Please do post any you do here (if the snake owner is okay with it), I adore this style and texture!!
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I like the one with the flowers, but maybe just color both yellow or white. The orange flower being the same color as the saddles on one makes the balance look a little lopsided to me.
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You all inspired me. I got myself some modelling clay and spent this morning making these little guys. Initially I wanted to make a “Christmas spider,” hence the huntsman with the peppermint butt. Then came the teal and purple jumping spider. Then my housemate loves butterflies, so I decided to try my hand at a butterfly for her.
I’m actually pretty happy with how they came out, I think they’re pretty cute. What should I try to make next?
I didn’t have any precise species in mind, I was just trying to make them cute colours.
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Awwwww. Those are so cool!
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Oh my goodness….i love the pink and white one….i would so keep that one….except it could have a white body with pink eyes!
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It’s actually red and white, I think the picture just washed out the red slightly. It’s supposed to be Christmas themed, which is why I made the cephalothorax green, but in hindsight, I wish I’d made it white instead, I think it would have looked better. The abdomen is supposed to look like a peppermint. I added pedipalps and chelicerae to it and just put it in the oven to bake, I’ll get an updated picture when it’s done.
I also made a snail, an octopus, and a tokay gecko. I’ll share them once everything comes out of the oven.
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I baked everything! Here’s everyone I made after coming out of the oven.
I realized that some of the critters with skinny appendages were super fragile, so I glued them to some cork bark pieces to try to make them a little more durable. The octopus above is on a limpet shell; i had to sculpt it to the shell so I had to bake the shell with it, but everyone else got glued onto cork bark post baking.
I’m undecided if I like the fake foliage with the spiders. I may or may not remove it.
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Now my Christmas spider is guarding the candy in my office. Grab a candy cane at your own risk!
Man, even against the red tablecloth she looks pink in that picture. I promise she’s red in real life, my camera just hates red.
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She’s beautiful pink or red! You are very talented!
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These are DELIGHTFUL, thank you so much for sharing!!!
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They’re so much fun to make! Plus I’m always thrilled when anything I make comes out looking even vaguely how I intended. 
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Blood sugar warning!! Golly, there are way too many sweet creations in this thread! Nice work, y’all! I love the touch of fuzz on the pooch’s tail, @cmills. After seeing these I now have a strong desire to get my hands on some clay and paints and try one myself. It would most likely be abysmal- but so much fun. 
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You totally should! I thought mine would be abysmal too, but I actually think they mostly came out pretty cute, and it’s a lot of fun.
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Seriously, do it! It’s a ton of fun, and you can get simple air dry or oven bake clay for pretty cheap, just to give yourself a bit of fun
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Next time I’m near an art supply type store, I’ll do it. Y’all talked me into it! Heck, even I can make a snake, right?
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The funny thing is…I actually found the snakes harder than the spiders in some ways. I think I just got too perfectionist about trying to make their bodies perfectly smooth and even, and I was determined to sculpt them all from one piece, so having to shape the head without messing up the rest of the body got tricky.
…but I probably just chose a really stupid way to do it.
One thing I did find helpful for all the critters was to pull up an actual photo of the animal I’m trying to make. It’s helpful for eyeballing the shapes you need to sculpt. I certainly wasn’t aiming for photorealism, but I still found reference photos really helpful.
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Good tips. I have aspirations/delusions about a birthday gift for a granddaughter who is young and forgiving… 
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I FULLY agree on this hahah, you’d think the noodle would be easy, but I’ve not ONCE made a snake I was actually pleased with, whereas a freakin’ capybara was easier for me to make hahaha
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I have officially decided to focus my art on oil/acrylic canvas painting - other forms of art (clay, digital, watercolor, embroidery) will always have a place here as a ‘palate cleanser,’ but I was getting a bit manic with my art, so decided to go all-in on painting with oils and acrylics
I’ve done two pieces so far, and these are landscape enough for me to still want to post here, hopefully future pieces will contain more herp-related subjects
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“Lost in the Heather” January 2026 - based on the gorgeous colors and textures that I experienced in the Irish Isles this summer. First acrylic in a LONG time, so this helped show me a lot of things I need to work on for visual effect:
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“Under the Hill” January 2026 - my family watches all of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies (extended editions!) for the holidays every year, and I wanted to make myself my own hobbit hole to live in - overgrown to let me experiment with different flowers, pleased with some and not with others:
These were practice paintings to refresh myself on the techniques, hopefully future paintings can include animal subjects, as is my goal
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