Now I know why Will has his eyebrows painted into such exaggeratedly happy upward curves. He’s compensating for a childhood during which during which his eyebrows were exaggeratedly depressed downward curves.

I did the faceup with chalk pastels, sealed in matte and satin varnish. To prepare the surfaces I wanted to paint, I gave them some tooth by laying down an initial coat of matte varnish. I know that my results do not achieve the delicately applied, gauzy, symmetrical, subtle effect idealized by so many painters of Asian BJDs, but I don’t paint my dolls for perfection. I paint them for character, in all its asymmetrical, messy, uneven, unpredictable forms. My stylized paint job quickly communicates personality and expression, which is what I want it to do. Why should I waste time with meticulously presented layering if I can achieve my desired effect my way?

Little Will is my saddest doll ever.