here is the final version

I ended up reading a tutorial in Advanced Photoshop Magazine about how the artist painted the cover image of the most recent issue. I never actually bought this magazine before but my mom ended up buying it for me a couple of days ago and I must admit, it has some helpful tips on digital painting. I decided to apply some of those techniques to my current illustration. These techniques have improved my work and some of the artists techniques I would never think of using. I even gained a little more knowledge in Photoshop and furthered my knowledge in making custom brushes. I created a skin pore brush and some more textures for the tentacles. 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result and I will continue to use some of these techniques I learned in the future. Def pic yourself up a copy of the magazine.