Howdy guys! So I am going straight to point. I am studying at university and have one lecture called ‘creativity training’. And my professor gave me task to gather drawings of fictional, non-existing animals from people all over the world. All you need to do is to take your pencil or even use your computer to draw a fictional animal and write short description about it, about ideas (how you call it, how you invented it, what you started with, how the idea came to your head, etc.) I would be so grateful for your drawing!
You could also just Google: drawings of fictional, non-existing animals Google Images too. Many have been created in Photoshop. One way to think of ideas is combining existing features of different forms of life, like this spider shark on Wired. If you can't find anyone to interview about the creative process, make one yourself. Then you'd be able to answer all of those questions firsthand.