Sooo - all the assets in my project are done!! The last thing was to make those little tadpole friends.
For the stylization I was inspired by work by Lianne Pflug & EllievsBear.
Early on in the project I decided to have the tadpoles to be the greatest point of (value) contrast in the scene. Having those white eyes contrasted with the black body creates a really strong focal point + gives them a sense of mystery (while still being cute).
Another thing that was important to me was to simplify the shapes, have a limited color palette and give them a round/friendly look.
I first used Blender's Metaballs to block in the basic shape (which gives it that soft, organic look).
After that I tweaked the shape with the Grab brush.
I have two versions of the tadpole to reflect the topic of transformation in my scene :)
Lastly I retopo-ed the tadpoles with RetopoFlow (Blender Addon) to be able to deform the tail later + added a brush pattern + edge highlight as with the other assets. First time using RetopoFlow & I love-hate it. Quick & intuitive buuut, the knife tool and other stuff is very crash-y (at least in the Github version).