Another miniature diorama. This is Reaper 44017: Juliana, Herbalist. The squirrel... I can't remember where I ordered him from. Maybe Stonehaven? Everything else was made by hand. This was my first diorama build. I did it what seems like a lifetime ago but was in fact just early 2020. Now, I was in a long-running D&D group at the time. They weren't why I painted. I started painting before I even met those people. I'd been gearing up to start my own RPG campaign, utilizing a homebrew set of rules, and placing players within the world of The Wheel of Time. I ended up buying a ton of miniatures for it. This one was meant to be a Village Wisdom. A Wilder the players would encounter. I decided to do a little set piece for it, with plans to use a second mini for any further interactions. I was really going for a more theatrical kind of game. I built a bunch of useful terrain, too. A small little pub, a few boats, pillars, trees. I could blame COVID for that project not coming together, but it's only part of the story. Now, the D&D group I was with didn't survive 2020. Not because of COVID, either. Certain things came to light. The night it officially ended, I was otherwise busy. So I missed the confrontation. I'll skip to the moral of the story. HONESTY is REQUIRED for lasting relationships of any kind. Little things I'd noticed for a long time all sorta stacked up. One person made such a mess of it that most of the rest of us don't even speak any more. I learned a lesson for myself - not to get too involved with people that don't believe in a higher power of some form or another. Emotionally, it was damaging. I blamed myself, partly, for the collapse. A trend I noticed before. When I missed a session, I always came back to stories of utter mayhem. I guess I was a calming influence on the group. Though this came at the expense of not having certain wishes respected. Eventually I came to peace with how things went down. It's never easy to learn that you meant nothing to people that meant a lot to you. Though I didn't really paint for the group, (I did paint some character minis, but just because I wanted to. I'm still pretty proud of those, too. It's wonderful to paint something FOR somebody.) I found it difficult to even look at a miniature for a while. It's all related. It's taken a lot of time to really process the whole thing. It compounded, because painting was always an escape for me. During this period of time, I really NEEDED an escape, and yet my go-to solution was salt in the wound. Things hit their lowest point they'd been in years. Just to touch on that slightly. I have a bit of advice. If you ever feel the strong urge to reach out to someone, or just find yourself thinking a lot about them, ALWAYS reach out. I'd rather someone be annoyed at a middle-of-the-night text, than to not act on that. From personal experience. One random message saved my life. Anyway, I'm proud of how I painted this. I'm also glad I've started painting again. I've got some work ahead of me, getting going on the writing again, but I feel as if every day I'm making strides. Thank you for letting me share my hobby, and being supportive of my art. I know it can be hit or miss, so I'm grateful for the kindness I've been shown. It hasn't been an easy couple years. ~~LA