They say you should make beautiful things out of rocks thrown at you, and Japanese artist Akie Nakata shows us just how to do it.

Indeed, she takes ugly looking rocks, and masterfully paints them, making them look like tiny animals that fit in the palm of a hand.

According to Akie Nakata, each stone has a story. Akie is a self-taught artist who has been collecting stones since she was a child, and started to create stone paintings in 2011.

She recalled talking a walk along a river bank and seeing a pebble that looked like a rabbit. That was the spark that started her art.

When asked where she gets the inspiration to paint a specific animal to a specific stone, she says that she paints what she sees.

That each stone is shaped according to its own destined character, "To me, completing a piece of work is not about how much detail I draw, but whether I feel the life in the stone" Akie said in an interview with My Modern Met.

Akie's works are extremely lifelike.

The details painted to each stone are incredibly intricate. One look and you know how much effort was exerted for each masterpiece.

Among her works are paintings of dogs, crocodiles, cats , lions, bears, raccoons, mom and baby elephants, polar bears, a family of possums and owls, only to name a few.

Akie paints the body of the animal first, and the eyea are the very last part of her work.

When the eyes have been painted, it is when Akie knows that her work is done. Check out her stone masterpieces on Instagram and on Facebook.

Meet Japanese artist Akie Nakata, here portrayed with one of her stones transformed into a mini Himalayan Cat.

See more of her artwork below!

portrayed by Japanese artist Akie Nakata

portrayed by Japanese artist Akie Nakata

portrayed by Japanese artist Akie Nakata

portrayed by Japanese artist Akie Nakata

portrayed by Japanese artist Akie Nakata