The giant set of approaching teeth (and baleen) featured in this Artfight attack is a character by NFWstudios named "Bait." They are a vague Lovecraftian deepsea creature that came up to the surface and changed to a cuter appearance. It hit me that I have a character who also fits that description. And going with the "year of sharks" theme I had cultivated in my head, I thought it fitting that a shark be included in my first Attack. I went though a bunch of iterations for this crossover in my mind, imagining how the two would mesh. I knew the sharktopus would be stoked to meet a sea-thing like himself, and try to make friends. But Bait was a bit of a black box. Additionally, I really wanted to play with Bait's capacity to morph into sealife. At one point my plan involved drawing three mini-strips?
The turning point was when I realized the ref material showed Bait has an affinity for fish, but not the "good evening to you, fellow aquatic" kind of affinity... the "grab a fork, knife, and handkerchief to tie around the neck like a cartoon character" kind. It's possible that Beachspawn merely looks to this fisher like the big-daddy catch of the day with extra fixings attached. It's like the saying goes. Women want them, fish fear them. But not this fish, because he's dense as a dumbbell.