Some Interesting (I'm Hoping) Imagination Fodder

 

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.

News, Views and Prison-Bar Blues

Do you remember the exciting news I said I was going to share with you? Well, last week I signed an agreement with an online electronic publisher which should result in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1 becoming available in the various ebook formats, including Kindle, iphone, ipad and the rest! In addition it is likely to become more widely distributed and therefore more visible to search engines and thus to potential readers. Regular readers of this blog will be all too familiar with my bemoaning my poor choice of title which has led to the book's existence being well nigh impervious to disclosure by way of the usual array of spanking / discipline / uniform fetish / clinical-institutional bondage and restraint - type keywords. It's far too soon to say any more, but I'll keep you posted. If all goes well, both INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 and the new volume, when I finally get the thing finished, may well follow suite - of course depending on their suitability as judged by the publisher. As for the new volume: it's been gradually evolving from a quick, short piece - designed both to utilise previously written material that wasn't finished in time for inclusion in the first two volumes and to fill in the gaps in the story arc so as to pave the way for volume 3 – to masterwork of near epic proportions. As for the latest on volume 2: Thanks to a little help from Lulu (at last) it has now been assigned one of my block of ten ISBNs and so later today I shall be submitting it for inclusion in Google's Book Search scheme, including all the modifications I have made to it with the aim of so called ‘search engine optimisation. One proviso is that I’ll am apparently going to have to modify the back cover to include the ISBN. If I am going to do that I may take the opportunity to change the background colour to match that of the front cover and spine . I'll see how much work it is going to entail offset against what is a minor cosmetic advantage at best – it all depends on whether I still have the background available as a separate layer.

Now for some other news: I have just added a link to a guy called Doug Adams’ home page in the ‘Useful Resources’ list (see right hand side bar or click on ‘Doug Adams’ home page’, above highlighted in blue – I hope ). Look in the left hand side bar in his index page for a list of content, including articles on all sorts of fetish-related subjects, many of which have relevance - either directly or indirectly – to my present project or at least are potentially inspirational. Scroll to the bottom and you will also find a free image gallery, which again I have found inspirational.

I have also added two new blogs I came across just now while searching for more inspiration for the new volume to the blog list (situated in the right hand side bar, if you're new here). Schoolgirl Spanking Stories does exactly what it says on the tin – click on blog name to visit or check side bar.

The second, Pandora Blake's blog, is written by, and deals with, the star of many short films revolving around our favourite genre – which is my excuse to present a little promo film (moving content no less!) from those master's of the Institutional / prison punishment scene – Bars and Stripes! (See window immediately above, click on arrow to play) I have mentioned their work previously - well before my recent signing to their affiliate program – as they are one of only a few purveyors of such material that regularly feature my all time favourite scenario: The smartly uniformed nurse, ward sister or matron – all tight-belted blue polyester, cambric or cotton and starched white apron - wielding a cane or strap across the defenceless chubby backside of some young female incorrigible miscreant against the backdrop of a secure institution. Enough already – it's getting all too exciting…Bye for now – I have to go close the curtains!

Nurses and Straitjackets

For once here in London the sun is shining. I am wiriting to you from outside the Woodgreen Wetherspoon pub 'Spouter's Corner' where I am sitting bathing in the rays and imbibing a pint of 'Fortyniner' in what they laughingly refer to as their 'beer garden' - in reality a roped-off area of pavement just yards from roaring buses, screaming sirens and the mutterings of assorted passing druggies and other nutters. While we are on the subject of mental health issues; my mind has recently turned to the idea of the helplessness that is associated with incarceration in a straitjacket, especially if the young lady concerned should have her tender backside bared for the attention of the nurse's cane or tawse. I have to admit to being aided in fantasy by this wondrous series of pics recently sent me anonymously via email. I am led to believe that they originated on Flikr (hope I spelled that right) and so I hope I am not treading on anyone's toes by posting them up here. Apparently they are from a series of stills taken from a music video - but that is about all I know at present and I don't have time to search through Flikr to learn more. Not that i would want to - I have absolutely no idea of the story-line depicted here, and that is exactly the way I would prefer to keep it. I know what I would like to think about it, One's imagination fills in the gaps, which is as it should be and is also what makes the series such a powerful source of inspiration. Absolutely anything can be attributed to these images and what more could one ask? One thing that I know for sure is that it has certainly got me scribbling away like crazy!!

A comment, a Reply and a Good Excuse for a Few Magazine Scans from My Collection

A comment was left on the last post I made saying: “Why does it seem like the girls in all these uniform specialist sites don't wear a uniform...uniform? They have multiple girls in the same scenes that are all supposed to go to the same school, yet they wear radically different uniforms.”

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This got me to thinking – and to rummaging around in my collection of magazine scans (see later) as on the face of it, that's a good point. In this particular case I like to think of it as being a more of a 'domestic' scenario - two girls too old to be likely to be actually at school living with some guardian or relative and under the control of the strict governess she has hired to curb them. The uniforms I imagine as having been procured from some local charity shop (thrift / second hand shop with the sole intention of introducing an additional aspect of humiliation into the regime - perhaps as a stop-gap, the intention being to have a suitably imaginative, juvenile and shaming uniform made to measure to their own specification at a later stage once the girls have thoroughly resigned themselves to wearing what they have been given now. But it's not true of all their films / photo sets in any case and definitely is not true of those wonderful East European film makers I mentioned before. Meanwhile, as with written work, I am always on the lookout for work that more completely matches my – and I guess, your – interests and predilections; it is the main reason I started writing my own stuff, after all!As you will know if you are a regular follower of this blog; I’m always on the lookout for perfection and so often, even with the best, it is those little things that mar the result; the school blouse with the collar and or sleeve cuff buttons left unfastened, perhaps the school tie left loose in a slovenly fashion. Then there is always the cane-wielding nurse, house-matron or governess, the cuffs of her long-sleeved uniform dress left flapping in the breeze or who’s elastic webbing nurse’s belt hangs slack around her waist or – worse still – is wearing trainers or even (and I have seen this - a very good example can be seen here and that belt will never do either - such a shame as the girl is perfect) knee-high fashion boots when of course to maximise the psychological effect on her charge those cuffs should be buttoned and stiffly starched to boot, that belt should cinch her waist in such away as to enhance the imposing effect of her well-tailored and fitted uniform dress and her feet shod in laced-up and well-polished ‘sensible’ shoes or medium-heeled courts, depending on the situation. I have even seen such a figure with bare legs when as a minimum standard the hem of her uniform dress should softly sigh and swish against nylon stockings as she moves, but preferably she should be wearing old fashioned ‘fully-fashioned stockings of course.

See you all soon - for now I am off to Clacton on the East Coast for a few days, cycling around and hopefully doing a bit of writing. As for a bit of news: recently I have been playing around with the extended title of volume 2 in the hope of making it more visible to search engines. In part I seem to have succeeded as the hit rate on Lulu, the publisher's site, has gone through the roof but on the other hand, now no one seems to be buying it; I am left with the conclusion that perhaps i have made it now appear too 'hard core' which of couse it isn't... oh well!

An Anonymous Reader's Contribution and a Couple of Blogs to Try Out

An anonymous contributor has left a new comment on your post "A Reader's Contribution and a Note for Judith's Aunt:

"Combinations might make an interesting choice of undergarment, but it's worth bearing in mind that these were normally made with an open crotch like Victorian drawers, which produces a somewhat different effect. Of course you could have closed combinations made with the lining material of choice, or add some sort of button fastening down below. I think the 1920 style combinations which had buttons down the back meeting a drop-seat in an inverted T shape would be better since the drop seat would provide easy access for discipline and the back buttons would be equally inconvenient. "

Yes, I think that for my preference I'd have to go along with the 'drop seat' approach especially if in combination with a suitably bulky absorbent towel or even a diaper - should the young lady warrant it. I feel I really must apologise for having left a week between postings but I have been away, cycling around the East Sussex country side. From Monday (or Tuesday, depending on whether or not I do the London to Brighton cycle ride) I plan to return updating on a more regular basis, perhaps every other day as I used to. My trusty note book goes everywhere that I do and I have been working on putting together some ideas regarding the structuring of the 'inbetweeny' volume that I have been talking about recently and also as regards the revamped cover for volume 2 that I wish to get completed before publishing that volume fully, ie through Amazon et al. Meanwhile a couple of blog links have been sent to me that you might like to explore: the first is Britsh Spanking . net (just click to visit), the link wasn't working when I tried it just now and so I am presently holding back from including it in my sidebar blog list (I am sure this is a temporary glitch, though, so keep trying and let me know).

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Also someone signing himself 'Spanking OTK' has left a new comment on the post "A Liberal Dose of the Nurse’s Tawse": "you have a nice blog. I wonder if you like exchange links between our blogs. Let me know! best regards ". I'd love to - but I have no idea of the blog address! Any ideas out there? Talking of nurses and tawses (which strictly speaking we weren't) someone recently sent me the photo of the wonderfully traditionally stern and uniformed matron adorning the top of this post - what do you think? The two school uniform pics are more from the set of scans I spoke of last time and originated from one of the Blushes, Whispers, New Supplement magazine stable (not sure which) and date (I think) from the mid 1990s.

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Bye, bye for now - Garth... somewhere in sunny East Sussex

A Liberal Dose of the Nurse’s Tawse

I have been getting on with a little bit of long over-due scanning today and came across this old photo that I thought I’d long ago lost and that I thought I’d share with you. I can’t quite recall where it originated but it has been stuck on a piece of cardboard with glue since the mid to late 1980s or early 1990s at the latest which explains its rather sad condition. Suffice it to say that this picture was almost single handily responsible for spawning my interest in nurses and their uniforms as depicted in a dominant role and went a long way in influencing the way in which I tend to depict the characters of the institution staff in my mind’s eye when writing.

Fancy a Good Hard Caning?

I have just added another delightful little blog to my list

Taminglily.com

Lots of real nice punishment pics and many I've not come across before, plus plenty featuring school uniforms. It's where I just pinched this little gem from: I hope they don''t mind but it's just delicious! Don't you think?