or of the tentacle to the light green you use on the head.
Next, select the tentacle with the Selection Tool (V). Then hold down Alt + Shift, and drag to Copy the tentacle. Place it half way down the original tentacle. Change the color to your dark green.
Select the original tentacle and Copy and Paste In Front. Select one of the original tentacles, and the darker one, and press the Intersect Shape Areas button in the Pathfinder panel. Now you have one complete tentacle.
Repeat these step until you have eight legs. Keep in mind the light source for the tentacle shadows. For the tentacles on the right, I dragged and copied the tentacle down and to the left to create the shadow. Select your octopus and place him in the center of the document.
5. Create the Background
Start by Create New Layer in the Layer panel. Drag it below the "octopus" layer. Then hide the "octopus" layer by pressing the Visibility Icon to the left of the layer in the Layer panel.
Make a rectangle the size of your document with the Rectangle Tool (M). Then create a Radial Gradient in the Gradient panel. Next, click just below the middle of the Gradient Slider to create a third swatch. Make the left swatch a light blue, the middle swatch blue, and the right swatch a dark blue.
Create rectangle that is 0.75 x 11in. Place it in the center of your document. Next, go Effect > Distort & Transform > Free Transform to bring up the Free Transform Dialog. This is where you will see your rectangle with some anchor points.
Shift-click on the top left anchor point. Then drag it to the right anchor point's position. Next, Shift-click on the top right anchor point. Then drag it to the left anchor points original position. You might have to drag one point a little farther at first to select the one below it. Click OK, and Expand the shape. Then fill it with white with no stroke. It should look like two touching elongated triangles.
With the transformed triangles selected, go to Object > Transform > Rotate to bring up the Rotate dialog. Change the Angle to 20. Then press the Copy button to copy the shape along with rotating it. Now you can transform again by going to Object > Transform > Transform Again (Control + D). Keep transforming until you are one step away from your original shape. Select all the transformed rectangles and Group them. Then change the Opacity to 50% in the Transparency panel.
Next, create an ellipse that is 7 x 7in and center it on you document. With the ellipse still selected, create a Radial Gradient from the Gradient panel. Make sure the left swatch is white and the right swatch is black.
Select the transformed rectangles and the ellipse. Then choose Make Opacity Mask from the Transparency panel. Now you have a burst!
Draw an ellipse that is 0.5 x 0.5in. Fill it with white and no Stroke. With the ellipse selected, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat to bring up the Pucker & Bloat dialog. Then change the option to -70. Next, Expand the Appearance and change the Opacity to 50%. Now you can Copy and Paste the star wherever you like!
Great Job, You're Finished!
Now all you have to do is press the Visibility Icon on the "octopus" layer in the Layers panel to bring back the octopus, and you're done!