July was stressful because it was the second month that we were trying to work out the design of Izdara & Ma’Irah, the desert elf and squirrel mount. I think I went through 1/4 of a  sketchbook with iterations, and we also went back and scrapped her origin story/cultural background twice before settling on what we have now. But we can’t help it; that stuff is important to Erin and I! To me, each of these minis is a character with thoughts, motivations, a backstory, and a society they came from and belong to. These might not be very fleshed out, but we always have something there, and that is what we use to inform the aesthetic design. Everything from their clothes/armor, weapons, facial expressions, pose, and even the bases that go with them, all flow from this background work. And I think this is what breathes life and uniqueness into a design. We want to make things that are fun and a little bit surprising, and (to quote Marie Kondo), that spark joy!