Breaking Bad: Heavy Hitters

I finally got around to watching the entire “Breaking Bad” series, which lasted for about a week. Netflix streaming is a beautiful, beautiful thing, is it not? I regret not finding the time to watch the whole lot sooner. But later is better than never and here’s one of the three Breaking Bad sets to come:

Heavy Hitters comes with (from left to right): Saul Goodman, Jesse Pinkman, Mike Ehrmantraut, Walter White, and of course, our favorite drug kingping/chicken restaurant owner, Gus Fring.

Some details:

Saul clutching a fistful of cash.

Walt with his duffle bag of cash.

The drink Gus handed to Hank, which ultimately became his undoing.

Jesse’s cigarette pack with the deadly ricin hidden inside.

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The Big Lebowski

Who doesn’t like a movie about bowling? All right, “The Big Lebowski” is more than a movie about bowling, but when theorizing this set, every idea I had revolved around the bowling alley scenes from the movie.

Clockwise from left: Theodore Donald “Donny” Kerabatsos, Walter Sobchak, Jeff “the Dude” Lebowski, Maude Lebowski, and Jesus Quintana.

Some details:

Flowers in the Attic

Talk about a blast from the past! I had a look at Lifetime Channel’s remake of “Flowers in the Attic” and thought that someone ought to do a matryoshka version of the main cast. Then I realized that someone had to be me since no one is nutty enough to do so. The book itself brought me back to seventh grade where all the girls were passing around the VC Andrews novels like an autographed New Kids on the Block cassette tape. I wasn’t popular enough to be in the loop, but eventually I got my hands on a copy and was hooked for life. “Flowers in the Attic” was a perfect blend of teen angst, gothic overtones, cheesy melodrama, and enough taboo to keep me wanting more. It was, truly, the Twilight Saga of our time minus the vampires and werewolves and lots of incest.

I based my set of Grandmother, Corrine Foxworth, Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory on the book version, not the dreadful film debacle or the made for TV movie so I had to go back to my tattered copy now and again to refresh my memories, not that I’m complaining, although I could use a newer copy of the book!

       

Yeesh! Wouldn’t you love to have HER for your grandmother? A whip-happy Bible toter!

Here’s Corrine the mother with her poisoned powdered donuts and a nervous pearl-playing hand.

I thought it would be funny to have Christopher holding a copy of the book they starred in.

Cathy in her ballet clothes with flowers she and the others made out of paper to pretty up the attic.

Really, what tales of horror and confinement is complete without a dollhouse metaphor?

At first I was a bit daunted by the prospect of painting such a tiny dollhouse on the Carrie doll, but it took only 20 minutes tops.

Cory with his banjo and Micky, his pet mouse.

I revealed to a few unfortunate souls who happened to wander into my sweatshop while I was painting these and the reaction varied from nostalgia to guilt to unbridled horror. What’s your take on this once shocking novel?

A New Mr. Fox Set

I think I’ve painted about 20 Mr. Fox sets in the past 4 months. It’s gotten to a point that I had to stifle a scream whenever I get a request to paint one, albeit never successfully. To stave off the ennui, I’ve tried out an alternative version to see if that one will be as popular as the original set.

It’s a bit more low key, and the gang’s wearing their nightclothes. The screaming in my head died down a little while painting this set.

Ash in his briefs. Awww…cute!