Help with character tail

Hi! I have a doubt about a thing I am unable to know what to do. I am working on an artwork of a creature/Pokemon for personal work. The thing is I don’t know how to make the tail if make multiple spheres or just one with high polygons and sculpt from there.
The first image is the tail of my reference and the other is an example I found on sketchfab of a Wooloo. Is there a easy way to make it like the skin but adding different size on each semisphere?

Image ref

This is the effect I want for the tail

Example