I can already hear the comment: "Who's this old crone and why is she pretending to be the Darklord of Borca?" Well, back when Dennis Mize was working on the Ravenloft minis line, Ivana's perpetual youth was not officially part of her description in the Black Box. Furthermore, the portrait of Ivana and Ivan given in the Black Box shows a much older woman (here's the image from the back of the Black Box portrait card)-- though it's noted that she did not actually pose for it and Ivan might well have had the artist base it on what he expected she would look like at this point. Mize's sculpt is definitely based on the Black Box portrait, and his fondness for strong bone structure (especially cheekbones) is evident.
Personally, I like the piece-- even if it's no longer a good representation of the Black Widow, it's a nice sculpt of a formidable-looking old woman who could be anything from a Borcan widow who's possibly gone through her share of husbands to Camilla Dilisnya before her death, aging and bitter.
Elements from Ravenloft Gazetteer Vol. 4's entry on Borca dictated the color scheme I used: the deep purple of mourning (for whom, one wonders) makes a nice contrast to the very pale skin. Painters take note: shading a very pale flesh tone is tricky. Too little contrast and the figure looks flat or washed out; too much and the shadows look too deep for the facial contours. Here I used Reaper Miniature's Maiden Flesh as the base skin tone, with the old Ral Partha Flesh (a good basic skin tone that's used on many of my figures) as shadowing. Looking at it now I wonder if I should not have mixed a slightly darker skin tone shade into the basic flesh to deepen the contrast a bit more, but hindsight's always 20/20. I also used black ink over the dark hair to give the impression that it is dyed and possibly oiled or pomaded; vanity seemed a fitting touch. The silver goblet also has a bit of purple ink in the top to give the impression of (poisoned?) wine.
