Louis Malteste: I tried it… And I liked it!

An anonymous contributor wrote, as a comment appended to my last posting : “The first illustration is by an artist who went by the name of Louis Malteste (French 1870-1920). If you enlarge the posted illustration you can make out his signature. In addition to producing formal works of art he also illustrated erotic French novels. More of his outstanding spanking illustrations can be found on the web by searching his name.”

Well I tried it… And I liked it So much so that I just couldn’t resist posting up this little confection I came across, happened upon at a blog called “The Seduction of Venus” (now added to blog list – see right hand sidebar) a wondrous repository of “erotic artworks and photographs from throughout history”. Well worth a visit! Just click the blog’s title, above, or search out in the blog listing. I'd come across one or two works in this style in the past but I'd never specifically searched for Louis Malteste's work before. There is quite a body of work out there it turns out, and quite a lot capable of kick-starting the jaded imagination. Refreshing and just what I needed (thanks for that 'Anonymous')!

Actually I have come across quite a few blogs new to me of late while researching certain topics to finish off the new book. Most I have already added to the blog roll and I’ll post a complete list next time.

'Psychological Governance’, Nuns and the 'Wayward Girl'

A series of pieced-together extracts from a series of articles regarding certain religious houses for ‘morally wayward girls’ that existed through the 1950s and even up until the 1970s, offering “shelter and guidance to vulnerable girls and women.”

“The Sisters and courts working together decided when a girl was ready to leave the Home, but since the courts in turn relied on the Mother Supior's recomendations, her word was effectively law" and woe betide the girl who threatened the status quo - or who she took a shine to!
"Security and rehabilitation were big issues. The girls could not be trusted and neither could the outside world. To prevent residents from seeing the outside world and leaving the Home, locked doors and opaque glass had been installed behind barred windows, barbed wire fences, and alarm systems. There was no television, nor radio; listening to music was allowed, though the girls weren’t allowed to listen to male voices. [At mealtimes] the girls [were obliged to maintain] silence as they entered the dining room and sat down. Two nuns supervised lunch from an elevated platform and they frequently used the time to read and censor the girls' mail. In the dormitory, [each girl’s] toiletries [had to be kept] lined up with precision, with each item being assigned a specific placement.

Though these measures appeared harsh for some; for others, it offered protection and safety and enabled to them to concentrate on [rehabilitation]. In the sewing room, the girls and nuns made school uniforms, all clothing being [marked with a number, designating the individual girl.].”

From another source we hear of the “unfortunate necessity” to employ “certain drastic measures and remedies [in order] to control the risk of the introduction and spread of head lice”. And that although “alternatives were available and marketed at very little expense”, a preventative approach was to be preferred and “conferred certain other advantages”. The article goes on to guardedly hint at these ‘advantages’ pertaining to “good order and discipline” and to “the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience”. We are left in blissful, blameless ignorance as to the details of these ‘unfortunate’ “drastic measures and remedies” and their ramifications – but we might hazard a guess.

Here again there is mention of the importance of an “emphasis on silence as a means of focussing attention on God”, “frugality in all things” and the provision of what is described as a “bare ‘maintenance diet’ – sufficient to keep from losing weight, yet [insufficient] t o risk encouraging the sin of gluttony with its associated unwarranted weight gain”. This particular institution was said to have “embodied regimented discipline”, imposed “extreme restriction on freedom of movement and privacy” and to have “embraced a culture of petty rules and restrictions” that “limited to the extreme [the] opportunities [for] forming personal one to one relationships between inmates”. The emphasis throughout was “one of conformity” with a “reliance on corporal punishment [for the maintenance] of discipline and good order”.

Elsewhere, albeit regarding an entirely separate establishment, it is somewhat enigmatically stated that “…the more closely [the institution] is modelled on the judicious application of the principle of psychological governance, the more salutary will be its discipline, and the fewer occasions will arise for resort to actual [physical] punishment”.

What this cryptic ‘principle of psychological governance’ might have consisted of is not expanded upon. However, it is noteworthy that in the same pamphlet it goes on to state that: “…any physical chastisement [may] consist of moderate childish punishment with the hand or punishments with the cane, strap, or birch” and that “only a light cane or rod [should] be used for the purpose of corporal punishment inflicted on an open palm”. Certain orders of nuns had experience of setting up and governing correctional facilities for women stretching back three hundred years or more, so one may assume that they knew what they were doing when it came to exercising control – psychological or otherwise – and that any young woman, however blameless, once delivered in to their hands would have quickly come to the conclusion that defiance was not an option. Nor was the likelihood of absconding particularly buoying, as I am given to understand it – after all the nuns had had time aplenty to refine the security precautions surrounding their ‘sanctuary for wayward young women’. And security was essential if they were to protect a young woman from further sin – even if (particularly if, some would say) that ‘sin’ or ‘moral infraction’ amounted to little more than having run from a craftily manipulative stepparent, an intolerably overbearing governess or a cruelly exploitative and equally manipulative guardian or indeed just having foolhardily rejected certain amorous advances.

One should never lose sight of that old “Victorian propensity to commit errant wives and stepdaughters to the asylum at the drop of a hat (or at the hint of an inheritance)”. And often a charitable donation made to such an institution spoke volumes, certainly carrying as much weight, if not more, than a learned doctor’s opinion (although the latter could be easily enough swayed if one had sufficient influence). There seems little doubt that certain of these ecclesiastical ‘shelters’ may well have fulfilled a similar purpose, a simple statement attesting to the poor thing’s ‘hysterical instability’, propensity to ‘overwrought imaginings’ and ‘delusion and derangement’ being enough to ensure that none would pay heed to any objections, accusations or entreaties the pretty, doe-eyed teenager might voice. Some mention of sexual impropriety included in the documentation, and a ‘well appointed’ buxom teenager could be assured a very hard time indeed under the reforming hand of the Mother Superior. And of course there was the added attraction of the possibility of visitation and the knowledge that any complaints, especially as such became - as they were sure to over time - more insistent and hysterical, would simply be recorded as yet more evidence of “the poor thing’s mental aberration”; more evidence to be recounted to the governors of the local asylum when the time came, should that be her guardian’s or stepmother’s wish.

The nun’s own isolation was sacrosanct and they had not been averse to adopting new modern ways over time to ensure it remained so. Similarly, it seems they had not been fazed when it came to applying modern methods to wielding the rigid control over their charges they deemed necessary in order to protect the more defiant, incorrigible and diffident of their young inmates ‘from themselves’ and once again one’s imagination is stimulated to muse over the cryptic use of that term; ‘psychological governance’.

I Forgot the Title

Hi people! I've been writing most of today, which is a promising sign, though I'm still suffering badly with tingling (like nettle rash - without the rash) forearms and hands (mainly the backs) of which more next time. Last time I reported having removed 'britishspankingmags' from the sidebar blog list and that the site no longer held any content in any case. Today I had reason to search around on the internet and I have now located ‘British Spanking Magazines’ alive and well on Blogspot at http://britishspankingmagazines.blogspot.com/.

Running "stories from old spanking mags, such as Blushes, Roué [my correction], Janus, Februs, Swish, Kane etc" and published "In memory of Alex Birch" it promises to be both an important resource and a refresher course in all that helped form my interests through that important period, the 1980s, and that went on to inspire and inform my own writing. In fact almost the first thing to greet my eyes was one of my all-time fave pics from that powerhouse of the genre, 'Uniform Girls' (see above and just click pic to visit the blog, or look for the link in the sidebar blog list).

'Wringing' Out the Inspiration

Hi folks. I was going to put up a few views of post-'riot' Wood Green North London but I have just had a change of heart. I have now worked out how to download the photo's off of my phone (took all of two minutes) but while reorganising the various folders on the desktop computer I came across an archive of 'Wringer's' photoshots that I had gathered together for my own enjoyment from various sources.

No matter what has been stamped across one of them, these are - to my knowlege at least - all the work of 'Wringer'. My first inclination was to load these on to a memory stick and upload them from my holiday hotel (WiFI extra but 'reasonable' I have been assured). On second thoughts there is always the chance of said memory stick falling into 'judgemental' hands while passing through customs or what ever, by being stolen or indeed lost and so I decided to quickly upload now and to take the riot pics (not very exciting, frankly) and a couple of pics from my last holiday (Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius - that sort of thing) and upload them later in the week from the island of Koss. Some of these Wringer pics you will have seen before, perhaps here, and other's you will have not.

They are also widely variable in terms of resolution etc - but this reflects their various sources; all now lost in the mist of time but including several Yahoo Groups I seem to remember. The thing is how one almost automatically tends to weave a multitude of tales around them, individually or as a set - I think it has a lot to do with the ambiguity of the background (especially in those atmospheric black and white shots) along with the institutional appearance of the bed, leaving one's imagination to fill in the gaps as to whether one is being made privy to a domestic or an institutional scenario. Wonderful stuff!
I have to be off now. Gym first (if it ain't been burnt!) then off to Gatwick, leaving North London around 4 o'clock this afternoon. The flight is not until tomorrow, but it is at 4 o'clock in the morning!!! and so, I am staying in Gatwick for the night. I guess in theory I need not leave London until late this evening, but I want to miss the rush hour (about four hours these days) and also preempt some genius coming up with the idea of burning the stations... Just a matter of time!!!

Hi to 'Orage' there! Good to hear from you too! Hi, too, to anyone who has emailed and still waiting for a reply or who has not heard from me for some time (especialy 'Snooze' and 'Miha')- I hope to catch up on my emails while away, along with completing my commissioned piece (which I must say has down much to reawaken me!), and so you should hear from me in the next week.

Oh! And I forgot to say: INSTITUTIONALISED volume 3 is now available in the Ebook format through Andrews UK LTD at Amazon Kindle (click to visit). I be setting up a direct link in the right hand sidebar sometime in the near future.

School Uniform for the Less Mature Older Teen and Twenty-Something

Remember when a while ago I featured a composite construct created and sent in by a contributor of his vision of the ideal school uniform suitable for the late teen or even the less than mature young lady in her early twenties? No? Then click here or scroll down the page a ways. As has been pointed out, it was very much in the style of the American Catholic schoolgirl. While not ordinarily ideally to my personal taste – far too contemporary, you see – nevertheless there is potential there for a starting point. Why the (partial) change of heart? Well while perusing the web I came upon what I believe to be one of the finest implementations of that style of uniform I have ever seen – and I have trolled through the entire SchoolTeasers,com collection in my time (and very good it is too!). I blundered into this particular example, though, on someone's blog late one night recently and for the life of me I have not been able to track down which one. I don't remember the text with it saying so but I wouldn't mind betting it originated on The Real spanking Institute site (click site name to visit) – it has their 'signature'. I visited the aforementioned site fairly recently in my search for new and appropriate affiliate opportunities to sign up to in the hope of offsetting the ever falling book sales on Lulu and was most impressed.

Talking of affiliates; of the few featured here, at least one at present generates no revenue at all as recently there has been a change of ownership and I have yet to sign up for their new scheme . I will get around to it eventually, but at the moment most of my efforts are gong into finishing the book – at present standing at a ridiculous 390 pages and close on a quarter of a million words (no, really). It really is going to have to be split into two some how, but the question is; in which way? There are two interwoven threads and three overlapping time periods... Oh God! What have I done? (Author throws hands up in despair in quiet coffee shop – one or two customers scuttle away with worried looks on their faces - “it's that long-haired nutter in the corner again! Chuck 'im out, quickly!”)

Composite Uniform Design and the Imagination

'Madmonkey' wrote to me recently by email (well, 4 days ago) to say: “ Awhile back on your ‘behind the barred window’ blog you asked what everyone thought was the perfect fantasy school uniform [It was Thursday, 2 December 2010: Best Gymslip Design of all Time? You Tell Me (click to view)– Garth the ever attentive Archivist]. Attached is a picture I made from a composite of other pictures and is what I think of as the perfect school uniform for the recalcitrant young lady (or grown woman one needs out of the way).”

Well, here is the fruit of Madmonkey’s labour (above left). Thanks for that, Madmonkey old chap. It’s an interesting idea don’t you think, this composite idea. The would-be designer could in principle put together all sorts of combinations of elements on the figure of one’s choice, pillaging from both old and new. In particular some of those old classic black and white shots could be first colourised in Photoshop or its equivalent and elements – or perhaps whole outfits – put together in imaginative ways. Alternatively the designer might leave the source material in monochrome and convert any more modem elements one might choose to include – such as the school ‘jumper’ of Madmonkey’s vision – into monochrome to match, the idea being to recreate that pastimes air of strict reform-school discipline. The one proviso I would add is that the uniform should be clearly designed to conform to the biologically adult form of the late teen. Whether one starts with a 3D computer generated figure as a framework (an interesting concept in itself) or one drawn from some other source (one has to be careful here) it should be possible to morph the impression of a mature figure into one’s design. So there’s the challenge – let’s fry those imaginative little grey cells out there! I’m always looking for creative input to aid in the design of the new book cover and it may be possible to integrate the outcome into the design as it presently stands.

Now you will have noted my absence for some time from these pages: I have been a little 'indisposed'. Some fool using a mobile phone drove over my foot while parking close to where I was crossing the road. This did my foot no good at all as I only had trainers on, although x-ray revealed nothing broken (don't know how - must be made of rubber!). The real problem is that I have osteoarthritis in my right knee that I refused an operation on as long ago as 2001 (I was coming up to the 12 month report stage of my PhD and couldn't afford the time off involved). Of course it has worsened somewhat over the years.

It is little surprise that when, having argued with the driver, he subsequently leaped out and jumped on me from behind (brave chap) my knee promptly gave up the ghost pitching me onto the ground - whereupon said driver proceeded to give yours truly a 'good kicking', as we say here in the UK. Hmmm nice! No real damage was done other than a bit of bruising and I felt absolutely nothing (I was very, very drunk - of course!) but it has made my knee swell and walking painful, so I am using it as an excuse to springboard myself back onto the treatment track. I had no GP so I have been in and out of x-ray and registering myself at a GPs surgery and all the rest to ‘get the ball moving’. After all this time I would imagine we are talking knee replacement surgery (at least that is what I am hoping - they have some good stuff these days). So a little bit of a silver lining there!

Despite these...er...distractions, I have been working my way through my files from time to time and cutting and pasting into the book. At last a logical story progression is emerging. The upcoming new book now stands at 315 of 9 by 6 inch pages of 10 point text, should it be published as a single work. Of this figure, perhaps 300 pages will likely survive further editing by my estimate. Unfortunately the next part to be inserted will not be such a simple cut and paste job as I am going to have to run through it first, changing the tense it is written in. You see there is a section in which one of the characters first encounters her new ‘home’ - her first impressions of ‘The Ward’, as the place is euphemistically known - which at present is told in flashback at a later point in the girl’s mind's eye. After the adjustment I propose, the reader will encounter the layout of ‘The Ward’ in 'real time' as the girl first enters. It makes for much more sense that way from the point of view of storytelling, as the reader immediately has the backdrop picture painted in their mind for the action to then play out against. As always the devil is in the detail and the essential thing is that the action should flow in a logical sequence.

By for now – have to fly.

Locking Cots and Early to Bed

Hi Chaps

I have been in contact again with my digital illustrator chum in the 'States (remember I spent quite a time telling you all about the ideas hovering out of sight behind an illustrated version of the new book and this guy – Snooze – and his input). Anyway, as well as producing illustrations for a possible pictorial version of my upcoming book he accepts commissions from others and was recently commissioned to produce a series of images interpreting some ideas sent to him that, while now unlikely for various reasons to see the light of day, nonetheless make for a nice showcase of his talents.

As the artist himself says: “The main subject of the picture [to the artist's way of thinking] was the gruesome looking, [quite] terrifying cots. Not the girl. So thick and sturdy that [one immediately recognizes their] terrible purpose and that once [a girl was placed in one] there would be absolutely no escape from its cold confines until who ever it was put [her in ] there decided [she] be released.”

The rubber mattress and pillow “subtly implies that [she] will not be let out for the [purposes of visiting the bathroom].”

The girl on the far side is only noticed as an afterthought. You only notice her later. [Only then] does one discern the rubber suit she is dressed in; which once again implies the lack of bathroom breaks. She is diapered and waterproofed because she is not coming out until release time.”

The illustrator believes – and I agree – that “the image works [not so much due to] what is emphasized [but rather due to] what is understated; because as you look at it you see more and more.”

He sees the scene as “a special dorm for bed wetters in an institutional setting; an asylum? school or prison, perhaps. The first image is set just before 7:00 pm as it is beginning to go dark. Two inmates have been placed in their rubber nightwear and made to lie in their cots. A Dorm Matron has placed a rubber sheet/blanket over her first charge, has lifted the side rail of her cot and already secured one padlock in place and is in the process for locking the second padlock.”

He goes on to point out that:

“The dormitory Matron's second charge is already in position in her cot and is passively lying there while her [compatriot or fellow miscreant] is being [secured]. She could get up, out of the cot - she is not restrained. However, the image tries to show that such an action would be foolish. The locked bars over the window suggest that the room is in any case secure. She would not get far if she attempted to escape. Also positioned strategically in the foreground of the image is Matron's desk with a heavy punishment cane prominently on display along with a leather spanking paddle.

Less prominent, but still ominously visible on the far wall, is a board displaying three additional canes, two tawses and a pair of handcuffs and leg irons. The implication made is that the facility is well able to handle an inmate who tries to create a disturbance.

There are additional furnishings that also suggest resistance is fraught with peril: In the far corner of the room is a wardrobe containing what appear to be straitjackets. It is unclear whether [a straitjacket might be pressed into service to punish a] girl by placing her in it on top of her rubber suit, so that she would be uncomfortably restrained throughout the night] or whether perhaps [these girls] have been [routinely] incarcerated in them during the day and they have now been removed while they are locked in their cots for sleeping.

Another potential jeopardy is the half seen cage on the far left of the image. Presumably if the girls try to create a fuss, instead of being left for the night in their comfy, if very secure cots, they might be confined to the cage, which is too small for them to relax comfortably and has a bare metal floor. The implications of both the cage and straitjackets is that no matter how awful life is, it can always get much worse. And so the second girl realizes that resistance is futile and merely waits patiently for the nurse to cover her with the rubber blanket which is strategically lying on the cot, raise the rail and secure it with the two padlocks that are waiting for her.

To enhance the overall atmosphere, these girls are adults and yet the clock on the wall says it isn't quite seven o'clock. It is light outside still, yet they are doomed to go to bed so early and spend the night in very secure confinement. The lighting isn't bright but, together with the depth of field of the camera, the idea is to focus the [observer's eye] on the girl in the cot, waiting to be put to bed for the night.

The second image of the two lower is meant to capture the scene just over a half an hour later. It is now almost dark outside. The second girl has had her blanket placed on her and the side of her cot raised and secured. The lights have been turned down to allow them to sleep but it is not completely dark. The focus is now shifted on to the Dorm Matron. Her shift isn't up till 8:00 pm, when she will be relieved by a junior night nurse who will keep watch over the girls throughout the night. No talking is allowed of course, which is why the heavy cane on the desk, now well lit up, is prominently on display so that the girls know what will happen if they break the rules.

The [inclusion of the] bed pans [is intended to be] suggestive of the incontinence theme.”

There you have it! Though nothing to do with my storyline, I find the images that have resulted to be most evocative, as I think you'll find too if you look carefully! The idea of the girls just waiting without need of restraint, the no-talking rule – all this I love. But, If I were to be asked to put forward one proviso or criticism, I think it would be that I would dispense with the rubber suits. I guess another would be that I am not so keen on the depicted scenario taking place within “a special unit for 'bed wetters'”... unless it turns out that this is a unit devised to create bed wetters or enforce the behavior in some way – then all of a sudden it becomes delicious! But – hey - that's my taste; what do you think?

That! Picture and Lulu Woes

OK: well, I suppose I should have been writing rather than trawling around the Internet but I just had to find that deportment training photo I went on about last time. I have to admit to failure on that count. All that time was not squandered fruitlessly, though: I did in the process come across a delightful little drawing from the pencil of the wondrous Mr Julian Guile; complete with backboard, book balanced on head, strict mistress or institution matron with cane in hand and sizzling welts much evident across the miscreant’s naked behind. There is of course also the obligatory gloating lecherous old boy seated and looking on - all the better to add to the pretty young thing's gall! To see it, though, you have the look back to yesterday's entry, halfway down on the right where I have just this minute plonked it. As for the central subject of my quest, well here it is; much to my exasperation I had to resort to scanning it in from an old printout. Doubtless the original lies buried somewhere within the depths of my computer's somewhat labyrinthine file system somewhere, but where it might have originated from all now have no idea. Perhaps someone out there can tell me so that I might view the rest of the set (if there is one), it certainly looks promising!

Perhaps there is someone out there too who can tell me what exactly (if anything) is going on with Lulu these days (the self publishing site not the ‘well loved multi-talented Scottish singer’ of that name). Sales have fallen through the floor over the last couple of months to such an extent that, in the month of December, to date neither of the two volumes that so far go to makeup the INSTITUTIONALISED series have sold any copies or downloads at whatsoever. There have been a couple of lovely encouraging reviews left on the Amazon e-book site which have lifted my spirits of late and for which I am eternally grateful but it is extraordinarily dispiriting to see sales dry up in their entirety in Lulu. The last time this happened (and I had been blissfully unaware as I hadn't checked for some time) it was due to something that Lulu had done that had resulted in my titles (and those of others presumably, unless there was something personal bout it) being left out of search results and for which they apologised by e-mail. Whether something similar is going on I have no idea as I certainly don't have the time at the moment to poke and prod around d their site at the moment which can be frustratingly slow to respond at times.

Now, as was the two pictures are just mentioned I've also added recently a couple of links to the ‘Useful Resources’ list over there in the right-hand sidebar. The Wheelchair Zone has quite an interesting story section if you spend a little trouble to rummage around it. I've also added links the ‘British Caning Society’ (listed under ‘B’ for British, this one) which hosts an intriguing discussion board amongst other things (how about mentioning my stuff, if you like it - or even if you don't - it all helps!) and to Corset Heaven.com. That's about it for now; see y’all later!

Blushes, Braces and Booze (And a Length of Pliant Malacca)

Boy, did or I have a skin-full yesterday: Green King Abbot Special Reserve no less (6.7% alcohol by volume, wowza!!!). It was not all oblivion though; I did get another chapter of the new book finished. I've just got to read through it and make one or two corrections are no longer to send off to my illustrator chum in the States to see what he thinks of it and whether or not it triggers off in him any ideas as regards art work. It's just a little something that involves the enforced wearing of leg braces, something encouraged by various devious means, partly psychological partly physical, the psychological domination of a young girl by her implacably strict governess, the application of a swishy Malacca cane across defenselessly-bared chubby teenage buttocks and plump adolescent curves squeezed into a charmingly-sweet one-piece sailor-suit-styled acetate sleep suit and experiencing for the first time the intimate slickness of a night spent encased by the waterproofed final lining of the humiliating garment’s lower section. Of course it goes without saying that there are shutters on the windows and padlocks, steel bars and security devices in profusion - one can't be too cautious in this day and age of rising burglary rates.

Now, as I said last time, I'm off to the Isle of Wight in a couple of days time and may not have Internet access so I thought I'd use this opportunity to paste up another of those letters page from Bushes scans that were kindly sent me some time ago (click to enlarge) and also a bit of art work that I came across in my searches and that I found inspired me.

A Quick Update

Hi folks! I thought I'd take the opportunity to let you all know where I am at right now: I spent a chunk of yesterday and of this morning going through all the various illustrations and stages of the construction of the illustrations for the illustrated version of the new book and reporting back to my hard-pressed collaborator in the 'States. Now, suitably inspired, I am about to put pen to paper once more.

I am just about to get on with writing the part where our young lady receives visitors. She has received six strokes of her doctor’s riding crop across her bare behind and been placed back in bed just prior to her two guests arrival and so is still be sobbing when the plastic hospital curtains around her bed are drawn back. Her humiliation starts the moment her eyes meet those of her guardian and those of the lecherous old male solicitor that imperious woman has brought with her and she is obliged to thank them, not only for their visit but also for being kind enough to pay for her to be kept at the institution – not withstanding the fact that the payment is coming from her own trust fund, albeit passing through the hands of a certain church-run charity. But there is more to their visit than philanthropic concern – there are documents to be signed and consequences to be faced for non-cooperation: it’s all for her own good, after all!

The part I'm really looking forward to writing, though is the part where through flashback I get to introduce the enema chair that my artwork collaborator came up with, in the domestic environment of the young lady’s aunt's home and previous to her being brought to the institution – so appropriate to her aunt's long-held Victorian ideals of domestic discipline as applied to the control of teenage girls. I'd love to show you an early example of the illustration… but it would give too much away! Sorry – LOL! As regards the pic above and right. All this looks soooo much fun - and food for thought! Another one from Vintage Scans - see sidebar or my last post for link.

.....

By the way: last time I asked who could give me at least four reasons why the young lady depicted in her school uniform (see immediate right) deserved a long hard caning and gave the clue that they're all uniform-related...

Any ideas yet?

Institutional and Domestic Discipline: An Illustrated Collaboration 3 – Further Evolution

I have to rush out today – I am off to Eastbourne on the sunny Sussex coast where my mother is enjoying a few days in a guest house. I am going to be there later today and will probably (hopefully) spend the afternoon outside a bar at the end of Eastbourne pier writing in the sun - and it is blazingly sunny here in London at the moment, so I’m quite optimistic. This evening, I hope, will find me ensconced in the Eastbourne Wetherspoons pub; come and say hello if you are an Eastbourne type, appreciate a good ale and happen to be in the vicinity. Tomorrow I may visit Brighton or Hastings. I am taking my trusty bike and hope to tour around a bit up and down the south coast, visiting Wetherspoons branches and of course writing if and when inspired – I am taking my netbook computer with me. I next expect to be back home at my desk on Tuesday 8th June (next Tuesday) but WiFi internet connections willing, I may update the blog while on the move and hopefully I will still be able to view my emails – so don’t be shy, write today.

Talking off inspiration: if you remember the piece I posted recently regarding my collaboration with the Stateside computer artist, ‘Snooze’ and the evolution of a particular illustration I demonstrated as an example of the sort of thing we have been developing you will probably be interested with this, the latest incarnation of that art work - compare and contrast with the earlier renditions posted elsewhere. There are many more scenes we are working on – some far more complex and detailed - but it would spoil the fun to give any further inkling of these – you’ll just have to wait until the new book gets finished, or more specifically, the illustrated version of it.

In the present illustration the girl has just failed a written imposition set by the section psychiatrist – a most formidable, yet exceedingly clever - woman and has had her institutional pyjama bottoms taken of her in preparation for correction. The view through the door tells the viewer that this private little prison is in fact a tiny secure anteroom leading directly off of a more conventionally furnished consultation room - the regulation hospital bed provided for the inmate with its integral restraints is behind the view and so not in evidence. The white outer door beyond the bars both provides the psychiatrist’s office with the appearance one might expect, when closed, while also increasing the hapless girl’s isolation by removing from her the stimulation of the external view and providing for a high degree of soundproofing. The thick but supple leather belt carried, doubled-over, in the hospital sister’s hand, has a special relevance to the poor girl – it is something destined to make the up-coming correction all the more intolerable for the girl once the realisation sinks in! As always - all comments, ideas and what have you, will be gratefully received - bye for now!

Institutional and Domestic Discipline: An Illustrative Collaboration 2 - Evolution of an Image

Those of you who have been following this blog over the last few weeks will now that I'm now involved in a collaboration with a digital artist or illustrator the aim being to provide an illustrated version of the new volume (see Institutional and Domestic Discipline: An Illustrative Collaboration, Wednesday, 28 April 2010 - just click to view). I was just thinking the other day that some of you may be interested as to how things were progressing on the illustration front so I thought I would put together an example of the evolution of such an illustration. Of course you will understand that this particular piece of art work is presently very much a work in progress but it should be sufficient for you to get the idea without giving too much away as regards the storyline. In the context of the latter, one thing I can tell you - so as to set the scene without providing too much of a spoiler (I hope) is that one of our three hapless heroines, having now come under the personal care of an institution’s somewhat domineering section psychiatrist - a rather overbearing woman with questionable ethics and even more questionable aims - finds herself incarcerated in a claustrophobic, secure and isolated little cell-like anteroom leading directly off from the good doctor’s consultation room, dressed 24/7 in institutional green striped pyjamas, denied any human contact other than with the doctor herself and subject to stringent discipline and corporal punishment for the slightest fault.

Generally speaking I have been restricting myself to writing the text and generating ideas (although of course ideas flow both ways thus nurturing yet more branches and avenues to explore). In the development of this particular image, my collaborator has sent me the three-dimensional artwork shown in the first couple of examples but then I've taken the liberty of attempting to change the background colour to better fit the narrative - which to be honest I cocked up to some extent, obliging me to digitally repair the kneeling nurses hairdo (badly) - and added in the girl’s room’s barred security door and her nemesis, Matron, approaching outside in the doctor's consultation room, purely as an experiment to see how it might add atmosphere. In the first image the girl is of course naked and unblemished, free from any evidence of prior correction. In the second and third images she has on her institutional shapeless and baggy pyjama jacket and a healthy red blush is apparent colouring her behind.

The nurse came from an old scanned catalogue illustration and is supposed to represent the stern hospital matron placed in charge of the hapless young subject. Although in this version she is carrying a cane, in the storyline it is a folded leather belt that is put to use; but I didn't have a suitable strap / belt picture to hand and has always being full of enthusiasm and having little patience I was in a hurry to try the idea out. The final version, if it indeed it is decided to go ahead and include the bars and Matron approaching from outside, will have her carrying the leather belt or strap. The idea is that the nurses outside the girl's cell in the doctors consultation room (obviously) and as she is more distant she does not have to have such a high degree of 3D-ism. In the storyline the bars of course painted white but are not too sure how well this will appear in the final image and is something I have yet to experiment with.

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The image of the nurse is actually a horizontally-mirrored version of the original photograph for reasons of perspective and so I first of all shifted the nurses’ fob watch in the original to her right hand side so that it would actually appear on her left in the final shot, as it should. I was especially keen to allow her belt buckle, trim around the collar and fob watch to be seen as I think these details all add to the sense of authority I intended her image to engender. In the final version, if used as a concept a freshly constructed nurse image will be used

The bars themselves came from the original version of those that I used on the book covers of INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1 and INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 and I used an image shearing facility on a Linux-based image processing application called ‘The Gimp’ called to simply pull them into shape to fit the perspective of the 3-D image as judged by eye (there is also a 'perspective' tool available on ‘The Gimp’ but that doesn't seem to work so well - at least not in my hands, LOL).

I have since fed back the results of my manipulation to my collaborator who has now sent me a version re-coloured to suit the narrative but minus the mess that I made of it. This latter modification is of course based on the original art work, so next one or the other of us will add in the extra detail as in my experimental changes, such as the external view and matron outside (always assuming of course that we decide to continue down that route). Any opinions / comments will as always be gratefully received. With external nurse / bars or without? Which should it be - that sort of thing. One thing that I should point out - and that I have pointed out before - is that the institutional aspect is balanced by the domestic discipline aspect in the final work and even a little ecclesiastical discipline: It turns out that one of my characters may - or may not (depending on who you believe - and even the subject herself is uncertain as to how much is memory how much is delusion) have suffered expiation (both sexual and otherwise )and physical chastisement under the guise of ecclesiastical care in a church-run home for wayward young women. This of course came to light during the events unfolding in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 but in the new volume we learn more of her trials and tribulations and perhaps discover the truth.

Is it Me, is it Nanny’s World - Or Just a Spot of Sanitary Protection?

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Badge of Shame and an Institutional Cane

Hi folks! just a quicky to let you know where I'm at. As you may know; as well as writing the storyline for the new book I am also collaborating with a computer-graphic artist on the production of a suitable series of graphics with which to illustrate said work. Actually, going beyond the scope of the graphic work, our correspondence has been fruitful in other ways; for example in the inspiration I have derived from the interchange of ideas which has actually led to new dimensions opening up in terms of the story-arc. I can't say too much at this stage for fear of giving too much away, but suffice it to say that recently we have been discussing the intriguing subject of non-corporal punishments, inspired largely by a work I have featured before on this blog, namely 'The Female Disciplinary Manual” by one Regina Snow (I hope I have got that right – I am in a pub with out access to my usual sources of reference). Right at this moment I am hard at work on the design for a badge to grace the baggy institutional pyjamas that I have previously described my heroine having been put . Although I have in the past mocked up a sort of faux school uniform badge thing featuring the clasic crossed crook-handled canes and open textbook, both for the uniforms of the girls in the schoolroom unit and for the uniform that Lavinia's aunt used to make her wear before coming to the unit, (you should be able to find this in the blog archive with a little poking about – I can't quite recall the date right at this moment)' I don't have a design suitable for this particular use. It's important to the storyline that any design featurs the hospital's crest (which I have yet to give much thought to – any ideas, folks?) the girl's patient number, the word 'patient', the name of the hospital and the all-important words “secure psychiatric unit”. I downloaded a series of suitable images I can utilise to knock something up before coming out, and having stashed them on a data stick I will be working away on it while downing a couple of pints (who am I kidding? A load of pints). The pics are a couple I came across this morning in my collection while rummaging for inspiration and originated, I think, from Janus magazine...Enjoy.

Interviews and Interrogations

Hi Folks, I'm still here, stuck in Eastbourne which is why the blog updates are still so sparse. As always I'm continuing writing but various family duties have taken up a lot of time of late. Today I had to remove a link from the blog-list in the right-hand sidebar. Google chrome was flagging up the link to the blog ‘Paolo in Dublin’ as having ‘content embedded likely to cause damage to a computer’ or something along those lines. I have uncovered a couple more interesting sites while having a hunt around the Internet this morning, the most interesting of which is probably 3D Kink (click to visit) which is full of 3-D rendered images and that has an interesting feature whereby one may design their own ‘ slave girl ’ or whatever. I also hit pay-dirt in my quest for images to inform a suitable role model for the governess figure who will emerge in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 3 in the form of this nice little vintage set here. And now back to a little writing;

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I have been working on a little scene involving a rigidly disciplined probing question-and-answer session between attractive female psychiatrist and her young charge - the formal white-coated, the latter dressed in a hot and particularly restrictive school uniform.

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Perched on a narrow, hard-seated, straight-backed wooden chair our young lady is of course obliged herself to sit rigidly straight backed throughout, admonished for fidgeting and picked up on for the slightest discrepancy or inconsistency between answers to questions that are apparently endless worded almost as if to deliberately trip her up. It is not the first time she has had to sit through such a tedious and punishing interview nor will it be her last - the sessions are repeated over and over and will be until such a time that the therapist is satisfied that all answers given are consistent and that she therefore wheedled out every little nuance of her patient’s hidden thoughts and has her subconscious lying open at her fingertips. Obviously the girl wishes to keep hidden anything that she believes might count against her, especially insofar as her remaining in the institution she now finds herself, but there is a long supple length of rattan lying across the doctor's desktop that begs to differ.

Filmic Inspiration, a Blog and a YouTube Link

Hi folks! I'm glad to be able to report that work on the new volume (that I am still yet to come up with a title for - any ideas folks?) is coming on in leaps and bounds. Some great, new and decidedly fresh ideas have popped into my head of late - all suitably cruel, as I'm sure you can imagine, but in a subtle way that I think somehow becomes even more twisted for being so. The only problem I have at the moment

is that, having successfully repaired my home computer, as am sure you know, I've yet to persuade it to co-operate with my printer / scanner. I'm not sure what the problem is but I am away from home at the moment anyway and I won't be back at my desk

until Monday or Tuesday of next week so the fix will have to wait until

that time - and then hopefully I can get on with scanning more of my magazine and book collection for your delectation and delight. I am also absolutely dying to get on with some artwork for the front cover of the new volume - it's one of my favourite bits when doing this stuff, although I'm not that great at it. One thing I have decided upon is that the imagery should incorporate some sort of parochial theme as between the pages we are afforded an insight into a church-run charity home for wayward young women. I will say no more than that for the time being, other than to say that we do also get another glimpse or two into a certain behavioural research unit, specifically that part set up a run in the style of an old-time secure reform school or boarding school but mostly the story deals with young Lavinia's life with her increasing tyrannical aunt and that woman's idiosyncratic views on domestic discipline. Basically it deals with the events leading up to her being persuaded to volunteer as a research subject in a project that she is told will involve her staying for a 'short while' in the experimental psychology unit of a private hospital. As you will know if you have read INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1 and volume 2, it is all pretty much as described to her, give or take, other than that the researcher's view of what constitutes a 'short while' differs some what to her expectations. And it is not a place one just walks away from. We also see something more of the background of one of the other characters who emerged during the events of volume 2, young Meridith Hewson.

Talking of reform schools; am I the only person in the whole world who had never heard of the B&W 1929 film ' Diary of a Lost Girl' by G.W.Pabst and starring Louise Brooks (See above left?. In it an "unprepossessing young woman is seduced by an unscrupulous and mercenary character". She is then sent to a reform school for girls, that seems less "an institute of higher learning than a conduit for fulfilling the headmistress’s sadistic sexual fantasies" and that is headed by staff who expect and exact "unrealistic standards of obedience from the cowering, terrified pupil" one in particular apparently seems to derive "an orgiastic pleasure from the rigors of [the] discipline inflicted". Sounds bloody gorgeous!!

By the way; is punishment PT / enforced PE and physical drill discipline is your thing? It is? Great! then click on the film poster top left to see a clip from the above movie posted on YouTube. You can also find a link to the same film clip in the useful resources list in the right-hand sidebar. The pictures scattered around this posting came from various sources on the web and all from the film other than the last one which comes from an entirely different source (actually the French film, Alphavillel). This I included simply because I think it would make a good basis for a suitable reformatory uniform, certainly a good starting point to work around anyway, particularly for the inmates of the type of old-fashioned style church-run regime that I envisage in the new volume. In the behavioural research establishment of course the regime is more closely based around an old-fashioned private girls school, though the discipline imposed is no less rigorous, despite the inmates theoretically being 'volunteers' and there were talking all high, tight starched collars, cotton interlock knickers and tightly braided pigtails.

Oh! I almost forgot: I have just added a blog to the blog list in the sidebar called 'School Girl Discipline'. Click to visit or see the link in the sidebar. See you next time.

New: John Willie Album Added

Hi folks! Yet another week has flown by without an update, To be honest I hardly noticed as I have been concentrating near flat-out on developing and writing the new volume...That and getting to grips with finding and getting acquainted with a new gym. My old gym closed down without warning - and with very little offered by way of a sensible explanation - around two weeks back. As luck would have it, I only had a couple of weeks or so to run on a year's membership package but I am still hoping it will reopen as I am a creature of habit and had gotten used to going there. Meanwhile I have found another gym up in Palmer's Green (North London).

Now for some news: I have added a few more Lynne Paula Russel / Paula Meadows illustrations to the relevant Picasaweb spanking art album (see side bar on right hand for link listed under Spanking Artwork Albums). In addition, I have now created a Picasaweb album to hold the art of that fine bondage / CP illustrator John Willie. I have gathered together 28 illustrations from various internet sources thus far and will be adding more from my own collection as and when I get around to scanning them in - I own a complete set of John Willie's 'Bizarre' magazine reprints and also some other publications featuring his work. Click here to go to the John Willie album or check out the link in the sidebar, as above.

The Bad-Bunny Punishment Suit

Recently I have been enthusing over the work of an artist going by the Monika of Thorn, though rumor persists that the originator is this guy, Hobbs. Whatever the truth it is rare that any artwork has been quite so stimulating in terms of being a catalyst for ideas for incorporation within my own work – other than the work of Roger Benson I suppose, particularly his reformatory series. One tantalizing possibility that fired my imagination was the prospect of a collaboration with this Thorn / Hobbs chap illustrating my scribblings. But faced with the apparent impossibility of making contact with the chap and his reluctance to defend his own work, if indeed he is being plagiarized, I have been led to the depressing conclusion that he might well be deceased.

Imagine my delight then when, while searching for yet more undiscovered Thorn / Hobbs imagery I stumbled across the work of Julian Guile, not a name I have run into before. It turns out that I have unwittingly posted up an example of this artists work before, albeit in a low resolution form - an image that was sent to me anonymously and was entitled 'The Detention Room' and displayed a high degree of imagination in the design of the miscreant's seating arrangement. The latter is little more than a perch and is undoubtedly very uncomfortable - but so practicable when it comes to instant correction by way of the application of cane or strap. This little innovation is what rescues the subject matter from what so easily could have been something rather hackneyed and stereotypical.

The way this artist captures the all-important psychological effect on the young lady by way of her expression and body language is masterful and very reminiscent of the aforementioned Thorn / Hobbs – he successfully captures the emotional pain and how it may surpass the merely physical in its way.

If further evidence of this guy's creativity is called for, one needs look no furtherer than this little number entitled 'The Bad-Bunny Suit' – below, right. Designed to make the wearer look and feel ridiculous and humiliated while facilitating the application of corporal punishment, a real stroke of genius is evidenced in the design of the sleeves. The latter, terminating in fingerless mittens, extend beyond the fingers and seem designed to incorporate a brass eye or ring at the extremity – all the better to secure flailing limbs. Even the 'bunny-ears' undoubtedly included to further exaggerate the absurdity of the outfit, could be pressed into service to secure the young lady if so called upon. Suitably furnished at their tips with metal rings or eyes they would make fine anchor points to conjoin with similar rings attached to tabs sewn into the waistband or perhaps attached to the toes of the suit if it should be required to restrain the young lady into an acute hairpin-bent posture during the progression of her correction.

What could be more humbling for a girl in her late teens than having to wear such a ridiculous outfit, clearly designed with corporal punishment in mind and leaving little in doubt in the mind of the observer, while fully aware that it also doubles as a restraint system and that, so suited and with her behind so charmingly displayed, she is completely at the mercy of her master or mistress. She has been rendered ridiculous, impotent and helplessly subject to corporal punishment at the whim of whomever in one swoop – what more could one ask of a well-designed punishment outfit?