For me, I’m still awake at already 3am because I was busy packing some wholesale orders, vectoring, and assisting Taka the night before his collarbone surgery. Despite how busy January has been, I’ve already managed to complete the Lady Eboshi design, and finished a good portion of the Nue design. Taka just finished up his sketches for the Pretty Winkers SM tonight since he will likely be passed out recovering from his surgery the rest of the week. Let’s get to the designs, shall we? :)

Pretty Winkers: SG

I am especially proud of this design. Drawing Lady Eboshi wasn’t too much of a struggle since I already love drawing strong, beautiful women, but I did waffle between backgrounds for her. I had about 3 different backgrounds I sketched up, but ultimately I decided on this one because it captures the chaos surrounding Lady Eboshi’s decisions. The other backgrounds I considered were her village, the inside of the factories she was creating, but those felt disconnected from the Forest Spirit I had at the base of her design. Since I wanted to include the Forest Spirit, I felt that her decision to take its head should be reflected in the background with the poor Kodama falling, the bubbles of “gloom” (we just finished playing Tears of the Kingdom at the beginning of the month and that’s what it reminds me of), and the smoke and  flames of her destruction. Lady Eboshi has always been my favorite Princess Mononoke character because as a fellow ENTJ (Commander) type, I can relate to her determination. At her core, her intentions are for good, but like any good antagonist, she gets lost in her mindset of the end justifies the means.

Yokai Club

February’s Yokai is the long-requested Nue. This was one of the designs many wanted to see back when we did our Yokai theme in 2021 and I’m excited to say that it is finally here! For those unfamiliar, the Nue is a chimaera type creature that combines a monkey, snake and tiger, though can also combine other creatures depending on the lore. I think this will be a pretty popular design since it has a lot of really good movement.

Pretty Winkers: SM

Finally, we have the sketches for February. I didn’t really think about the fact that we just did Usagi for January, but oh well! I’m sure most of you won’t mind more of our main heroine! So anyway, February will feature Super Sailor Moon and Tellu.

Now don’t get too excited about the fact that we’re doing Super Sailor Moon because that definitely doesn’t mean we will be doing all the other senshi in their Super or Eternal forms. 😂 As much as I know many of you would probably love to see that, we are ready to move onto different fandoms as far as the Pretty Winkers go.

As I’ve mentioned before, I do plan on us continuing to make Sailor Moon fan art pins, but I definitely want to do some more non-winking designs (and also finish up the Princesses).

That said, quite a few of you have taken the time to email me personally requesting movie characters or other side characters. While there are quite a few side characters I’d be interested in doing, at the same time I’m not sure if there is enough demand.  But hey! I could be wrong. I remember being so worried that y’all would quit our pin club when I decided to pin Naru & Umino and that ended up being the month with the highest membership since we began the club. I didn’t expect I’d have to restock them either and I did! 😱

So if you all wouldn’t mind, I’d love if you could fill out this survey on determining if we will do side characters or not. Whether you are in favor of pre-orders, as pin club designs, or not at all, your feedback will really help me out!

Anyways, I’m going to go sleep for about 5 hours before I have to wake up and take Taka to his surgery. >_< Have a wonderful day and I will look forward to sharing the finished vectors for the Nue, Super Sailor Moon and Tellu by the weekend! Thank you all and have a wonderful week!