Adding Art

When I began putting my stories onto a website, I realized that pure text looked dull and was hard to read. I started to explore adding pictures. At first, I just did some mild editing to existing photographs culled from the web and magazines...but, as time went by, I developed the ability to do more.

The first attempts were crude--I still didn't have a handle on what the image editing programs could do--but things improved steadily. Unlike many, I've never used Photoshop...I find it way too complicated. Instead, I use a combination of two other programs--Canon Creative and Paint Shop Pro. Canon's layering system is much easier to work with (for me) than either Photoshop or PSP, while PSP has a greater range of artistic and lighting effects to work with.

Anyway, I soon got the hang of taking an image I liked and altering it to fit the story I'd written and my personal tastes. Sometimes, a picture would be the inspiration for a story. The earliest attempts were quite simple--in this one, I put the face I wanted on a figure of, as I recall, Christina Aguilera, and then altering the size of her boobs and waist.

In time, though, I learned I could do more. For one thing, I could put in the faces of real people, starting with my own. So, I redid the images for the seminal "Pretty Sissy Dani" story, remaking all the looks of the title character by using slightly altered versions of the portrait shots I showed you earlier. This is an example.

People started asking me to do stories especially for them..."customized fantasies," if you will. Many sent pictures of themselves for use in those tales. I learned how to alter a male face to a female one...here's an early attempt.

Later, I discovered iVillage.com, which has a "virtual makeover" program, where you can upload a picture of yourself (or anyone else) and try out various cosmetic and hairstyle looks. I've used that, as well, often in combination with my own alterations, to create "looks" for some of the people in my stories. Here's a shot of "Lori", a frequent story requester, done with a combo of the virtual makeover and my own work.

More to come....