However, I will ramble at length about the creative process as it is still relevant to my hobby workings in some tangntal sense.
Inspiration
Obviously, you need an idea to start with. I find there are two ways I come about an idea - as a reaction to something or as a goal. A reaction is the classic inspiration: I see something and get an idea. A goal is where I want to achieve a certain end, and figure out how to make it happen.
Some examples of inspiration would be:
My Titans are inspired by westerns. Legio Pallidus Mors are the Pale Riders - Pale Rider is a Clint Eastwood film. His character is Preacher, which is the name of my warhound etc.
The old Wing Commander game had a mission tree that was brutally unforgiving - an early loss would make the game unwinnable. This is common in tree campagins:
You might as well call it at game 1 here.So I decided to make a campaign where you could lose a number of games but still pull off a win:
It also has 16 possible endings! An example of a goal would be Mission 1 from the Cradle of Despair (CATs in the Cradle). I wanted a mission where the marines had to deploy CATs into air vents, so made it happen. Now, arguably this was inspired by pondering the air vent piece and how CATs are deployed, but the process of creation was more mechanical.
Never give up on a piece of inspiration. I carry a little notebook around with me to write down any names, thoughts, bits of dialogue or the like that come into my head. I've been kicking around a concept for a short story for about three years now - I've got the begginning and the very end, I just need to figure out the plot... I've not had it come together enough for my liking, but when it does I know the idea is a good one.
Creation
The real tricky part. When I make an army I don't just make a list, I make a bunch of characters. This is likely due to my Dungeons and Dragons influenced style of hobby, but that's how I do it.
I look at the big picture and zoom in on every aspect. Take Captain West (please!). Her entire life has been mapped out from her childhood to her death, along with friends, enemies and all sorts of adventures in between. This creation draws from a number of areas: things I like about 40k, stories I've read or seen, and the games I play with her.
The current incarnation of her model (the third) has a bionic arm, as did the second. It was added after a game where she was felled by an Ork power klaw. In her story that event happens and she loses her arm, gaining the augemetic one.
I find it easier to create the world around a character when the character has as much detail in them as I can manage. Once I wrote a piece of 40k fiction where a group of Imperial citizens and soldiers are captured by Orks, and seek to escape. Every cast memeber, even those without significant lines, have full stories. Where they're from, what their job was, their families and so on.
This makes them real, three dimensional people so when the story calls for them to act, they don't act as the plot requires but as they would in real life. From then on I'm not writing a story, I'm telling a story.
Aside from stories, this applies to drawing and painting. See my earlier picture of Brynn Skjasgaard. Now, she's not got a hugely detailed back story but I know she's strong willed, just and honourable. Thus the noble posture and somewhat far-away 'heroic' look.
Virgine here is happy, but wistful, thinking of relationships past that are now at peace.
The character's motivation has to come through or the art won't have a spark to it. Now you don't have to go to the lengths I go to, but it can't hurt. Even when putting minis together I try to give each its own personality, and it extends into my playing. My Rainbow Warriors Sergeants all have their characteristics - Nils stubbonly hangs on under fire, Saveaux ducks and dives, Sonnkila smashes the foe in the face etc. Obviously each squad is equipped to fight that way in game, but their weapon loadouts is as much a product of their character and style is it is the inspiration.
Give and take, I guess you could say, is the key here. If an idea leads somewhere go with it - even if it's something you never thought you'd do.
I opened up the last Space Marine Codex on release day, looking at the star map of the different chapters. I saw a familiar winged lightning bolt and the planet name of Prism. Then I saw the tag of 'record deleted'.
"Delete the Rainbow Warriors?" I thought to myself. "I sould show them they can't erase them, and make an army of them."
So I did, and now have over a full company put together (though not all painted yet) - true story! So yes, my RW army is the product of spite.
But it doesn't end there - back to the idea of focusing - I thought "why rainbows?". What's the most manly rainbow of them all? Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge. So it went on from there - solar cult worship, the significance of light and darkness, travelling across the rainbow bridge to the Emperor's golden hall etc.
Like I said, follow an idea and you'll be surprised where it goes.
Sound it out
Don't just get an idea and go with it - it needs to be pummelled into shape before it works. To quote 40k: "Beat the form of the universe to the mould of your will".
Refine what is the core aspect(s) of the idea, and why you like them. Get other people's opinions - they'll see holes you can't see or don't want to see. Once the essence is distilled go back to the original idea. Has it changed? Should it change? Maybe it's not such a great idea after all?
We've all had that moment where we've got a brilliant army list / conversion idea / paint scheme but something just isn't right or the forces of the cosmos work agianst us. The colours are too close to an existing scheme (or they don't make that paint anymore) . The parts don't fit right or the scale is weird. You realise your list has seven troops choices.
Yes, I've done all these.
So, do you keep going and grind out a solution? Or start from scratch? With a goal type inspiration starting over is much easier - making a list to a theme and it doesn't add up? Start it from scratch. Much harder than when you want to paint a mini a certain shade of blue but can't stop the cloak from clashing with the tabbard.
Get some advice, look back over old work for ideas, come back tomorrow with fresh mind. Sometimes making a mistake and analysing what went wrong or what we don't like is just as useful as doing a good job.
Example - I sculpted a head to resemble a friend of mine. The first version wasn't quite right, and after some feedback and leaving it for a bit I was able to see more clearly why it was off, and fix it up.
Just do it
Seriously, what's the worst that can happen? If you have an idea or inspiration strikes - give it a go. The worst that'll happen is you'll get some practice and experience. Creativity feeds on itself: the more you create the more ideas you get. Keep going and you'll never be short of potential awesome projects kicking around.
