Makers come in all different forms. You might not know it, but there is a thriving community of niche painters in Central Illinois.
They paint miniatures: tiny statues used in tabletop games like Dungeon and Dragons and Warhammer.
One of the most prominent is Lyla Mev, who makes her living painting minis. Mev has a YouTube channel with nearly 140,000 subscribers who watch her create her mini masterpieces.
Speaking to WGLT for the first story in our new series Maker to Maker, Mev said she has always liked little things.
“So as a child, I desperately wanted one of those little Victorian dollhouses that was extremely intricate with little tea sets and everything,” said Mev.
Mev’s husband repeatedly asked her to try a session of Dungeons and Dragons. After some time he wore her down. Initially she didn’t think she’d like it. But after giving it a shot, Mev was hooked.
“I paint miniatures for a living, so we can see how that one session went,” Mev said.
Mev’s YouTube channel is chock full of tutorials for painters of all skill levels. But Mev doesn’t just make tutorials. She'll take paid commissions and submits two competition pieces each year – one in the spring, one in the fall.
Mev has been painting for some time, and her projects are all very thought out. Especially those competition pieces.
“It needs to be something really personal to me. I have to be willing to invest 100 hours because if my heart's not in it, it's just not going to be worth it,” Mev said.
Mev says her current competition piece has its claws in her.
“Like I can't leave her on my desk, which I've never had happen before with a miniature. But she is… she stares,” Mev said.
Mev’s been working on her competition piece on and off since March, usually whenever inspiration strikes. That’s dangerous for Mev, because there's only so much time in a day. She tries to save time wherever she can.
“So, like for YouTube videos, especially, I'm not painting to my best ability. … If I'm doing a turntable and you're seeing the front, the side, and then it rotates really fast, so you can't really see the back... It's because I didn't paint the back,” Mev confessed with a laugh.
Painting miniatures is a meditative experience for Mev. She’ll devote several hours to a piece at a time. That’s the best way for her to get into a flow.
When she gets closer to the upcoming October deadline for the competition, Mev plans to take some time off to focus on that piece.
“Usually, I take the week before a competition off, and then I just spend every day, like 10-12 hours a day, painting the miniature in a desperate attempt to finish. I don't think I've ever submitted a miniature that was actually finished. They had to be done. I've never finished,” Mev said.
For Mev, being a public creator was always the plan. In her previous job as a photographer, she was well known in the areas she used to live. You can probably say her public persona now is a little more known.
“YouTube is definitely the biggest that I've ever gotten with almost 140,000 subscribers on YouTube. I love it. I love it when people come and talk to me,” Mev said.
She’s known extensively in the miniature community online, but it’s when she meets fans at conventions that things are really exciting.
“I get to be famous like twice a year… AdeptiCon [a tabletop miniatures wargaming convention] is about a week. It is the best week for me. Everybody wants to come talk to me. I can't walk like 10 feet without getting stopped, and I just soak it all up. I only get to be famous for this one week, and I have to ride this high for the entire year,” Mev said.
Being a teacher
Some artists, including online content creators, remove or destroy their work after finishing a project. But when asked, Mev was adamant she’d keep her videos up. Mostly because she likes being a teacher.
“I get this little high when people tell me how much my videos have helped them, and so as long as my videos continue to be helpful, then I hope that they stay on the internet permanently,” Mev said.
So what made her want to be a teacher? Mev wanted to make her living doing something she loved. Teaching ended up being particularly satisfying.
“I would feel that same sense of excitement and joy that they would feel, when they felt like they unlocked this new chapter in their painting career or their photography career,” said Mev.
That desire to teach extends to the legacy Mev hopes to leave.
“I hope that I continue to be well known for my ability to break things down. The other thing I would hope is that I'm remembered for championing more well-clad female miniatures,” Mev said.
Mev described posting a video talking about the issue she saw in the industry. Most female miniatures at the time were sexualized. Mev painted the more sexual miniatures herself, but also wanted more well-clad options. She then recalled getting backlash for voicing that opinion.
“I got death threats and all that sort of stuff, and so I hope that I am remembered as being that's the woman who started this.”
Mev recalled not seeing any other woman in the miniature community and decided to take the dive herself.
“I'm going to be the first woman painting miniatures on YouTube, and I'm going to come from this professor background. And so I hope that people remember me as she's the one who got the ball rolling. She's the one who started talking about this.”
Mev wants you to know that painting miniatures can be really meditative. She doesn’t want you to shy away from miniatures either.
“If you've ever felt like I might be interested in Dungeons and Dragons or I might be interested in miniatures, then you should absolutely go and do it.”
You can find Lyla's work on her YouTube channel: Lyla Mev - The Mini Witch.
And on her Patreon: Lyla Mev.
Lyla Mev is in the middle of her next competition piece for October.
This conversation was part of WGLT’s Maker to Maker series. Are you a niche maker in Central Illinois? Send an email to news@wglt.org and Lou Warner might reach out for an interview.
