Ssss .. Isn't he adorable?
It started with sculpting and searching for the shape of the model. When the shape of the head and the rest of the body was satisfactory, there was a test addition of eyes. Then a little scene setting.
Now the scales. The particle function could be used, the temptation fell on the addon to Blender called Animation Nodes from GitHub. He seemed more comfortable and more precise thanks to a more extensive package of functions. Although his random scattering of scales with each final arrangement of the scene took its toll ..
Now just turn on the previously created materials and set the model on a sample program background.
When everything seems ok .. all that's left is to arrange the scene and render, which you can see at the top of the page.
