Amai-Rose

Well, I journal-ed about the first one. If I ever manage to go to one of the sing along showings of the footage, I'll have to journal about that.

Jonesin' for Joss
Two acts, 12$ (or 4 for 40). OMWF to start so the actors had time to get into their demon make up, Dr. Horrible to close.
 Review: worth every penny, but I'm not going back tomorrow to see it all again.

I didn't wear my only Buffy shirt this time, but I went with someone who wore one, so that sort of counts. I need to have a back up costume for this type of thing. We didn't have to drive an hour this time. 15 minutes, same trip I used to make for open mike. There was a fairly good turn out, which made me happy to see. Whedonites unite, and all that.

To be fair, I've seen clips of live OMWF done, and this was much better than any I've seen. It had strong voices, mediocre actors, and terrible accents. There was a fair amount of thought put into the mechanics of adapting it, and it had both the mustard guy and the parking ticket girl, although it did not have the dancing maintenance guys. The thing it had against it was that I know that musical by heart. Each word, each intonation, each step, and they did a good job, but I wasn't grading on that curve. Things picked up with Dawn's ballet that was beautifully executed, and I smiled through 'walk through the fire' where the harmonies were killer, and teared through 'something to sing about' because that's just how I roll. There were about 10-11 dialogue errors, most painful among them Giles dropping 'take you by the hand' and the order of 'save the day' and 'melt away' getting transposed, but if you were a neophyte, you wouldn't have noticed. The newbie in our group had no idea what the lethes bramble thing was all about, but I guess that does take some back story. Nitpicks: Buffy did really good fighting but overly apathetic acting, Dawn dropped 'the hardest thing' line like it was a dead fish, Spike didn't manage angry, Anya injected her own vocal flavour into 'bunnies', Sweet didn't belt it out for fear of overwhelming, and Tara was structured smaller than Willow, who didn't point at the jass hands, and Xander's very important 'it could be witches' was a little fumbled.

The Dr Horrible I an less anal about, and I enjoyed it more. The Dr. acting was solid, moist was a little fleshed out with a slip and fall scene that really worked. Hammer was more preen than puff which I didn't like as much as the last one, but the stuffed shirt look was cool. They didn't do as well with the freeze ray special effects as the high school did, but did set up a small city for him to smash in 'brand new day'. Also, Horrible managed the tempo to that opener, which I'm always impressed by. Penny was quiet, but sounded right, and the laundry freeze time moments were perfect. The league gathering at the end had awesome costumes, although the horse head on penny was creepy. I did have to give her props for holding a dead person plank as three of the male cast carried her off stage. The set changes were a little long, and sometimes they waited until the actors re-adjusted things before lifting the lights, which was a little awkward, and the music cues in both were not as quick on the draw as they could be.

Still, I think there should have been more than just us in the back row standing for final bow. This was a labour of love, and cheap at the price.

(edited to add journal skin, can't edit anything below this, they came with the skin, and have nothing to do with me, and I can't seem to change them. But I like the header.)


:thumb136180663: :thumb119733706:
:thumb132901941: :thumb122530518:

Nothing really to say in this one. I just wanted one more skin before I went quietly into the night of ~.

I'd never be able to live with myself if I didn't have a Buffy journal.

So my premium membership is going to be up soon.

And that's kinda of a bummer, but it's also okay. I had fun with it. I'll miss the 120 deviations per page, and the fancy journal skins and the possibility that maybe, someday, someone will leave a critique on one of my pieces.

It was an unexpected surprise to get the membership, so it doesn't feel so much like a loss to see it go as it feels like a party coming to it's natural end.

One really good thing to come out of the membership was me finally cluing in to how much I love contests. I took part in the premiummembers.deviantart.com/ contests, and although I didn't win anything, I had fun. And eventually I couldn't stand to wait a week for another one. So I did a few other one-off contests, and that wasn't quite enough, so I tried some challenges.

After only a week of dailysketchchallenge.deviantar… I can already tell I love it. I can't promise I'll stay with it, but for the time that I am taking part, I'm fairly certain I'm getting better. Same with design-a-character.deviantart.… and createbyweek.deviantart.com/

Sometimes inspiration is the hardest part of art, but challenges mean that I don't have to wait for it to strike, which means more focused practice. And that can only lead to good things (and possibly carpel tunnel, but lets just ignore that for now).

The other fun thing that I've recently discovered is amai-rose.getwatchers.com/?ref… Sometimes I feel a little lost in the enormity of this site. I know I'm not the best artist, but I'm not the worst either, but the site is so huge that standing doesn't get you much. So when I'm feeling pointless, I sign into my getwatchers viewer, and look at other people art (which I'm always doing off the main page anyway) and know that my art will be seen in return. And the more I look at art, and leave comments on it, and think about it, the more I'm able to critically look at my own.

So yeah, it sucks that 'all good things must come to an end', and the clock on my premium membership is running out, but at the end of the day, free DA is still awesome, and there are still more things it can do that I even have time to use.

I'll be losing my little * soon, but no tears please, because I'm going to be okay.

And then, if I keep on using all the resources free DA has to offer, I'm going to be better.

<sub>Gallery Add me Art Stats Note me commission FAQS

Another contest... this time it's one I'm promoting:

fav.me/d4mgeh9


The winner of this contest will receive 2,400 DeviantArt points! Enough to buy a one-year Premium Membership, isn't it? You might want to give it a shot!


Premise
Throughout time, tales have been told of this mystical creature, Mew. Humankind and Pokékind alike have included Mew in their mythos and folklore, passing their stories from generation to generation. Some stories have served as an explanation: a society's telling of the world's origins, its nature, and its development, with Mew ever-present and all-knowing. Other stories praise the creature's power and elusive nature - after all, some civilizations have revered Mew as a deity. Still others are folktales involving Mew: silly little stories kept alive through tradition, or fables meant to teach life lessons to the next generation.


I am pleased to announce #The-MEW-Club's very first contest - and it's going to be a big one! In this event, you will create a myth or folktale about Mew, and you will also include artwork illustrating your story. We challenge your storytelling abilities, as well as your artistry!


Rules
- Your submitted work must be new. Your entry must not have been uploaded before January 15th 2011.
- For the artwork portion(s) of your entry, you may use any medium. Various media include, but are not limited to: digital art, traditional art, animation, cosplay, crafts; a comic of either full length or multiple pages; or a series of artwork detailing a portion of the story.
- For the storytelling portion(s) of your entry, you may submit as "literature" / "fan-fiction," in addition to your artwork. Or, instead, you may decide to transcribe your story in the artist's comments of your artwork. If you create a comic with multiple pages, you must clearly label each page, and provide links to each proceeding page.
- Your entry overall may be of any length. You must, however, clearly label any parts of your entry in both the title and the artist's comments.
- You must submit all portions of your entry to the group's "Featured" folder.
- Therefore, you must join the group as a "member," in order to participate. It's easy! Just click the "Join" button. ^^
- NEW RULE (1/26): You may collaborate with another member and submit a joint entry. However, whatever prize your entry receives will be split between all members involved.
- Remember, you will be accessed for both your storytelling and artistry. Your story should have a good set-up and flow. It should be engaging and complete to your reader. It should be readable. It should reference human and Pokémon culture, however you decide to interpret it. The artwork(s) that accompanies your story should clearly illustrate the mythos/folklore you are trying to create.   


Prizes
Winner: 2,400 DA Points. Your winning entry will be featured on the group's main page, and a collection of your best artworks will be featured on *Mewscaper's user page. In addition, you will be featured in a future journal entry (on the group's main page)!
1st Runner-Up: 1,200 DA Points. Your entry will be featured on the group's main page, and a collection of your best works will be featured on *Mewscaper's user page. In addition, you will be featured in a future journal entry (on the group's main page)!
Honorable Mention(s): 100-500 DA Points. Your entry will be featured on the group's main page. The number of Honorable Mentions depend on the number and quality of entries. All recipients will also be jointly featured in a future journal entry.
Promoters: 20 DA Points. You will receive points for promoting this contest! Copy and paste this contest info to either your journal or a widget, and contact *Mewscaper upon doing so.
All Participants: 10 DA Points. You will receive points upon submitting a complete entry, including both your story and accompanying artwork.


Deadline
This contest ends March 1st. We reserve the right to begin judging at any point past this deadline.


Decision
A panel of judges will determine the winners. These judges have not yet been appointed.


Host and Sponsor
#The-MEW-Club


That's about all. Go for it! ^^

~Mew~

...

This looks really cool, but I don't think I could handle the written element. Anyone want to collab?

Either way, good luck to any one entering.

EDIT: I couldn't resist... amai-rose.deviantart.com/art/M…





...


skin by WikiME</sub>

:iconpremiummembers: is having a contest... the first contest that I am eligible to participate in.
ayame-kenoshi.deviantart.com/j…


The contest is to curate three pieces that fit within each of these color categories:

Green
Purple
Yellow

Since I also wanted to try featuring in a journal, this seemed like a perfect chance to do that.

So without further ado...


Summer








:thumb259347075:





by , and respectively.






Spring














by , and respectively.






Fall








:thumb181046444:





by , and respectively.






The challenge was to feature art by other premium members, which made the search a little trickier, but also more fun.
Note: At the time I posted this, every person had a premium membership. After that, I don't know.