Part of what got me into painting minis was the desire to have my mental vision on the board, in front of me, easy to see. That if mentioning “Oh, [Character] moves to the left!” or “Where’s [Character]?” both I and my companions could know exactly who the character was and visualize what they were doing.

But, now I’m running into the problem of not having the perfect mini to represent characters. As I’ve gotten deeper into RPGs, there have been a handful of characters that I absolutely love, and want to get the perfect miniature for. Sure, I could do conversions, but that’s not quite scratching the itch. (Plus, I can’t sculpt to save my life!)

I can, however, doodle a bit.

Recently I’ve been trying to sketch my current favorite character – Claire. I’ve used her in a Battletech game (Mechwarrior Destiny), and in Shadowrun. While both different in their approaches, the core personality and visual look is close to the same for both.

Still have a lot of work to do – I can’t quite get the proportions right, and a few things just feel … off, but it’s been a few years since I’ve tried to sit down and genuinely sketch. So there’s quite a bit to improve on.

The goal, once I get an idea I like, is to turn that digital, then turn into an STL file to print my own miniature. I picked up a Wacom Intuos Paper tablet, and have been practicing.

Pretty basic stuff, but practice makes perfect. It’s interesting getting used to the tablet and the brushes, and hopefully I can get an image of Claire that I’m happy with.

I snagged Blender, and I’m looking forward to trying to make an actual Claire mini. Time and effort will tell – though I’m sensing a severe decrease in free time for the foreseeable future!