A very unusual egg

“Hey Zélia, I discovered your Instagram and think it’s great. Would you be able to do a custom painting?”

Messages like that are always exciting to receive.

This time, the request was for a painting of a Behelit from Berserk, a Japanese manga series that was later adapted into anime. A Behelit is a strange egg-shaped object covered with eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and in the story it is tied to fate and to another world, in a slightly unsettling way. I have to admit, I knew nothing about Berserk before this.

Nicolas wanted it painted in oil on a large canvas, and I started sketching right away. As I worked on it, I kept wondering what it really represented.

I made sure to sketch everything the way Nicolas had asked. Sometimes people ask me to do my own interpretation of a reference, but this time he wanted something very close to the original. So I paid extra attention to the angle of the Behelit and the placement of each feature.

After Nicolas approved my sketch, I moved on to color.

The Behelit has two distinct shades of red, and I wanted to keep that contrast. I used the darker red for the facial features and the shadows, and the brighter red for the main part of the egg. What was harder was keeping the color and texture smooth, since it’s one large shape without much detail. I had to be really careful with how I blended the paint to avoid visible marks.

Nicolas is someone I met during a summer internship in Switzerland, and that’s how this painting request came my way. I’m really grateful he wanted to support what I do, and that he trusted me with this project.

I was curious what the Behelit meant to Nicolas. “This egg symbolizes the sacrifices sometimes needed to reach a dream,” he told me. He also added, more lightly, that he simply likes its shape.

That last part feels especially fitting this week, with Easter just a few days away. So from this very unusual egg to all of you: I wish you a happy Easter.

If you’d like to see more of my work, or have an idea you’d like me to paint, you can find me on Instagram here. I’m always curious to see what a new order will make me try next.