - respected him, in fact. DWD found it even more humiliating than before and after three months of it, he went back to Ursula to give her a piece of his mind. Ursula told him that having the respect of one person was still "getting some respect" according to the terms of the contract and if he didn't go back, he would be in violation. Angry at being tricked, he refused to go back unless she revised the bargain, but the contract was binding and couldn't be renegotiated. So, DWD learned there are worse forms to have than that of a multi-appendaged centaur.
This is probably the craziest design for a polyp I've ever come up with and I LOVE it. This is also the first time I've been able to draw a polyp's head from a full side-view and have it actually turn out looking good, so that's also a bonus.
5.  pieguy007's character Apollo. Apollo was miserable on the surface. She wanted to get away from her life and start again. Ursula came to her and offered to let them have a new life under the sea as a mermaid and all she had to do was go and fetch a pearl from the giant clam fields of Arcadia within 3 days. What Ursula didn't tell Apollo was that the giant clam fields are owned by a powerful, greedy duke who doesn't allow anyone to have his pearls. The duke had her thrown in jail for daring to ask for one. After three days, she found herself suddenly released and, after leaving the city, was immediately grabbed by Flotsam and Jetsem, dragged back to the sea witch to answer for her failure. She wanted to start a new life under the sea and that's what she got. Be careful what you wish for.
Design-wise, Apollo was one of the more normal looking characters, but she did have some distinctive aspects to her face and she wore glasses, so that made it in. I'm disappointed that I sticking her way in the back covers most of her body, which has a nice twisty shape to it, but for composition reasons, someone had to go in the back and hers was the only character who could do it, as there weren't any super important details below the head to her design. Oh, well.
6.  samworkbench's character Luna. I don't know what Luna's deal was, but it's clearly gone bad and she is NOT happy about it. But Luna is used to being transformed, given the crowd she hangs out with on the weekends, so she expects she'll find a way to turn back. She always does. In the meantime, this is a really annoying experience.
When I asked what kind of expression Sam wanted for Luna's polyp form, she said she wanted her to be treating it as a temporary inconvenience, so I decided to go belligerent. I like how the expression came out.
7.  animeking503 character, Ruby. Ruby was a fox-girl and amateur adventurer. She needed an item for a quest and heard there was a sea witch who was willing to help those in need. It seemed like a typical quest, so she stopped by to ask. Ursula could indeed tell Ruby how to acquire her quest item. All she wanted in return was a certain rare item, guaranteed to drop if you defeated a certain monster. It was only when Ruby went to the monster's location that she found out the monster was too powerful for her to fight it and 3 days was just not enough time to grind for XP to level up to match it. Now she's a part of the garden. She's very mad about being tricked and it looks like she's already plotting her revenge. As soon as she figures out how to escape her transformation.
This character's original design was extremely cute and I wanted to preserve that in a way, while also twisting it in my usual way for polyps. I think I pulled it off pretty good. Her firecracker personality really comes through even like this and the freckles work really well with it.
8.  juniperskunktaur. Juniper is a shapeshifter . . . sort of. You see, he can't shapeshift on his own. However, he can hijack transformation spells aimed at him, allowing him to temporarily change his shape. He wanted to be a full shapeshifter, though, no longer needing to rely on other people's spells. The sea witch offered it to him. All he had to do in return was find an answer to the riddle she posed to him within three days. It seemed easy enough, so he agreed. When he went to find the answer, though, he found that not even the greatest scholars knew what the answer to the riddle was. You see, Ursula had asked him a riddle that had no answer. He was angry at being tricked, but the contract was binding and there was no way to escape it. Now he's a part of her garden forever, no longer even able to shapeshift with the help of other spells. He should have been more careful about who he signed bargains with.
This was another fun one to work with. The character also had six arms, but since I'd already worked six-arms into another character for this pic (DWD), I decided to work Juniper's skunktaur aspects into the design. You can see the skunk muzzle, ears, stripe and tail, and I elongated the base to hint at the original taur form. The design is weirdly cute in its own way and I like how it came out.
9.  leonheart27. Leon had trouble finding love and was really lonely. He asked Ursula to help him find a soul mate, something she was more than willing to do. All he had to do was bring her a fresh water lily within three days. What she didn't tell him was that lilies weren't blossoming this time of year, so he couldn't bring one back to her. Oops. Some people familiar with Ursula's history might think this trick is similar to one she pulled on another merman. Well, yeah. Ursula's got dozens of customers, you can't expect her to come up with an original trick EVERY time.
Leon was the other lion in the pic. His character is absurdly muscular and I considered working that into the design, but I have never been able to find a way to make that work for polyps and I don't think I ever will. So, instead I included his pompadour haircut and worked the lion muzzle into the design a little bit. I also gave him two tentacles as a reference to his huge arms. I like that horrified silent-scream that I got in this design a lot.

So, that's done. This is the most successful YCH I've ever done. Considering the last time I tried a YCH I got only 3 bidders, not even filling up all 4 offered slots, this was a huge improvement. And even though I set it up as a pay what you want auction with $0 being offered as an option, I'm thrilled to note that more people payed than asked for a free slot. I offered the $0 option because I didn't know if I'd get enough people willing to bid if I demanded everybody pay. I'm glad to see that there are people out there willing to actually give me some money for my work even if I don't ask for it. I might try this again in the future, though I'm going to do something simpler next. Not sure what yet, but we'll find out.

Oh, and if you want to experience life under the sea just like these folks here, I do accept commissions. Polyps are easy to draw and a lot of fun, so I offer a discount on them - $25 for a polyp commission, including designing, sketching, and coloring. Considering my usual price for sketching, inking and coloring can averages at $50 per figure, that's basically half off. Only polyps are worth that much of a discount, though, because of how quickly I can do them. Especially now that I have my generic background to work with again. So, if you want a polyp commission, feel free to ask.