I am currently leaning towards two choices. On one hand I am interested in exploring different phobias: thinking about their specific qualities, exploring their innate (or learned) nature - and then creating a series of creatures based on what I find.
One artist I have been looking at is Tony DiTerlizzi. I love his style, his creativity with creating fantastical creatures, and the way that he catalogs them in books like "The Spiderwick Chronicles."
Another illustrator I enjoy is James Gurney, whose ability to combine imaginary content with realistic environments is phenomenal. I feel he brings book illustration to a whole new level, creating work that would be at home as an oil painting in a museum. Here is some of his work from "Dinotopia:"
In addition to phobias, I was also intrigued by what I found when researching medieval bestiaries. This is related to my interest in cryptozoology, but I am fascinated by what is lost in translation when people work from brief (often inaccurate) descriptions of animals they have never seen before. The result is just as fantastic as any description of Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster.
Here are some examples I found from bestiary.ca/
An elephant, a swordfish, a cricket, and an ostrich:
One challenge with this idea would be the fact that I already know what many of these animals look like. I would have to study medieval descriptions of different beasts, and working solely from what was written come up with a design. In some ways this might work well, given the fact that many of the descriptions are inaccurate: swordfish have wings, elephants can't bend their legs and fight dragons, and ostrich feet resemble deer hooves.
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