Miniature Showcase

Beholder

One of my first ever forays into miniature painting was the Beholder. A classic monster for D&D, I wanted it to look terrifying and evil. I wanted it to be a blatant show of aggression and power. I chose bright red as my main color for the body and began painting. I wanted it to remind us of humans too so I painted his giant eye white with red veins. The slit was also painted red with a yellow lines in the iris and a yellow pupil.

I made the scales that the Beholders can raise off their bodies in black. I wanted the contrast of red and black to remind people of a dangerous, poisonous snake. I painted the inside of the mouth with a slightly lighter red and the tongue was a bright pink, almost like a human tongue.

To add depth to the two tone color of the beholder, I added some grey dry brushing to the black scales and a tiny bit of shadow wash into the red scales, just to deepen the color contrasts. I came from a background in art, I had always painted and drawn, but miniatures was a new medium to try and I was hooked from the go.

After the scales were painted I started blocking out the eyes in the same white sclera as the giant eye. I also painted the gums in a pinkish skin tone and the teeth in bone color of course. I find that people tend to fear themselves as much as horrific nightmare creatures so I wanted to mix aspects of both to add to the macabre nature of the Beholder.

I used more red to paint the slits of the eye stalks and I will say that was probably the most difficult part besides the giant eye. Getting lines so straight was super hard. I also painted the base with a black base color and dry brushed multiple layers of grey and white on to add depth and make it really look like stone. I think it was the best base I had painted until that point.

I finished it off with a bit of moss on the basing to make the stones look like they had been there for a long time, long enough for things to begin growing over them. It was my first ever foray into basing and I was really happy with the results. We still have this Beholder, but since we haven’t used it since the first campaign, it has become a decoration on my husband’s crafting desk.

Have any questions or comments? Message below or find me on Twitter @DnDWifeStories and on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!