Lizards and frogs and snakes, oh my!

(they/them) Chahoua named Baldur, crestie named Zipper Lunchbox Jr

[kaijutegu]

I got a new hat at the lizard show. They had a lesbian lizard shirt that I was also considering, but I am more of a hat wearer. The lovely ladies who made this hat don't seem to have it online, but I'm linking to them anyways because they're my favorites.

[kay-outside]

Getting stared at from all angles

June 2026

[kaijutegu]

Took Jima to one of Kaiju's favorite places today. Normally she's a squirmy worm when we are here, but today when we walked up to the prairie overlook, she was just... calm. Maybe she was picking up on my body language and energy being subdued- she often looks to me for safety cues- but it was nice to have a moment of silence to think about her memories and how we all return to nothing, so we should cherish every moment we have. You never know when the last I love you is gonna be, so don't skip saying it.

[kaijutegu]

We tabled at an event last Saturday and Jima received FANART.

[inatherps]

Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei)

Observed by dnoell, CC BY-NC

[pseudomantis]

What the fuck

[astarlingdiscovery]

It's a yellow bittern! They are very creechur.

[x] [x]

[bogleech]

Nature is incredible, you can really see just at a quick glance how these evolved to speak together in rhyming riddles while performing a spooky dance, laughing at you because they're The Wee Creatures Three and you will Never Get Their Key.

[ceanothusspinosus]

foot to head ratio off the charts

[theelizard]

@kaijutegu

[adorablesnakes]

I am not sure if I have ever been as excited as this snake is about its egg.

[froggo-friend]

These are like the same type of guy to me

[kaijutegu]

I'm drawing some color-your-own stickers for a herp society event coming up. I'm planning on six different designs. Four I know- tegu, Blanding's turtle, Chicago garter snake, and massasauga. Three of them are native to the area, and Jima's our most visible ambassador.

That leaves two more, and I'm torn between:

Green iguana: Our other Junior Herpers leader always brings an iguana her to events, and kids love them. They're highly recognizable, too.

Corn snake: Extremely popular pet around here, another child/crowd favorite.

Hellbender: Not native to Chicago, but a popular conservation project, native to IL, and charismatic AF (if you like snot-covered muppets, WHICH I DO).

Cricket frog: I have 2 inch sticker blanks, so I could do this life-sized like I'm doing with the baby massasauga. The nature museum we have junior meetings at does a survey of these every year, so they're really relevant.

Bearded dragon: Everybody loves these.

Axolotl: Everybody loves these and for some reason they are EXTREMELY popular with little girls right now. Herps are for everybody but I always want to encourage a little girl's love of slimy things, y'know?

Alligator: Chance the Snapper is still relevant around here.

Fox snake: Unlike corns, actually local. People have become very, very interested in our native ratsnakes recently (I have actually been asked how to attract them!) and fox snakes are pretty- and a lot of our membership lives in the Fox River valley so there's that.

Western hognose: Native to IL, threatened in IL, and they're very cute and dramatic.

Sulcata tortoise: Somebody always brings a sulcata to our meetings. I think I'd do this one with some shading and cracks like it's crashing through the sticker.

Help me pick the other two sticker designs!

Green iguana

Corn snake

Hellbender

Cricket frog

Bearded dragon

Axolotl

Alligator

Fox Snake

Western Hognose

Sulcata tortoise

Voting ended onMay 20

[kaijutegu]

Western hognose got overridden ("too many snakes!") so the final lineup is Jima, massasauga, fox snake, Chicago garter, Blanding's turtle, and hellbender! This is the level of detail we're going for- clearly hand-drawn and kid-friendly. I wish I had an outline of our logo instead of the gray-scale one, but it doesn't much matter- the kids are gonna like 'em.

[thelizart]

Little spider on a picnic bench at the lake

Kofi

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[thelizart]

Giraffe from the zoo part 2

Kofi if you'd like to support!

[yeahponcho]

didn't want his parsley so I decorated him with it

[stickyfrogs]

Angus is feeling Very Manners today!

[chaser]

Boss is asleep, cannot stop me from frogposting

[chaser]

First like and this has already found its intended audience

[chaser]

uh oh

[itsmyturnonthegender]

[thelizart]

Scanner recommendations appreciated! Id like to get some good quality scans of these cards and maybe get some prints done.

Heres my Kofi if you want to support

[kaijutegu]

Begging for an egging

[kaijutegu]

I love how she immediately changed what I was trying to train (orange means you get food in your enclosure) to "If I'm eating in my enclosure, I must be touching orange the whole time."

She always has one foot on the orange when she's eating in there. She could take it elsewhere, but then she wouldn't be touching orange anymore, and that's not ok for some reason.

Unless, of course, she's eating outside the enclosure, and then anything goes.

(If you have a big lizard it is a really good idea to target train for in-enclosure feeding. It's a very good way to prevent accidental nips and jumping every time the cage door opens. It also helps keep them from unnecessary stress bc it straight up tells them what to expect and when food is on the way. And it's the easiest thing in the world to do- it just takes consistency. Put down target, feed, remove target. It took Jima less than a week to learn that the orange lick mat means food.)