Our keynote speaker for the LGBTQI graduation ceremony was Ryka Aoki— and oh my gosssssh she was amazing?!?!? Afterwards, she gave me a great big hug because I was practically trembling when I went to thank her. Marc and Justine, who were my two guests for the ceremony, were blown away by her powerful speech.

She owned her identities and even called out the theme of the graduation ceremony (“Visions of Possibilities”) as being unfair to “those who are not sighted,” and said that it would be better to call it, “Perceptions” instead of “Visions.” She told her story about being not only queer, but a woman of color— a transwoman of color. I was delighted to see that she’s founded her own group for trans* martial artists, because she was a national Judo champion before she was abandoned for transition.

I just

have a lot of feelings about our keynote speaker. There was so much power to her speech— it was just so, so good. I gotta check out all of her works now, because that is literature I want to be all over.

She extended so much love towards all of us, and it really resonated. :,3 Thank you, Miss Aoki! Thank you very much. <3

While drawing today (for the first time in a long time, wow!) I was thinking about how it’s kind of funny that I can paint moe doll heads but struggle with drawing in a moe style. I recognize that drawing ability does not necessarily translate into doll painting ability— this is something I’ve discussed many times while doing BJD painting demonstrations. However, a person’s art style— if they do partake in art outside of doll painting— tends to reflect in their doll painting. Regardless, doll painting usually heavily reflects the painter’s tastes in aesthetics (favorite makeup styles, fashion trends, color palettes) than what may be perceived as their illustration style.

Yet

I wanna draw moe, haha.

Welp, the cabochon idea doesn’t work. :,3 It was worth a shot though. I want to try making resin eyes next.

So that when people ask, “What do you want to eat?” I won’t draw a blank.

• Pho (lots of tendon)
• Curry (spicy or sweet, it’s all delicious)
• Sushi (salmon)
• Dim sum (shrimp dishes)
• Szechuan cuisine in general (favorite = eggplant)

Please stop tempting me. You send me these letters asking me to sign up for your wonderful card, but the last time I did— less than six months ago— you rejected me. Why would you do that?

I have learned so far that these things magnify like CRAAAAAZY, so I am going to need to do a few experiments to determine size and then size down as necessary. So far, they look pretty good as eyes! They only look bad when seen from an extreme side angle— which is not an angle you usually view dolls from. I’ll take a video eventually. Right now I have to wait for them to dry first.