Oculus, Undead Beholder

So, I bought this guy back when Magnificent Egos was still around (I think in their first year or so). I loved the notion of an Undead Beholder. I’m still not sure if it makes it more or less scary. I mean, wouldn’t it be less powerful? But, role playing aside, he’s a fun sculpt.

He is also extremely heavy! I had him on a poor choice for a grip while I was painting in the last throws before Reapercon 13 and screwed up my wrist. Luckily My chiropractor and PT were able to patch me up so I could paint more.

I entered Oculus in the Painter’s division even though only he or Pearl would be judged. The judges selected Pearl (see previous post) and Oculus was not judged. I could have entered him in the Open division, but decided painter’s was a more logical choice.

The base sculpt has Oculus with intestines hanging from his mouth, and that’s it. Where these intestines came from is left to your imagination. This was unacceptable. I added a dead horse. Conveniently, I had a skeletal horse in my “why do I have these?” pile of figures to be used as bits. Of course, a skeleton doesn’t have intestines… so I added the flesh, partially flayed and gory, leaving exposed bone and a nice empty abdomen.

Good enough story for me! Now onto the painting! The eye, Google gave me this amazing image of a red eye and I went with it, I learned a hell of a lot about painting eyes from this figure. And while I felt I did it justice, I learned more upon critique from Jess Rich (who, oddly, was the only one I asked for critiques from on this fig). “Eyes are like gemstones.” Oh! goddamnit! Dark on top and light on bottom. Well crap. I thought I learned a lot, but there you go, I’ll need to paint another beholder (the group is going to kill me!).

I enjoyed painting the exposed brain, and as well as the exposed skull on the back of the head (?). I found another use for my favorite discontinued color Spring Green (as part of a mix) in highlighting the intestines (Really people, obnoxious colors need us to buy them). All the flesh though… ugh! This is an awesome figure, but it seemed that every time I analyzed an area of flesh closely, I’d find more damaged tissue, exposed muscle or bone, etc… This was a good thing of course, or I would have died of boredom painting brown, brown, brown…. purple.

Oculus and Pearl represent my painting skills and flaws, quite well. In retrospect they were the best choices to enter into the Reapercon Open. What I learned this year from critiques and classes will catapult my skills forward. Please feel free to critique Oculus (and Pearl), I welcome your input! If you would prefer to PM your comments you can do so on the Reaper forums.

Thanks and credit to Alfonso Vitela Photography.