Theme:
The difference between inspiration and stealing is based on what you do with the art you are making. Inspiration is when you get an idea from a piece of artwork but not taking the exact piece and calling it your own which is stealing. I personally think it's totally okay if you use someone's artwork and give them full credit for the idea. When only using part of someone's art piece I still think you should give them credit for the work.
Finally Piece Questions:
I combined the two animals I did because I first thought of an elephant, which is my favorite animal and I just looked at the features of the elephant for a long time and began to realize that the trunk could be formed into a snake.
I used this medium because I love using paint and it also worked with giving the background a color that "jumped out" against my normal colors.
I wish I could have blended that green and grey much better than I did to make it more realistic.
I think the most successful thing was the detail on my elephants face and the snake scales, I also loved the background color.