Monday, January 21, 2019

Movie Review Monday! (UPDATED!)

Welcome to another Movie Review Monday!! This week's movie: "Glass!"

"Glass" (Director: M. Night Shyamalan)



So, the hype this week was the new movie "Glass." Despite early reviews, I did my best to go into this with a VERY open mind--I have issues with M. Night Shyamalan-ding-dong (side-eyes "The Last Airbender"...YOU HAD ONE JOB! FOLLOW THE STORY IN THE SHOW AND YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE! NO CHANGES REQUIRED!!) However, after my shock at how much I enjoyed the movie "Split," I admit I became part of the crowd who waited in breathless anticipation for the final piece of this trilogy, even though I didn't see "Unbreakable" until this past summer (and it left me underwhelmed). But it was McAvoy's performance as Kevin/Patricia/Dennis/Hedwig/The Beast in "Split" is what really got me going for this...and it annoyed me that as I sat watching "Glass," Hedwig was the main personality in the light--I'm sorry, but Patricia is basically who I aspire to be for NYCC come this year (although I may want to also do a Dr. Staple too, and pretend I am treating clients.)





As "Glass" progressed, it began to feel disjointed, showing glimmers of something that could have created a whole new genre of heroes and villains in a cinematic world where our ideas of heroes and villains immediately goes to either Marvel or DC. However, somehow, it all fell apart, with next to no climax, and the writing slowly going down the tube. 

Regardless of the filming, the performance by McAvoy, Jackson, and Willis were absolutely fantastic, although McAvoy should get special praise for his performance(s). But honestly, everything felt rushed, especially when you talk about Sarah Paulson's character, Dr. Staple, saying she has only 3 days to convince the three leads that they are not superheroes and the aftermath showing the classic M. Night twist, which honestly should have been fleshed out more.

This was definitely not the movie I was hoping for, although I definitely knew I didn't want (or need) the big sort of Marvel/DC superhero type movie for this. M. Night, allow me to invoke a little bit of Patricia's sarcasm when I do my slow clap as I say:






UPDATE!!!!:

Since seeing the movie, I stumbled upon this YouTube video that gives a very thorough explanation of some of Shyamalan's decisions as well as an analysis of why certain things might have happened. Once seeing this, I began to understand certain things a bit better, although I still had issues, and honestly, this video does make many good points. If you were like me and felt a bit disappointed, check out this video for yourself and see if this helps you:


Sunday, January 20, 2019

Happy Self-Promotion Sunday! Convention List!

Hello Everyone! So this is not going to be a very long post, because I am very behind in some of my work for my final graduate course, and I need to play catch-up. And just as a reminder, remember that come March, I will be on a self-imposed hiatus due to my graduate program comprehensive exame, minus the occasional announcement.

And speaking of announcements, here is the list so far of Conventions that I will be attending for the 2019 year, so far. Some I am still waiting to hear about:

CT GamerCon: March 23rd and March 24th
Undiscovered Realm Con: May 4th and May 5th
Hudson Valley ComicCon: May 11th and May 12th
MinCon: July 13th
BronyCon: August 1st to August 4th (TO BE DETERMINED!)

In the meantime, I have been doing smaller pieces, such as these Rainbow Dash necklaces. I had some Wonderbolt blind bags laying around, and I never knew what to do with them, until I thought, wait a minute, why not charm necklaces!




Come back tomorrow for Movie Review Monday, and I will have a post for this coming Work in Progress Wednesday!

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Happy Self-Promotion Sunday!

Hello everyone! Welcome to Self-Promotion Sunday! Before we begin, I wanted to let everyone know a major event coming up: a self-imposed hiatus. This will NOT be happening UNTIL MARCH! This is because I am coming to the end of my graduate program, and my comprehensive exam will be happening until about the 1st or 2nd of April. While I will do a few posts, there will be very little that will be new. This is going to become VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE! Honestly, this is like the culmination of 2 years worth of work, and I do not want to mess this up.

But in the meantime, I am starting to try and do a few more digital pieces, as well as pieces that do not require any sanding. It's too cold, people! I can't be outside sanding down pieces I have sculpted. So, custom sculptures are on a bit of hiatus as well.

Here's what I HAVE been working on. First up is a new digital piece, which will go up on the Fan Forge soon (hopefully to be picked up) as well as my Redbubble soon. A Kirin and Nirik piece, with a bit of yin-yang to it:

 Now, I am also working on some mini Bling Bag pieces, which will be turned into necklaces. These are some Wonderbolt and Shadowbolt Rainbow Dashes, which are just about done! I can't wait to see how these look when I make them into necklaces!






Also, just finished up this little commission, which looks really cute! First time in a while I have done any sort of traditional piece and I love it! It's super sparkly, not just cause of the gems, but I did use some metallic watercolor. This picture was the best I could get, but it really doesn't do it justice!


Friday, January 11, 2019

Fluttershy Friday, Ornament Style!

Hello and Happy Fluttershy Friday! I have a new Flutters to join the army, which brings me up to 115 total! Holy cow, this is becoming insane! I am hoping I am able to keep up with it all! So, first up, I got another blind bag Fluttershy, I think from the first wave:



Next, is another Fluttershy from a fast food store! Now, I honestly have never seen this one, but it was up for sale in one of my forums on FB. The seller said it was from a Burger King. Now, I honestly would not know, because I do not frequent BK. Never been a fan, and in all honestly, I've been slowly trying to cut down on the fast food in general. But apparently, it's true, as I found out here on MLP Merch. She's bigger than my McDonald's ones, as you can see from the second photo, and while I appreciate the show accuracy, I do wish she had some sort of brushable feature:





But, not every one of these is figurines! I had a Fluttershy ornament for a little while, which I didn't originally count as part of the 100, because it wasn't a toy, and I had solely been focused on toys or plushies, with the exception being one of my Flutterbats. So, I guess you can say I caved and got some of the other Flutter ornaments I had been missing out on.  I got the one on the right first, so middle and left are new for me:



That's all for today! Come back on Sunday to see if there's anything new for Self-Promotion Sunday!

Monday, January 7, 2019

Movie "Mule" Monday!

Welcome to Movie Review Monday! Not a lot seen lately, but I did get a chance to see "The Mule" so let's see what it was like!!!



"The Mule" (director: Clint Eastwood)

 


So, I caved and saw this with my boyfriend, because he has seen a lot of movies I wanted to lately (plus I have been bugging him about moving in), and based on the preview, I was a bit scared to check it out. The previews made it seem like it was very much your typical druggie movie. And yet, it was SOO far from that that I left feeling...confused.

For those of you who need a bit of background, Clint Eastwood (who both directed and starred in this movie) took a very true story and turned it into this movie. This movie was inspired by Leo Sharp, who REALLY WAS a mule for the Cartel! And the dude was 90-years-old! Eastwood plays Earl Stone, a seriously "set-in-his-ways" old man from the Korean War (thank you for your service), who has NO filter! Seriously, some of the things said were truly cringe worthy. No, seriously, even I was feeling uncomfortable! It's like when you have that really old relative who doesn't know right from wrong. Now granted, within all that cringe worthy dialogue, there was some good banter, so it wasn't completely terrible.

Eastwood's character basically is trying to make up for his ways on putting his work first before his family, and there were a few times I felt I could relate--and if you had any of that happen, you definitely felt it too. Meanwhile, Bradley Cooper's character is doing his best to try and do right by his family, in a way that sounds weirdly familiar to Eastwood's situation...and he ends up giving Cooper a warning to not follow in his shoes. But, he also does the same thing with Ignacio Serricchio, who plays Julio, Eastwood's initial handler. In fact, Serricchio and Eastwood start getting close before things go haywire.

In the end, my biggest complaint was twofold: that everything felt like it was building up towards something, and it didn't; and that Eastwood's character tried to start a relationship with Serricchio's character then tried to carry it over to Cooper's when Serricchio gets sucked back into the cartel. Is this a worthy movie to see? Sure, but wait to rent it. 

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Happy Self-Promotion Sunday!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to Self-Promotion Sunday!!! I hope everyone is having a good new year so far. I am hitting the point where I am probably going to take a short break from figurines for a while and focus more on a few digital pieces I have been wanting to do, especially since I have my graduate program reaching towards the finish line in the next few months. So I wanted to give everyone a heads up about that happening. In the meantime, I've got three new pieces to showcase, so how about we check them out?

First up, I am super happy with how this new Dr. Who figure came out! Maybe I should look into doing some mini Weeping Angles in the coming weeks. So, this is another new piece of artwork to my Dr. Who art repertoire:





Next up, thank GOD these are done! I have been in a love/hate relationship with these two! The Kirin Queen has been giving me nothing but issues with the tail, and Autumn Blaze has just been a bit of a pain by way of painting.





They will be up soon on Etsy! Come back tomorrow for my newest movie review!

Friday, January 4, 2019

Fluttershy Friday!!! Check out the Collection!

Welcome to an all new Fluttershy Friday! Sorry it's a bit late, just got back from seeing "The Mule" (check for the review on Monday!) I have a few new, smaller Flutters to add to the collection: 3 new blind bags, which to an extent, I am not sure why I never did a lot of the blind bags in the first place. Probably because many of them were pretty much the same, minus glitter or neon. So, now we have 108, 109, and 110! Check them out below.

So first up, here are the newest Flutters for the army!






Also, like I said, I did a bit of rearranging of the Flutters. Before, I had the Flutters like this:



With these two all by their lonesome!:




Now, I did a bit of rearranging. I put the sleeping Flutters up top, where there was a bit of room. My 100th Flutter is now with many of the other plushies, and Flutterbat by WhiteDove has a friend (it was too big to join the rest)!:




I am looking for more Flutters, so if you know of any that you think might be missing, please let me know!!! Come back on Sunday, and check out the latest pieces who are done!

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Welcome to the New Year WIPW!

Welcome to the new year, everyone! It's the first Work In Progress Wednesday (WIPW) of 2019!!! Let's take a look at what's in the works, shall we?

So, let's start with a few basic projects. First up, I FINALLY figured out what to make this Flash Sentry into...10th Gen Doctor Who! My favorite! David Tennant was awesome in this role!




Next up, these are FINALLY in better shape than where they were some time ago: Autumn Blaze and the Kirin Queen, both of which have been giving me trouble on the tail. They finally worked out, though!








Next up, these blind bags were giving me trouble on what to make them into. I honestly hate getting some of the blind bag figurines, and now, finally, I figured out something to turn them into! This is where they are at right now:








I also got a commission recently! It's been a while since I've done a hand painted piece for a commission, so I am not counting when I made the hand painted cards for the MLP swaps I took part in. But this one is pretty elaborate! It's just waiting on a few more crystals to complete it:


Next up, here's a small sneak peak at some big projects I am working on: one will be personal, two will be for charity auctions (hopefully one will be for the last BronyCon!) All I can say is, these are definitely taking a lot of effort and time! So, who wants to guess what I am making?:


Come back on Friday for some new Fluttershys!!!

Happy Fluttershy Friday! I'M MOVING!!! (Also, #154, 155, 156, and 157!!!)

 OK, so first and foremost, SO SORRY for not a lot of posts. Creative burnout is real, as well as some BIG news... I AM MOVING INTO MY OWN H...