Sometimes, the hardest part of miniature painting is finding the inspiration to start.

You have a new miniature. You are sitting at your artist desk, paints at your side and paintbrush in hand when you realize: you have no idea where to start. Whether it be because you are at a complete loss of what to do, or because you have an abstract yet concrete idea and don’t know how to execute it, inspiration is key to painting miniatures you will be proud of.

Inspiration in Lore

One of the first things I do when I am having issues with a new miniature is to read their back story. This is particularly useful in Kingdom Death, where the miniatures serve as individual and unique characters full of background and life.

To illustrate this, I’m going to pull a segment from a previous blog post about my Flower Witch commission

For the color scheme, I took a combination of inspiration from … nature and the miniatures lore. “The Abyssal Woods exists on the precipice of obliteration, its heavy limbs pulled inexorably towards black hole at its center. The Flower Witch flickers through the woods, tending to inscrutable tasks that keep it from swallowing itself. Her seemingly random alterations create wonder and death for foolhardy travelers.” I wanted The Flower Witch’s colors to be reminiscent of a black hole and space, a location that features purple and pink prominantly (at least, I always think of purple and pink when I think of space). I decided to use a deep color for the leaves to add an unearthly feeling and a general aura of mystery and death, specifically taking from the last sentence of her lore.

Inspiration in Nature

The next place I look to for inspiration is nature. In particular, I reference nature when I’m painting either a monster or some other form of “natural” creature, like a fairy or dryad. I begin by considering where the creature would live, and what role it would play in the ecosystem. If it lives in the desert, the coloring of the creature is likely to be made of orange, red, and generally “warm” colors, rather than say blue or purple. If it lives in the forest, than greens and yellows would be very common. Of course, brown is a perfectly safe color for any environment, but how boring.

Once I have decided to take inspiration from nature, I always do my best to find reference images. These images are important as they serve as a road map for my miniature. Although I have no doubt one could simply imagine or remember the color schemes of certain animals or plants, the sublte changes in hue and shading can help create a more interesting and realistic character.

When given the opportunity to paint this beholder, I asked myself what creature in the natural world it most resembled. The answer for me was quite easy, it clearly resembles an octopus! When I began my search for reference photos, I was expecting to find red, brown and gray octopuses (octopi?). However, to my surprise, I found the gorgeous reference photo pictured above! Without looking for reference photos, I would never have dreamed of such an interesting color scheme for an octopus, or for a beholder.

Inspiration in Story

On my weekends, I act as dungeon master for our Dungeons and Dragons games. As I’m creating adventures, I sometimes become stuck on how the adventure should progress. Whenever I get to this point, it is usually because the story of what happened BEFORE the adventure is not complete. What is the reason the bad guy has decided to enact this evil plan? Why here, why now? The same can be true for miniatures; if you don’t know what story you are depicting, painting can become quite difficult.

The Scifi Flower Knight from Kingdom Death does not come with a back story, but I still found the model quite narrative. To me, the character looks at his arm as if to question what he has become. I imagined him standing alone, bearing the weight of his new robotic reality in sadness and longing.

Now this might seem a bit rediculous, but it certainly was inspiring. With this story in mind, what would this miniature look like? I painted his armor a very muted and dank greenish gray, and placed him in a futuristic garden which glowed with an unearthly light. I added a blue spotlight from above and back, to add a feeling of isolation, standing alone under watchlights. The goal overall was to create an uneasy feeling, and I believe I created that.

Inspiration in “Oooo Pretty”

When you feel lost, scower the internet and find images that catch your eye and go from there. Search pinterest for character classes or races, costumes from movies and TV shows, or simply search “fantasy.” There is nothing wrong with stealing inspiration, as long as you steal inspiration, not exactly mimicking other creators art.

Angelarium: The Ancient, Cosmic Divinities of Peter Mohrbacher

When I decided to paint this Aasimar for a painting competition at my local gaming store, I was unsure how to proceed. There were simply too many choices! I then began my quest on pinterest. I began by searching for images of aasimars/angels, and saved a number of photos that I thought might work as color references. However, it was when I saw The Angelarium: The Ancient, Cosmic Divinities of Peter Mohrbacher that I knew I had found the color scheme for my Aasimar.

Also, remember that you can save images you find for inspiration to use at a different time. If you find the perfect image to base a rogue miniature on, but you’re currently painting a dragon, save that rogue inspiration for when you have a rogue on hand. It is extremely frustrating to find the perfect inspiration and lose it in the great forest that is pinterest.

Inspiration in Mock Ups

Sometimes, inspiration just doesn’t come to me. When that happens, I somtimes have to force myself to paint. Of course, I don’t paint on the miniature itself, I paint digitally. This allows me to create multiple color schemes, change colors in an instant, and test several options.

I use the Overlay, Multiply and Color blending modes in Adobe Photoshop to create my mock ups. If you are able, you can download the Adobe Photoshop app for free on your tablet and play with colors that way. Unfortunately, I do not know of any free coloring platforms for the computer.

Inspiration in Doing What Has Never Been Done

One thing I pride myself on is attempting things that have never been done before. If I am creating a custom piece, what is the point of mimicking everyone else? I often go out of my way to find new and interesting things to do with my miniatures to put them above and beyond what others have done. Sometimes this is something truely unique (like the aasimar shown above being supported by her lightning blast, or the glowing garden on my Scifi Flower Knight) and other times its something less clever, like simply painting a miniature in a new color combination.

This method definitely requires some research; how else will you know what has been done before? A few of my favorite resources are Pinterest (obviously) as well as Putty & Paint and Cool mini or not.

On the Flower Knight, I felt slightly ambitious and chose to do a black to green to pink gradation on his armor, hoping to give a duotone effect. It was something I had never seen done before, and I fully understand why: it was a pain in the butt. I took the Gold Smoke Knight in a slightly different direction by breaking the usual format: painting him silver instead of gold.

____________________

I hope that this article has given you a few new ways to find inspiration for your next miniature. What are some ways that you stay inspired? Remember that you can support me and find new content on my Patreon, and if you like my miniatures, you can find me on Instagram!