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

commission stuff!!

Almost shocking that I'm making a post in the same month as my last one, isn't it? I've been working away at my faceup commission business at Darjeeling Aesthetics for roughly two years now, and I'm impressed at how much I've progressed in the time I've taken to really improve my skills. Just look at my first and most recent faceups on my own LittleMonica Sophia!

Good lord look at those messy lines and that eyebrow...

At least the eyebrows are even this time! And the eyeshadow is much cleaner without those unfinished white lines.

Things are going pretty well for me but I think I still have a long way to go. I'm very glad that I've made some friends in the hobby whom I admire for their skills! In fact, I'm about to go into a faceup trade with one of my favorite faceup artists in the USA, mil-mascaras :) I finished working on her Nine9Style Bunny Nine Potpourri and I've just sent her back with my blank Leekeworld Corin head. I can't wait to see what she does with it!

Star child Potpourri!

I've never been able to do a single faceup I liked on that Corin head, so hopefully after Minda works on it I'll finally be able to work on a look and buy her a body so she won't be a detached head anymore. Here's DJ signing off with a bunch of thank you notes!

 
Thanks for all your support! 我會繼續努力的!!

❤　ｋａｉ