Creating A New Character

A character I’ve been working on for an illustrated publication I’ve had on the back burner for some time and based on an old photograph I came across once. The original, although perfectly innocent and depicted in an everyday medical setting, I found had possible sinister overtones, certainly enough to have triggered my imagination into action. It was the syringe, but also somehow in combination with the woman’s expression - it was / is something I found / find difficult to put a finger on let alone put into words.  

I’m not quite sure I have been entirely successful in capturing that whatever-it-is - and I think I may have made her too broad in the beam. But I think it has got SOMETHING going for her, even if it does need a little more work. She won’t be depicted in isolation, as here, in the finished work of course - but to say any more would be to risk giving too much away! 

All I can say right now is that in the completed background pic when I've tried her in it (in this form, but a little narrower in the hip) she looks a lot better for some reason the dress not so blurred, nevertheless, please let me know what you think.

And another thing: It appears the links I placed within my last posting I'd messed up and thus in a few minutes I'm going to remedy that and so you should all be able to find my Tumblr blog alternative, ready for the fateful day I get shut down on super-puritanical Tumbrl. And at some point I'll post a link in the right hand sidebar too - but I've been a bit busy of late, so please cut me a little slack folks!

A Work In Progress - And A New Blog (Same As The Old Blog?)

Hi again Folks - I'm back. So, I'm still struggling with various bank issues linked to the probate process as regards my late mother's estate but at least now I'm getting in a position where I feel I can put a little time aside to work on my various projects again. To the this end I have been working on building a composit image for one of my heroines and presented here are a couple of later stages in its progression and evolution.

https://toyntanenbeyondthebarredwindow.bdsmlr.com/

The upper image has all manner of disjointed discontinuities where some of the various components which went to make up the image don't quite meet up and match properly. In the lower image, although still nothing like perfect, I have attempted to address some of those issues (including the design of the dummy / pacifyer, which I wasn't happy with).  While doing so - and in redesigning the pacifyer - I came up with what I think to be a particularly tormenting refinement of the disciplinary element; the idea just sort of popped up in my head. 

The basic  idea is a simple but effective disciplinary measure, but with a major part of that disciplinary effect built around the fact that the pacifyer is NOT fastened in place, that in principle the hapless subject COULD spit it out! (plus I thought I might find creating a realistic-looking retaining strap, and the effect on dimpling the skin, difficult to bring off). 

The dummy could be any colour of course, but for the thing I'm working on I wanted the dummy to match the girl's hospital-issue pyjamas, which long ago I'd decided would be a sort of striped, subjued bottle green-like shade and several images already exist on my hardrive ready to go with that look, else I might now in hindsight have adopted the idea of light and dark striped grey pyjamas.  I would welcome your comments and ideas on this.

Finaly - Tumblr is becoming ever more puritanicle it its outlook with quite rigid censorship now running rampant (no female nipples can be shown, for instance, just like being back in the 1960s) and I fear sooner or later my Tumblr blog will fall foul of this policy and end up disapearing.  Already several of the images on my Tumblr blog have been tagged as 'adult content' and as such are now only viewable by the three of us: me, myself and I!  For this reason - like many other Tumblr users - I have now opened an account with BDMSIR.COM, a new and very Tumblr-like blog site, so hopefully should my present Tumblr blog vanish you'll be able to contiue following me there.  And please DO follow me and others there and so help make this new venture a success (although I don't yet have much content posted there to be honest). Just click here https://toyntanenbeyondthebarredwindow.bdsmlr.com/, on the blog site name above or the lower of the two images above to be rushed startight there! 

A Notification Of A New Book For A New Year (Not Mine Unfortunately) / Test Posting

I am having problems re-opening my blog after having made it invitation only for a while (for personal reasons) so this is something of a test run. Please let me know when or if you see this.

I have been 'off the air' for quite some time following my mother's death back in November and her burial a couple of weeks before Christmas, since when - other than for a break over the Christmas / New Year period (mostly spent in the pub - a nine day mega-bender) I have been largely dealing with her estate and legal matters pertaining to probate as a co-executor of her will along with one of my aunts and am only now trying to get my life up and running again.

One thing I DID manage to do before it all went pear shaped with my mother (actually it was way back in June last year - a measure of how long all this has been going on for) was publish this for my mate Robin Stone on LULU. It is presently only available published by yours truly as a PDF but in the fullness of time it will also appear under Robin's own name, in various formats such as EPUB and hopefully also on Amazon too!  While not really my thing in certain aspects and not my writing stle, nonetheless I have had a guiding hand, contributed the opening section, written and or edited one or two areas and done quite a lot on the artwork side. Click here to visit the relevant LULU page. 

Detention And Control In A Domestic Enviroment - And In A Bygone Era

It was a different era. The equipment kept up in the girl’s bedroom, simple and old fashioned. But the approach is sophisticated - and the thrice-daily sessions supervised by her live-in nurse are proving highly effective. By the time she’s ready to be shipped off to the residential institution her guardian has in mind the girl will actually be GRATEFUL for the rigid framework of rules, stipulations, regulations and restrictions she will encounter there

  

So - two images, one featuring a cane, the other without a cane. The question is kind of two-fold really. One: Which do you prefer? Two: does the imagery do anything for you at all? OK - here's a THIRD question (I just thought of this) Who out there prefers this kind of 'bygone era' kind of setting to a more modern setting?

Sorry I've not been around much by the way folks, but as well as all the problems I outlined before my mother has been in hospital these last - near-on - four weeks with pneumonia and I have had to be in the hospital almost every day with just a couple of days or so here and there to get anything done. It's just been that kind of year I'm afraid! 

 

A Roger Benson Poll - Sort Of!

So, as promised last time here is a Roger Benson poll. It was due to go out shortly after my last posting here but shortly after you last heard from me my mother's bank accounts got hit by debit card fraud - which I'm still sorting out (I have general power of attorney - and therein hangs a MUCH longer tale all of its own!) - and my most significant other's own mother sadly succumbed to cancer and died!  

As regards the present post: The trouble is it turns out- after a few failed experiments this morning and a bit of on-line research - that Blogger has decided to discontinue its own poll 'widget' and also abandon support for the sort of  'third party code' I've embedded in the past. Now, there MAY be a solution to this, going forward - when I have a bit more time on my hands - but as you'll see later on down at the bottom of this post - after Roger Benson's poll questions - whereat I pose a couple of questions myself, I pose the query, basically: Is it worth it?

So for now I beg your indulgence to have a read through, see what you think and simply send in as a comment the question numbers along with your selected response (basically just a letter 'A' 'B' or 'C' etc - except for one of mine which requires a few words if you have time). So. in the form Q1 (A) Q2(B) etc. I'm sure you get the idea! Yes, I'll have to moderate them all before they pop up here (because one or two folk out there cannot be trusted to to spam commercial links etc) but I can do that from my phone while out, on the bus or imbibing coffee (not beer at the moment because of the fractured jaw and the fact that alcohol might inhibit the healing process - but believe you me: I'm planning to make up for it!!!). Right then! Over to Roger Benson - you'll recognise his style: It does differ somewhat from my own, usually far darker, somewhat more sinister, interpretation of his images: Perhaps you find that a refreshing thing - I don't know:

It’s 1959, and two shapely, attractive sisters – April, 19 and Lorna Jane, 18 – are spending

the summer with their Aunt Vera while their well-to-do and socially prominent parents are

spending a “second honeymoon” in Olde Europe. The girls soon find, as the illustration below

suggests, that their Auntie Vera is a strict disciplinarian!

 

For the sin of untidy rooms, Auntie Vera has spanked both girls and is now giving them

disciplinary enemas.

Question 1: In the situation depicted, who would you most like to be?

(A ) Auntie Vera

(B ) The girl on the table (Lorna Jane)

(C ) The girl being made to watch while she waits her turn (April)

Question 2: How many ounces of warm, soapy water should Auntie Vera administer?

( A ) 16 ounces

( B ) 32 ounces

Question 3: For how long should the girls be plugged after their enemas?

(A ) 10 minutes

( B ) 20 minutes

(C ) 30 minutes

Question 4: Should the girls be made to wear full cut, tight fitting black rubber panties

and no skirts for the rest of the day after they have been permitted to relieve

themselves?

(A ) Yes

(A ) No

And now - two of my own questions:

Question 5: Do you prefer the original monochrome versions of Roger Benson's artwork or some of those 'colourised' versions which are' doing the rounds' on the Internet (an example of one of my own may be found here - click)? Or put another way: do you think the colourisation process adds any value in enhancing the 'atmosphere and so on'? Or perhaps it detracts from it?

Question 6: (And the last - honest!) Do you think it is worth my hunting around for a solution to the folks at Blogger's decision to discontinue their own poll 'widget' and support for 'third party code'?  Or to once again put it another way - do you have any interest in such polls?

(A) Yes

(B) No

Hello World! I'm Back!

Hi folks – just a (not so) quick note to say that Roger Benson has made contact with the idea of a couple of polls based on his stuff in the up-coming days and weeks and also to explain where I've been all this time.

The pic at the top – I have to point out – has precious little to do with any of this; it's just something I put out on my Tumblr account a couple of days ago to kind of say “hello world! I'm back!”, since I had it hanging around on my hard drive. But it also serves as a kind of demonstration of how several images may be put together to tell a story, along with a little bit of 'colourizing'. The original pics can be seen on my Pinterest account if anyone is interested.

So - Yes, I'm still here. Only just about though! SO much has gone wrong this year. Earlier in the year my mum got sick (she suffered a fall while I was away in Ross-On-Wry (I doubt that's spelled correctly) and went to hospital where that let her just sit or lie for several days without exercise, so although she was not hurt in any way from the fall per se she suffered muscle atrophy and her arthritis got a LOT worse from the inactivity).  Now she has carers visiting four times per day and I have to get the shopping, clean up from time to time and now sort out her financial affairs for which I have a letter of 'general power of attorney' which in itself has been hassle and taken up a lot of time (especially since her bumbling old twat of a solicitor managed to mess up the first version) so that thus far I've only sorted out only one bank of the many banks she has accounts with.

But also back in late April / early May I developed pneumonia. Then I went to Cyprus for two weeks while convalescing, for the warm dry climate, but used the time to improve fitness in the hotel gym. But all the time I was having to deal with calls from social workers, physiotherapists, care team managers and the like re my mum. Then a few weeks later I went to Spain for near-on three weeks, then I was home for a few days, taken up on doing stuff revolving around my mum, before going off to Broadstairs, Kent on Monday 13th August (what was I thinking about, travelling on the 13th), intending to spend a few days at the Broadstairs Folk Week.

Actually the first night - the evening of the 13th - went fine, despite the fact I left London a little on the late side having spent most of the day in a local pub, but I got the high speed Javelin train from St Pancras station and was in Broadstairs by 5:30 - 6 PM. Then early Tuesday I woke up to find the hotel room stifling and jumped out of bed to open the window...and promptly fainted, coming down HARD on my chin on the top of and old style central heating radiator and momentarily knocking myself out. I KNOW it was only a momentary loss of consciousness because I found myself on my hands and knees by the side of the bed, not laid out flat on the floor, but there was blood everywhere!

So I pulled myself together - my teeth were all there - GOOD! - but there were two deep gashes below the chin. Well, FINE, I could see in the mirror they'd need stitches (as it later turned out only one did - just three stitches - the other they were able to glue) but I figured I could roll a towel underneath my chin to staunch the bleeding temporarily, perhaps have a bit more sleep for a couple of hours (now that's a little stupid following a possible concussion, but that's me for you!) and then pop up at A & E in Margate (I was staying in Ramsgate - SO much cheaper than Bradstowe itself anytime, let alone Folk Week) a little later in the day, get a couple of stitches and return to the gigs and pubs of Broadstairs around mid afternoon, perhaps after a snack for lunch and a few beers in the Ramsgate Wetherspoons...

It was THEN I noticed two things: One: my teeth didn't seem to line up properly and felt kind of...well...'weird'! Two - and more importantly: I had blood trickling down the side of my face coming from within my right ear!!!  OMG! Blood coming from inside an ear after a bang on the head is definitely NEVER a good thing!

Ok, so I'd not actually hit my head per se, not the cranium itself; it had been more like a violently delivered (is there any other form?) upper-cut with an iron bar, but definitely time to call an ambulance! So you can probably guess the rest. My hearing was ok - so no worries there - but I'd basically performed the diagnosis before I'd called for the ambulance...hmmm... jaw fracture - high up, close to the joint, probably within the joint capsule itself since then it would be likely that the bleeding from the ear would be due to a secondary crack radiating out from the socket into the outer ear canal...And yes it was! Exactly that!

So I spent half the day or more in A & E being tested and scanned every which way. Then at length I was told I was to be transferred to the specialist maxial-facial unit of the William Harvey hospital in Ashford, also Kent and gave me a fix of oral morphine (VERY pleasant - but I don't know why since it really wasn't hurting all that much...unless I yawned; I learned quickly early on NOT to yawn!). And then - no more than a half hour later (after a couple more scans requested by the SHO at the William Harvey) they seemed to change their minds and discharged me with the instruction to present myself at the William Harvey maxial-facial unit in two days time.

So off I toddled to the bus stop - all wobbly and woozy on the morphine they'd seemed to have forgotten they'd given me - to head off back to the pub gigs of Folk Week. Actually it was quite nice - it was mid afternoon, the sun was blazing in a perfect blue sky, and the beers sort of gradually took over the pain relief duties as the morphine wore off in an apparently seamless change over! So I still got a couple of days in folk week and the pain never returned...until that is one day after my Ashford appointment.

It turned out on top of everything else I'd contracted tonsillitis (and I also had a mouth full of ulcers; but I get those with stress or if I bite my mouth and so on, and so they were probably directly related to the trauma). The tonsillitis I think had already been lurking, probably from the flight home from Spain (I don't know the incubation period) since upon my arrival back in London I discovered my significant other to also be suffering from a terrible sore throat.

I was already on antibiotics since the blood in my ear was indicative of what had been essentially an 'open' fracture, even if perhaps only momentarily open - and they were 'broad spectrum' so no reason to bother the GP, plus I wouldn't have been able to open my mouth wide enough for him to look anyway. But it felt like there were also some ulceration of the throat also, in addition to the inflammation. So basically I ended up seeking pain relief for the throat and ulcers, even though I had been not taking anything to manage the discomfort of the jaw fracture (I'd been trying to avoid taking NSAIDS since the inflammation reaction is an important stage in the healing process).

So anyway, as things played out, I only returned home here a few days ago - I'd been staying with friends while getting over the worst of it. I've been on 'soft foods' since the 14th August (three weeks today) which translates as protein drinks, baby food and puréed stuff and if I eat out we go to a posh chippy up in Cockfosters where I can have taramasalata or humus starters (minus the pitta bread - I managed some smoked salmon last time, mashed with my fork) and a couple of cod roes - which I can mash with a fork - and mushy peas. I started back at the gym nearly a week ago, although I have to be careful not to clench my teeth. But the good news is that the medical folks haven't so far felt the need to wire up my jaws.

I had a check up last Friday at Northwick Park hospital over near Harrow-on-The-Hill (it would have been quicker to have travelled back to Ashford!) and the consultant was happy as regards my progress, although they'd be loathe to operate due to the proximity of the fracture to a major facial motor nerve (the fracture turned out to be exactly where I'd predicted - a crack right through the chondial head - intra-capsular - with a crack radiating from the socket into the external ear canal) and at this present time - although only three weeks out from the trauma - I am beginning physiotherapy exercises to try improve the range of movement of the jaw (all the info is available via Google - but is common sense really anyway.

Oh yes - and the other half's mother is dying of cancer and hasn't long to go by all accounts!  So Much shit in one year!!!

But I'm beginning to get it all back together as you can see, and you'll be hearing a lot more from me as Autumn comes on! At this moment in addition to the above mentioned Roger Benson 'poll' which is ready to go, I also have a completed book penned by a chap called 'Robin Stone' which I'm supposed to be publishing on behalf of the writer (and thus acting as his publisher I guess) and which thus far is only available in one form (PDF) under my own name on LULU because I was having problems creating a LULU account under the writer's own name – and then everything started going wrong. This particular task I'm hoping to get completed over the next week or so, hopefully getting it out in various formats on Amazon, LULU etc. Although not my writing style or 'thing' generally - due to certain themes and interests which don't float my personal water transport - nevertheless I did contribute a fair bit of artwork and also an opening section, some proof reading and a few paragraphs here as well as the formatting, and so I'm keen to get it out there. I'll tell you more next time!

Two More Versions Of Gymslip Caning Cover Art - Plus A New Poll For You To Get Involved In

(E)

(F)

Question: Which of these book cover images would be most likely to encourage you to make a purchase (see last posting for options A - D)? Enter your answer in the poll below. Please ignore the sidebar version over on the right; if I delete it then the version on this post disapears; I don't know why; I've done it before ok, so I'm at a loss.  By the way: It might take a bit of time to load, from my experience so please have patience, your participation will be much appreciated!