Mystery moth at 80%

Ta-daaaah! She is done :) Well, not quite. My friend is sending me some stencils to paint her eyebrows on, the little sequins I've glued there for now are only placeholders for her white star eyebrows I'll hopefully be doing later on this week! Her eyes are also photoshopped since I don't have her Oscar Eyes yet - they'll be here sometime in June, and I'm really looking forward to seeing her 100% complete. This is actually the second faceup I've done on her! Her previous one had a different lip style and white eyeliner instead of black. I've just made some very small improvements including some gold accents on the lips and refined white lace designs around her eyes.

And here's her second manicure! The first one was a lot less complicated - I only had mint nails with golden crescents at the nail base, and the star sequin on each of the pointer fingers. This one's a lot more blinged out :) I also duplicated this manicure on another set of hands since she came with 2 extra pairs when I bought her.

For a secondhand doll I think she looks really lovely! I've put in a lot of time and effort perfecting her look and fixing her up even though I'm already her third owner.

❤ Kai

april/may plans!

Some decisions have been made and I'm making a very very slight change of plans! First on the agenda is the official announcement that I'm going to be getting Yagi before Estelle since some golden opportunities have come up, and I'm more set in what I want for them more than what I want for Essie (plus with Withdoll releasing a 60cm line soon, I'll have to reconsider the Luts Nina as my choice sculpt).

I've had this SQLab Navi bookmarked on the DoA marketplace for a few months but I hadn't thought of anything I wanted to do with it for the longest time, until I recently made the realization that her face was super similar to Gloomy Sarubia, one of my sculpt candidates for Yagi. The listing has the full doll with 2 extra pairs of hands for only $410, and it's located within the USA so not only would I save on shipping, I'd also save on time!

Here's the mockup of the listing photo with the faceup I intend to do:

I'm so excited! My friend is letting me borrow her nail stencils for the star eyebrows, and the seller has kindly put the doll on hold for me until I'm ready to pay. I hope I can buy her by the end of this month!

I've also compiled a sort of style collage to get a better feel of what I want for this doll. I'm going to be doing something a little different than usual (read: not a massive contemporary-styled closet) so it's going to take a lot more work! In this collage I have (starting from top left): lip designs by Light Limner, iridescent glitter flakes, a tulle tutu on Small Yabi painted by blandbilker, an Etsuna Otsuka dress, styled Serenade Doll Nuns, and Tang Dynasty ruqun taken by 当小时. Even though Yagi's base concept is an ethereal alien moth I'm basically taking inspiration from celestial motifs, Chinese hanfu, and cult party-kei findings. I'm probably not going to be able to find this kind of stuff readily available in doll size, so I'm either going to have to get crafting or find someone to commission!

❤ Kai

small spring update

I'm a little bit late with this (I'm actually flying back to school today) but I think it would be unfair of me to leave without posting a proper update on my dolls over break! Before coming back I gave Haerang a mini-makeover by just enhancing the faceup I finished in November. She has darker eyelashes and eyelid crease, added blushing, and a couple stars on her face now. I think she looks tons cuter!

Naturally my first order of business coming back was to give the other two girls some faceup refreshers, it wouldn't be fair of me to give only DJ something new. So I decided to redo Lenny's face with something new! She looks a little bit more on the cartoony side, but I'm really happy that the added black finally adds definition to her relatively flat eyes. I also redid the shading on her lips so that they'd photograph better - the previous faceup made her lips look completely orange with no definition at all.

And finally, here's the girl I'm taking back with me to school! I originally wanted to do an enhanced faceup like DJ's, but the way I painted the eyelid crease made it look a little too strong, so I decided to wipe it and redo the entire faceup. I've made a few changes - longer, darker eyebrows and lighter lips, but overall I'm pretty happy with her new look. You'll be seeing her a lot more often from now on!

And what would a break be without a closing shot of all three of them together? ;)

❤ Kai

BJD Interview with Polaire!

Finally getting around to doing this! I wanted to wait until I came home for spring break so I could refaceup/take proper pictures of my girls for this interview :) I was tagged by my wonderful friend Musume! I don't really have anyone in mind to tag, so anyone who reads this blog, feel free to write out an interview for any of your dolls.

new & revised doll plans!

I'm back!! But only for a little bit. School has moved into the "literally-a-midterm-every-week-until-finals" phase, so between that and commission work I haven't really had a lot of time to myself. I've cleared majority of this month's commissions though, so I've managed to nab a little bit of free time to 1) create an art piece and 2) make some mockups for some new doll characters I've thought of!

I'm really happy that I changed up my doll plans because while I DO love all of my "bees" I think I'm more comfortable buying and shelling out feminine characters. I've also changed the sculpts that I'm intending to get so I've managed to break my chain of every new doll being more expensive than my last.

Here's a familiar-ish face! I've selected a different sculpt for Estelle Cerana - I've decided that she's going to be a LUTS Delf Nina in Real Brown Skin rather than a tan skin F60 Celine. She's now only $522 including shipping! I decided to go with Nina because I'd have the option of choosing LUTS' brown skin over Fairyland's overly red tan, as well as a body shape that fits better into my aesthetic preferences. I'm really not a big fan of the Moe Line torso or leg shape, and to mod that would be both too costly and a pain with tan skin.

While I was deliberating my plans for Essie I also managed to create another character by examining the new Peakswoods-exclusive Oscar Eyes and sitting in front of my tablet for 3 days straight. I haven't really fleshed out their specifics yet or decided exactly WHAT they are besides the general descriptor of "moth," but here's Yagi as a drawing and as a mockup on two different LittleMonica sculpts.

 

Cropped version of Yagi the moth.

(I have pictures of Yagi as Chloe and Sarubia respectively, but I've basically decided to go with Chloe as the designated sculpt.) I'm not exactly sure whether Yagi has a gender or not yet, but my basic idea is put them (her?) on a Sadol Love60 body in white skin and just see where the theme of glitter, lace, and flowers takes me. A moth princess would work. A genderless insect alien would also work. In either case, Yagi's a pretty big departure from what I'm used to and I'm really excited to see where I go with it.

P.S. A LittleMonica head + Sadol body is only $500 including shipping.


❤ ｋａｉ