The Heiress and the Correction Therapist - A Girl's Visit to a Profesional Chastisment Service

Yes, the heiress and the  correction therapist.  Believe it or not but apparently profesional chastisment services such as this  - often within a so called 'house of correction' - did actualy exist in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, and some say survived into a much later time too!  There is something about the concept of a chap being able to take a young lady to such a figure and being able to sit in on the session and watch, as somebody else punishes her, perhaps purely for his own gratification.  Obviously there is somewhat more to it going on here than just simple short-term gratification, and other agenda are afoot, but the principle's just the same - don't you think?.

Yeah YEAH!!! 500 Followers on Tumblr! And: The Governess / Strict Institutional Nurse Dress - And Now with Added Disciplinary Subject

I can't do any more tonight - the kids are in!  And THAT floor is a nightmare. Tiling is a KILLER when it comes to getting perspective right!  I chose the wrong subject / background here, I know, but I needed something I could get done relatively quickly as a demonstration coz time was running out on me - mostly because I'd spent far too long messing around with women's heads when I should have seen it was a non-starter from the beginning and gone for the cropped close-up / foreground from the start.  I also spent time removing a teddy the girl was holding  - I felt uneasy about that; it had to go!

And here is a fully cropped version for completeness - of course it needs a caption... perhaps later?

That Governess or Strict Nurse uniform Dress: Step 5: And Now She Has an Implement Worthy of Her Station!

And now she does indeed have an implement worthy of her station!  I decided on a paddle - what do you think?  We're getting there.  Now we need a subject or target on which to practise her disciplinary zeal and THAT depends on the type of scenario... hmm...let's see... I think I quite like the idea of that 'institutional care within the home' type of thing, as it does seem to have struck a chord with some...

Oh, and I've sorted out the slight white fringing that was around the legs!  The paddle and the wrist strap are two different objects from two different sources incidently.

That Governess or Strict Nurse uniform Dress: Step 4: Now She Has Legs!

Ok!  Yep!  And now She Has Legs!  AND stockings at that, although of course you, the viewer, can't see that, and OK there is a bit of fringing and I'm not sure I like the colour.  But after spending FAR too long trying, I've had to give up on the head.  Fitting a head empathised the squareness of the shoulders too much and ended up making the image look too 'cartoony', to such an extent that I don't even want to share it with you.  

But I never DID like the collar much and without the nurse's cap - which I would have felt obliged to have fitted her with - there is greater flexibility for the viewer to allocate the figures role in his or her own mind's eye, and her age group too.  So the answer seems to be to crop the image and then use it in a scene in which the uppermost parts are obscured in some manner, whether by perspective or some object in the foreground.  

Now for some props - and a bit of cleaning up around the legs.  But first - another snack break!!!

Step by Step Governess or Strict Institutional Nurse Uniform Dress 3: Now there are hands and a Change of Colour

At this stage I'm starting to think the shape of the shoulders where the display stand the dress is on in reality is occupying the space is going to be a problem when it comes to putting a head on - we'll see!

Discipline Governess or Strict Nurse Uniform Art Project Stage 2: Stand Removed

Now I've removed the stand and repaired the background.  

It doesn't matter at this stage that there is no rear to the inside of the collar where it was obscured by the stand, nor that there is a bit of 'fringing', particularly in that area inside the neck -these are issues that can and will be dealt with later.  

Next: The colour change.  Any preferences?  Let me know - SOON!  

I'm gonna have a cuppa and bite to eat before continuing, so you DO have time!







So now I've dealt with the fringing (see right), though you have to look carefully, and have refined the area around the inside neck and collar and hopefully it looks better.  How, is a trade secret, but it is enough to say it involves three layers! 

So... The colour change is coming up - easy enough - THEN I've got to put a woman in it (NOT so easy).

Inspiration for A One-Day Discipline Art Project: Follow Step by Step as it Grows and Flowers (I hope!) Stage One: The Raw Source Material

This is a new and hopefully innovative project idea I have literally just this moment come up with.  The sun is shining outside - fairly blazing down, here in North London - and I am trying to distract myself from going to the pub, particularly important since I am due to start a part-time gym instructor / personal trainer course this coming Thursday.  Now, this is due to run every Thursday and Friday for the next two months or so, but should not impact overly on my writing since Monday and Tuesday are my best writing days since I have the place to myself those days (and a half-day or so Friday, but it's rare there is really time to get into it / settle down sufficiently anyway).  

I know what you're probably thinking: 'Why the hell is he Effing about with this stuff then when, by his own admission, he should be scribbling away?'  And you'd be right of course - I DO have several pieces of work languishing unfinished.  But I just know that today the lure of the pub would be too great (AND I'd have to borrow the money - the great thing about this gym course thingy is that it is 100% government funded); already, first thing, I'd started convincing myself I'd get a whole lot done down at the pub; but an art project as I propose to undertake today (if you can call it that) can NOT be done down at the pub (although if I get it finished in time... hmmm...); and if it encourages some who have yet to read my existing stuff to read my stuff (better still, to write their own stuff or contribute their ideas here!) so much the better!

But don't get TOO excited.  What I propose to do today is really only an extension of those photo manipulation things I have been doing for ages, which have been inspired either by my book plots or based on one or more images which I have come across and which have inspired new ideas or suggested things or events for inclusion in my new work or new plot directions worthy of exploration, but not sufficiently so as to tell the WHOLE story in the way I would like them to. 

So often an image on its own may be perfectly innocent, or at most open to re-interpretation, given the right mindset.  But when combined with certain other images - some everyday, some less so - of varying degrees of innocence or potential for re-interpretation, those same perfectly everyday images may well tell an entirely different story.  And that is the subject of today's project - I don't know whether it will succeed or not, nor how far it will get in the time allotted, nor if the resulting image or its part-completed intermediate will gel with any of you out there; I've no way of knowing at this juncture; and that is partly what is exciting about it.  Well, for better or worse, however it ends up, here is the starting point - something I blundered into quite by accident while looking for something else entirely, in connection with an email I'd received first thing this morning.  

I found this on Ebay and the reason my interest was piqued was that it is not unlike (although not perfectly the same - thought it shares stylistic similarities) the sort of work dress or frock-style overall described as a kind of prison uniform dress within the pages of the original INSTITUTIONALISED series.  But what occurred to me for some reason was that it could so easily represent the other side of the equation with a few modifications (something I have played about with before, to be honest).  Now you HAVE to admit that in its present incarnation the imagery really IS perfectly innocent - just a 1950s or 60s work dress on a display dummy / stand, not even a manikin.  

Well what I propose - and what I think is innovative about today's project - is to work on it as the day progresses, publishing the intermediate stages here in a stepwise manner as I go along - and we can see where it leads together.  

Probably the first thing I am going to do - once I get rid of the stand and repair the background - is change the colour.  I tend to like that sort of 'hospital blue' colour (I think that is actually a real shade).  What do YOU think? At this stage the colour is fairly easy to manipulate, so let me know.  Perhaps some of you could even write in with other suggestions / themes - and if I receive them soon enough perhaps I might be able to accommodate some of them in the final image; who knows?  A sort of shared interactive design process.  Let's give it a try anyway!

Incidentally, in glorious (and I'd imagine, almost unwearable) Bri-nylon, this vintage creation sold on Ebay for a stunning £100.  Back in the day - the 1980s to 90s at least - this type of thing along with all manner of matching or at least teamable aprons, tabards and so on would have been available down the local charity shop for a pittance (before disappearing completely) - a source my wife of the time and I exploited many a time in kitting out our young house guest, a girl we had staying with us at the time. 

So here we go with stage one...