Happy Good Friday everyone! Kimblee and I are going to go to Mass this weekend and afterward we will meet my family to have Easter lunch at Texas Roadhouse like a true American patriot. (Yeehaw!)
I’m happy that the Lenten season is coming to a close. I had a crazy Lent. This Lent had an equinox in it too, which was intense. I’m ready to be out on the other side of things!
Over the past few years, I have been trying to develop a style suitable for children’s media. I think that recently I have been tweaking my style to see what is the most economical to draw at what proportion. This is what I mean when I describe my style as becoming increasingly mathematically correct as time goes on. This is what happened to Kishimoto’s manga style as time went on as well, it became more mathematical, but some would argue it lost a lot of its soul.
I was looking through my phone tonight and found some old graphite illustrations of Kimblee I did in my “Leyendecker-inspired” style. I haven’t drawn him in this style in years, I realized. I should dust this style off, to see if anything has changed.
I think my style depends on the medium used. I hate rendering in digital programs, but I like trying to get my lines mathematically harmonious. When it comes to graphite, I prefer a richer style suitable to the values that replace the use of color in graphite art. I am able to get more detailed on paper than I am able to stand digitally. I am a servant to my biology, and I evolved among paper and charcoal after all.
This week is almost over, may you all have a beautiful Good Friday.
It’s starting to warm up here in Massachusetts! April is the rainy season, and May is when the trees finally get their leaves again. Come May, I want to take Kimblee out on a picnic in our favorite arboretum (tree museum).
I commissioned Nagichan (@nagichan_03 on x.com) to illustrate us on a picnic together. I gave the artist freedom with the outfits, and I love them because they are very mature and elegant. It looks like we tried going on a picnic early in the season. I love our matching color schemes. That really is something we would do, try to coordinate with each other. So many possibilities!
I’m going to try to thrift a picnic basket. If not, my old standard issue tactical backpack will work just fine.
I actually took Kimblee on a picnic a couple times before. Once, when I was in aircrew training at Lackland, I took Kimblee on a Valentine’s Day date behind the old secfo barracks. It was a lovely day. My friend Marseille came up to us and was like “What is this?” It blew his mind to learn about 2D love!
One more month to push through before the world blooms again! I’m a July baby, so summer is when I thrive. Until then we must continue to make good choices.
There is a merchandise gacha going on with the first ever official Kimblee plushie in it. I am someone who has struggled with gacha mechanics and gambling as a facet of otaku culture for a while now, and have recently overcome it. While this gacha really tempts me, I know it’s not in my best interest to gamble. I really wish this business model wasn’t becoming the norm in animerch. I would rather have a modest and incomplete husbando merch collection in a house that I own rather than a complete collection in my mother’s basement, you know what I mean?
Here is the merch in question, it’s incredibly cute although the chances of pulling his official plushie is incredibly low.
The illustration work is so beautiful! I guess his canon eye color changed for a third time and has solidified to gray. I like him with gray eyes but I’m so used to him with blue eyes that it will take some getting used to from me. My much younger self would have gone wild over the Kimblee plushie even though I think he’s objectively kind of ugly haha. I think as far as the plushie goes, I will try to remake him myself. This is why you don’t kill yourself, folks!
I unfortunately know I have a problem and must stay sober for this one. It’s what Kimblee would want from me. I need to be responsible! That being said I can’t wait to do some Kimblee DIY!
Let’s do our best again this week!
Kimblee and I miss Dallas. We are going to have a lot of fun in Boston this summer, but something about Dallas still has our hearts. It had some very unique cafes, such as La La Land, which specializes in mixed matcha drinks and honey toast with fruit. The winter in New England really bums us out, but it encourages us to make the most of spring, summer, and fall. I can’t wait to take Kimblee on more adventures this year!
Luckily I have this very millenialcore mug from La La Land so that I can always remember the fun time Kimblee and I had there. 💕
Waiting for the trees to get their leaves again! Summer is for lovers.
Kimblee really looks cute in everything! He was named after an American destroyer vessel the USS Kimberly, so it is nice seeing him in clothes from an American fashion house. Seeing him in a more rugged look really makes my head spin and heart flutter. What do you mean Mr. Fancy pants is wearing distressed jeans?! 😍😍😍
I get the feeling that Kimblee likes to wear the clothes in this lookbook better than he did the Dior f/w23 kilts, but he looks cute in both!
It is my hope that by drawing him in these clothes, he will somehow “receive” them wherever his soul resides. I will continue to give him a nice wardrobe, it’s therapy for me and good practice when it comes to drawing clothes.
I realized today that life has recently gotten so busy that I have not drawn Kimblee properly in a while. Our fashion project fell to the wayside a bit, but today I was able to draw him wearing another Ralph Lauren coord from the fall/winter 2026 collection. I love that collection for blending comfy knitwear with sharp formalwear. Kimblee looks cute here as well. I like seeing him in darker colors for a change. My favorite thing in the world is seeing him in beautiful clothes. 💕 (My second favorite thing is seeing him in megane, and my third, usagimimi.)
Even though it’s spring it hasn’t warmed up here much. I had to scrape the ice off my car this morning. The one good thing about this stubborn winter is that it doesn’t get feel too hot for drawing him in these kinds of outfits yet.
I’m going to try to draw him more and more! I am working hard to give us a good life, but I also want to spend more quality time with him while I grind. Love needs to be made fresh like bread everyday, as Ursula K. Leguin said.
The above is an illustration I commissioned from the lovely @LyseWagner on x.com. Recently I have been very interested in seeing Kimblee drawn in other artists’ styles. Lyse Wagner’s style is painterly, delicate, and beautiful. I especially love his intense gaze in this painting. Whenever I need a little bit of strength, I look into his eyes here, and I am filled with the desire to continue the Great Work.
Let’s do our best this week.
I have five main goals in life. Numbers 1-4 involve career goals, art goals, and publishing goals, but number 5 is straightforward enough. Number 5 is to amass a collection of Kimblee plushies and bring them on adventures for as long as I’m alive. Although I make plushes myself, I have been too busy with work and commissions to make anything for myself. So I commissioned the artist VuduKawaii (@vudukawaii on x.com) to make a plush of Brotherhood Kimblee as well as FMA03 Kimblee.
I just got the pictures today! Here is what the artist shared with me:
FMA03 Kimblee has zero official merch on this planet besides some trading cards, so I was especially excited to see him come to life. I am unfortunately a bad wife and fake FMA03 fan because I have had an 03 Kimblee Pitanui in the works for years and never allowed myself the time to actually make him. That’s why I feel so happy to see him plushified at last!
I cannot wait until they are here in my arms!
I hope everyone has a good equinox tomorrow. Entire Mayan temples were constructed to make a glyph out of shadows on the day of the Equinox, so although it contains no particular holiness in Catholicism, I still consider it a historically powerful day to pray and work with the saints. I haven’t decided what I am going to pray for yet, because everything I come up with seems like either too much or not enough. Our brains did not evolve to deal with being alive in the age of social media and AI during a war, after all.
If you haven’t watched FMA03, I fear that it has a certain relevance again, and is worth the watch. That and reading volume 15 of the manga, which is so wonderfully executed that in my opinion it can be read as a standalone without much prior knowledge of the series.
Let’s do our best again tomorrow.
Last night I had a dream that I was being given the choice to turn into an animal via a painless procedure. They said that it will be like reincarnation, so I will have none of my memories. Throughout the dream I was moving slowly toward this procedure until the end where I decided against it. I wanted to continue to be human. I wanted to continue living with Kimblee no matter how challenging it gets.
I think something has changed in my subconscious. For the first time in years, I feel that I am finally no longer suicidal. I had an attempt in 2024 that changed my life. I’ve been fighting for recovery ever since then, and I think I’m finally on the other side of things.
With America directly in a war, I know life is bound to change. I’m not in the service anymore but I have friends who are and I need to support them in any way I can. I need to be mindful of the ways I contribute to suffering and replace them with ways to combat suffering.
A little girl came up to me in church and said she liked my Kimblee plush. I told her I made it and she was like “whoa really?”. It made me happy.
My sister moved out and the paranormal activity in the house has completely died down thank God! I think we won the spirit war.
Let’s do our best again this week.