Jan-APRIL 2026
Hey ya’ll! long time no speak! Figured I’d y’all an update on what I’ve been doing lately! :)
Let’s take it from the top!
JANUARY & FEBRUARY
January was a tough month because I was busy planning my event DRAW THE BLOCK. DTB ate up so much of my time because i technically only have two months to plan the event! I ended up buying a whole camera just for this event, it’s a Fujifilm XM5, great camera can not suggest it enough! From there it was a lot of promotion and fun stuff for the event itself. The former half of the event was originally just Hero (my graphic designer) and I working on designs, flyers, and a small website for people to find us! The best part of this was making our mascot Lily, a young black girl with a lilac afro; she’s so dang cute! Along the way of doing a lot the promo we we’re approached by some people who were interested in joing DTB as a core members, the first was Anjee who was a literal blessing on the marketing side! She came in kicked ass on that! Then we gained a few other members that really elevated our team, Jordan(a rad dude who really is just the biggest help with getting out name into important conversations), Brooklyn( a manga monday veteran and the literal most charasmatic spokeswoman ever), Tyris ( my favorite team player, Ty does the most to assist the team in anyway possible, Dennis( the day one homie who joined us as an inhouse artist and doubles as an MC), AJ( a sick caricature artist who brings a cool flare as an inhouse artist for us), Mellie( a wicked artist who has that awesome edge to them, joined our team as an inhouse artist), Summer( My love and my favorite photographer in the city joined us as our inhouse photographer), Shemar ( my little brother a joined us a brand director to help wtih clothing), and last but not least Eileen!(Eileen joined us a coordinator and inhouse artist to help whip us into shape!).
With this awesome team I was able to deliver the best TWO DAY EVENT TO PEOPLE OF SEATTLE! Big shout to the OTB TEAM and ELEVEN ELEVEN FOR ALWAYS ALLOWING US TO USE YOUR SPACE. February started with a bang and that’s all thanks to DTB. :)
MARCH & APRIL
March was a blur to me. I did so much. We put another DTB event called the Draw the Block Portrait Party but all while doing this I was prepping for Sakura Con as a vendor for Artist Alley. During these times I was really stressed because I wanted the event for DTB to be a success but also I was volunteering as a caricature artist there as well.( i’m not confident in my portrait skills tbh). The Day of the event was amazing though! Everything went off without a hitch, big shout out to AJ and Eileen for super planning this event! We ended up drawing over 100 portraits on that day; and big shoutout to my friend Vic for doing our merch!
After that successful DTB, it was full sprint ahead on Sakura Con! I had high hopes for what I could bring there. I inteded to bring 8 new prints but alas I only brought 2 :( *womp womp. I was able to create 10 new stickers and 3 new charms though so I was felt pretty good about that :). Sakrua Con was a great event, I was able to join a Chainsawman Stamp rally along with a Frieren one! I met a lot of great people and made a ton of sales! 10/10 would do again! Also shout out to family style cantonese food, it’s hella good.
Now that all of these events are done, I’ve decided to take a hiatus from large events for May and focus on honing my art skills through books and courses. i’m toying with the idea of doing vlog studies of me just talking about what’s currently going on or maybe talking about my stories and mangas. I have so many books and courses so I probably could do a long term youtube channel just off this. I also ended up joining the KMA discord and got accepted into their mangaka role so expect a lot of new one shots from!
So far this year has been pretty rad and I know it will only get better! Thank you guys for taking the time to read the ramblings of a mad frog! My next appaerance is going to be at the Paper Pushers Print Shop Grand Opening on April 26h! Come get yourself drawn by me and the fellas!
Love ya all!
Kenji
