Sketching Product Design 3D Modeling 3D Printing

ABOUT

Almost every designer dreams about having their creative ideas come to life. I took some time to invest in myself and elevate my creative skills. After many years and many failed ideas, in 2024, my business has grown exponentially. I have made over 50 sales with my original designs with almost no money spent on advertising.

2D and 3D design software I use include:
  • Clip Studio Paint for Sketching and conveying concept art (Adobe Photoshop Alternative)
  • Blender3D for 3D modeling, precision CAD, and rendering 
  • Lychee for 3D-Printing and creating pre-supported files
  • Canva for product listings, marketing kit, and social media posts
  • Figma for graphic design layouts

Target Customers

For these products, I targeted customers who enjoy miniatures. There can be a variety of reasons, but mine can be divided into three groups:
  • Tabletop Roleplaying Gamers
  • Fairy Garden Enthusiasts
  • Gardening Painters

Products Designed

These are a majority of the products I have designed from concept to production. They are available now through all my sales channels. For a current list, look at my digital shop. I studied trends with how certain topics had high demand but low supply, and helped fill that void, such as "Butterfly Knights," "Floral Dragons," and "Faerie Garden House."

Below are renderings, physical models and prototypes that are both creatively exciting and commercially relevant to consumers.

Sketches

My designs stand out from the mundane design by studying the details, simplifying it, and pulling it all together in a stylized composition for 32mm scale. Sketches vary between views for studies, concept art ideation, and orthographic views for building designs in 3D.

Process

My process is pretty simple. Start with inspiration. Doodle. Then start sketching in 3D with Blender3D. When I hit a wall, I go back to the drawing board in 2D. Then I bounce back to 3D once I can proceed.

I was fortunate enough to have a bleeding heart plant in my backyard  so I could do a proper real-life study of the form of the blossoms and the leaves.
Picture
Inspiration board for the Bleeding Heart Dragon.

3D Modeling

I take the side view and front view and set it up in Blender3D. Then, I block out the shape. The first stage is just getting the proportions right. Eventually, I break free from the initial reference sketches and follow my mind's vision.
At this point, I did a 3D print of the design and found that the head was not how I wanted it to look in real life. I redid the proportions and head design.
After several weeks of work, this is my final render library.

3d Printing

I set up supports for the miniature to be printed on a resin printer, like my Phrozen 3D printer. I used Lychee to create the supports. After a few rounds of back and forth because the supports were not correct, I finally printed out the final version.

Graphic Design

My customers are interested in fully fleshed out characters. As part of my services, I can create a simple stat page that is printable at home for my own creations or for something they need instead.