Outlander

My husband would be the first to tell you that I’m the least romantic person in the world. He’s not wrong. But it does save him from having to remember anniversaries and he can spend money meant for roses and candies on beer and bangers. But I do enjoy reading a historical romance or two, most notably the “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon, Queen of my Universe. The tomes she produce are vast and meaty with all sorts of goodies. It more or less ruined all historical fictions for me after reading one of hers.

It was why I was really reluctant to watch the “Outlander” TV series even though I had heard nothing but good stuff about it. The cast was amazing, the script fabulous. I have the entire season 1 on my tablet but I sort of wanted to savor it like a tasty treat you hide under your pillows, away from prying eyes, until you can greedily gobble it up. What with one thing or another, I never got around to watching it until a request for it came and then I had no choice.

It turned out to be a fabulous experience. I cleared a week in my schedule to really focus on the details whilst watching the show in the meanwhile.

Here we have (from largest to smallest) Jamie Fraser (yum!), Claire, Black Jack Randall, Frank Randall, Dougal Mackenzie, Geillis Duncan (who is still by far my favorite secondary character in any literature. She ought to get her own book!), and of course, the jolly Mrs. Fitz.

To add icing to the cake, this is the 700th set I’ve painted!

Mad Men

Here’s another series that I need to get on top of, but I did enjoy painting this set tremendously even though I’ve only seen a tiny handful of the episodes. The thing with painting these sets is that you spend so much time by yourself and the character(s) you’re working on that you tend to develop a fondness and a weird sort of understanding for them even if you don’t know what the hell you’re painting!

(From largest to smallest) Don draper, Betty Draper, Roger Sterling, Pete Campbell, Peggy Olson, Joan Harris, and little Sally Draper.

A Paul Weitz Retrospective

I was asked to create a set featuring characters from all ten films directed by Paul Weitz for his birthday. This came right after the My Little Pony debacle and just to show that I learned my lesson, I read over the notes many many times before picking up my paintbrush.

(From largest to smallest)

Lily Tomlin in “Grandma”, Hugh Grant (and the boy) in “About a Boy,” Jason Biggs in “American Pie,” Robert DeNiro in “Being Flynn,” Topher Grace in “In Good Company,” Dennis Quaid in “American Dreamz,” Tina Fey in “Admission,” Chris Rock in “Down to Earth,” John C. Reilly in “Cirque du Freak,” and Ben Stiller in “Little Fockers.”

 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Weitz!

Ghostbusters

Happy New Year!

Once again, I have the honor of presenting my friend Susie with a set of dolls for her annual birthday party auction (this time for the pitbull rescue org) as the first set of the year. I’d done the Ghostbusters once…a long long time ago and was just thinking about revisiting it again, and here we are! This time I got to add in two extra characters from the movie: Stay Puft and Zuul the Gatekeeper.

My favorite character is still Slimer. He speaks for the gluttonous slob in all of us during this holiday season.

There are a few things in this world that I’d rather paint just once and never again, and the proton packs are one of them. I find that I can get through the most tedious painting sessions by putting on a Rifftrax movie or a MST3K episode. For this session I tuned into the one movie I always said they would have to put a gun to my head for me to watch unironically, and that’s “Birdemic.” If that movie’s a homage to Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” then I’ll bet the poor guy’s spun so much in his grave he’s spilled himself out of it.

But anyway, let’s hope this new year will be a great one!