In 2019, I made a digital art portrait of Meisa Kuroki — Japanese actress, model, general person who is very talented, beautiful, and therefore a fun subject to draw.

She is widely recognized for her commanding presence and distinctive visual style, with a career spanning film, television, and fashion.

I made the portrait on the now-defunct Adobe Sketch. Loved that app sm. It's where my digital art journey started... a finger swiping and dragging along my teeny-tiny iPhone SE 1st gen little screen. Fun times.

My Meisa Kuroki Art Portrait Plot Twist

I didn’t think much of it beyond that. Posting and sharing on my socials. I made art of people I found visually interesting, that was just a thing I did.

And then I got this one day.

 
She DMd!! 'Twas a cute interaction. And then she changed her profile picture to it. And tagged me. Publicly. In front of her entire following. She kept it for years too, haha.

I genuinely didn’t know what to do with that information so I just sort of did my giddy dance and went on my merry way. It's always nice to have your art appreciated and acknowledged, that stuff never gets old. But at the time, I didn’t archive it properly or think of it as something to document. It just happened, and I kept moving. As you do.

It also predates this blog, which is just utterly mind-blowing if you think about it!!! Pre-pandemic, even. Pre- things becoming a bit more official on my end. Pre... everything pretty much.

What a different time (for my art and my life and the world) that was...

But here we are in 2026 with me sorting through my files, rediscovering my Meisa Kuroki art portrait and DMs and I think this little moment deserves to exist on this blog as an official document of the universe occasionally winking at you when you do things for fun and for the vibes — and how way back then, somewhere between Manila and Tokyo, a tiny digital portrait I did found its way to someone’s face on the internet for a while.

We tend to take it for granted but honestly the interwebs and how it connects us all together are insanely cool.