Meet Elle Firespray

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elle Firespray a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elle, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of Joy” and I wholeheartedly believe that. Especially at the beginning of my miniature painting journey, I tended to compare my work to others and then when people would notice my work, I often felt like I was lying or misguiding them because I didn’t believe in myself and my abilities. I had a really hard time accepting a compliment about my painting. It took some time but I arrived at a point where I realized, I’m in a journey and yes, there are people way ahead of me but this is where I’m right now and this is what I’m capable to do. Maybe I will get there someday, maybe I won’t, but you know what? When I look at my grey miniature before and after I paint it… it doesn’t really matter, because regardless of your abilities, the miniature will look 100 times better with some color and love on it. So I focus on acknowledging and validating my feelings, challenging negative self-talk, and celebrating my accomplishments

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a miniature painter and small business owner based in Duluth, MN who mainly focuses on painting boardgames and wargames miniatures. The miniatures I cover usually are from games like Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Star Wars: Legion, The Stormlight Archive, Kingdom Death Monster, games by CMON games like Dune War for Arrakis, Cthulhu Death May Die, Zombicide, Lord Of The Rings Journeys in Middle Earth, Blood Rage, Ankh Gods of Egypt and others.

It’s definitely an outlet for my creativity and what started as a hobby for this mom of 3, eventually became a business, which I’ve been running since April 2024. I love bringing minature and gaming pieces to “life”, adding colours and using several techniques to make them look fun and realistic.

I’ve been fortunate enough to paint for some of the biggest Board Gaming companies in the industry such as Atomic Mass Games, CMON Games, Brotherwise Games, AEG and others. I’ve also been dipping my feet into teaching classes which I’ve done in conventions around the country and coming up next, I’ll be teaching miniature painting at GenCon (the largest board gaming convention in the US) and also at Excalibur Con here in Duluth, at the DECC in August, which I’m really excited about.

I love the gaming/painting community. It’s a very small niche and most people are super supportive and welcoming.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

This is a great question. I suppose looking back what really helped me improve was, above all, patience with myself. Things aren’t gonna magically happen and, as cliché as it sounds, skill comes with practice, practice, practice. A piece of advice I would give is, to not start with the cheapest, crappiest paints or brushes you can find. And this is something I used to suggest, like “Buy cheap stuff and as you get better, you can invest in more expensive stuff or specific things for minipainting”. In my opinion, that’s terrible advice because much of my frustration at the beginning was because the paint I was using wasn’t meant for miniatures and the brushes were impossible to use well, and I ended up with a very crappy looking miniature and I thought I was the reason why. I wasn’t, it was because I was using incorrect supplies. Those supplies may be great for water coloring, rock painting, etc but not for plastic miniatures.

So now this is what I suggest: start small, you don’t need the whole paint bottle collection of a brand but start with basic 10-12 colours made for miniatures. Invest in a good paintbrush (they’re around $8-$12 – Kolinsky sable hair if possible), a plastic miniature primer and give it a go. And don’t get too worked up or discouraged by those tiny little details that no one will see from 3ft away. The more you practice, the easier they’ll become. I also encourage people to share their work online if they’re comfortable with that, because when you start having that sense of community and you request feedback from people, that really makes you want to do it more. It’s a positive cycle in my opinion.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

For me, it was the way they encouraged me to learn English when they saw I had the interest, I was about 8 years old. I’m originally from Argentina and my parents didn’t have the means to send me to an English academy to learn the language but they would buy used books, classes is cassette tapes, music CDs in English for me to practice. I remember them getting me this huge Larousse English-Spanish dictionary that I would read for fun to learn new words (what a nerd!) and I would use it to translate songs from my favourite artists. I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for their constant support and for making me feel like if I can dream it, I can achieve it. This is so important for a child to hear. Now my children hear the same things too.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Elle Firespray

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move