bee news

I posted awhile back about some "far-off" doll plans that I wasn't going to attempt for awhile, but it looks like they're not going to be that far-off anymore! This is one of my recent drawings and he probably doesn't look too familiar because I've never posted a completed illustration of this guy before.

His name is Julien Feng aka "bee king" - I'd originally planned for him to be a LM Luke but after re-evaluating my plans I might have him be a Luts SDF Winter '14 head instead. As much as I love Luke's face, I really couldn't get over how close together his eyes were in the end. Luckily for me, my friend has managed to find a secondhand Luts head for me at a pretty decent price :) Here he is next to an F60 Celine I painted:

I can't wait to see him in person so I can try some faceups on him! He's going to be getting a wig (in black) and probably a hanfu like the one pictured in my next Taobao order. The only question remaining is should I get him a Luts SDF65 body or go with the Switch HD65? Suggestions and resin matches welcome!

❤ Kai

Moving on...

That's one doll out of the way... so what's next? I currently have 3 more dolls planned, but 2 of them are on the backburner until I can solidify their faceup and wardrobe concepts (plus, they're boy dolls. I'm not good with boy dolls.) I'm going to be continuing with my original plan prior to impulse buying that SQLab Navi - chasing after a good sculpt for Estelle!

Illustration by me procrastinating on studying over the weekend

By the looks of the illustration, I'm probably going to be canceling all plans for a Luts Nina in Real Brown Skin and going for an F60 Celine in tan. I think I want a little more variety in the faces in my collection, even if I'm not completely sold on Fairyland as a company.

Oh! And my wonderful friend who sent me her tan Celine a little while back let me try Essie's faceup on her doll just to help me out with my decision. It's what the illustration's based on, in addition to the purple wig I managed to snag off another friend.

The only real changes I'll be making is switching out the gold snake bites for silver ones and keeping the ears unpierced. Otherwise... color palette, brow shape, etc. is essentially set! I won't be able to afford this girl for awhile since I'm going to be ordering her with extra heel feet and hands (I hate the default hands Moe F60's come with because they barely have any nails to paint on!), all in tan directly from Fairyland :( Wish me luck!

❤ Kai

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