Glamming Up Andrea

Andrea is one of my best on-line friends (you can find a link to her blog at right), and I recently thanked her for her friendship by doing a couple of glam photo manips for her:





She graciously allowed me to post them here as samples of the work I can do on others' pictures. Interested? E-mail me (link at right).

A Look Ahead

In about a month, we'll have completed the "Woman I'd Love to Be" contest, and I've been thinking about a replacement. I've decided to do a series of polls with the opening "The man I'd love to see turned into a girl is..." and then give a choice of four or five male celebrities.

As each winner is picked from week to week, I'd do a photo manipulation to give him a feminine appearance. Then, just like for the current contest, we'd go through quarter-, semi-, and finals rounds.

As a start, here's a sample of what I'd do. Here's Ben Affleck, and his "sister":



With my dressing curtailed for the next few months, I expect to be doing a lot more artwork (I may up the schedule on posting new cartoons to once a week for the summer) and more photo manipulation as well. If you have a fave pic of yourself--in femme or male mode--that you'd like to see glammed up, drop me a line. The e-mail's on the right.

Pre-May Day Dressing--Portraits 3

These look slightly different because I forgot to turn on the extra lighting I've been using. Still, they look good...and I really got the teeth thing to work on that smiling shot.

Oh...is it just me, or is there a little Marlo Thomas That Girl thing working here, especially on the center photo?

This is the end of my dressing this week, and quite possibly until much later in the summer. My son comes home from college next week and opportunities to be alone in the house for more than a couple of hours will probably be limited until he goes back in August.

Pre-May Day Dressing--Portraits 2

The blue sweater this time...with that lovely pink scarf.



Once again, the smiling one in the center seems best, although the first one has a nice "startled" expression.

Pre-May Day Dressing--Portraits 1

I'm only "half-dressed" today--waist up and shoes (because I love walking around in heels!)...and I'm going to go through a few different tops for different looks.

Here's the first set, in the orange/red sweater:

I'm not really happy with this one--I think I overdid the "blush" in the digital editing.



These two are "okay" but nothing special.

But this one seems really good--very pretty and natural. I especially like that I was able to smile and then make the teeth look decent in the editing!

Comments?

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Eight

Here's the checkered skirt one more time, with the layered top from the "schoolgirl" ensemble, white hose, pink scarf and pink pumps. I think this looks really sharp and really femme.



More pics on Flickr; portraits tomorrow.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Seven

Checkered skirt again, this time with the new purple top. It's an amazing color match for the pumps, isn't it?

BTW, this is another item from Kmart's Jaclyn Smith line. I must recommend this line of clothes for girls of my age and size--the clothes are stylish and fitting for us without being either frumpy or obviously intended for younger types.



I've got one more set of pics I want to get done today...and tomorrow, I think I'm going to work on some new portraits. Any ideas for poses or props?

More pics on Flickr.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Six

This is the top from that lovely formal outfit I bought last year. I think it works with the new pants. Do you agree?



More pics on Flickr and back to the checkered skirt for the afternoon.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Five

So I went to the storage locker and got out a few other tops to go with the new pants and skirt.

Here's the new orange pants with the white blouse, along with bone pumps and scarf. I really like these pants, they are so feminine!



More pics on Flickr, and more coming later today!

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Four

Last post for today; here's my shortie nightgown. And, yes, I'm wearing the new balloon boobs. Do they look OK?

I did something tonight I rarely do. Usually, after I finish a photo session, I take off the wig and the jewelry...the wig's too hot, and the jewelry gets in the way when I'm working. But tonight, I left everything on as I sat and enjoyed a quiet night alone.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Three

After I took these shots, I think I resolved the leaking boobs problem. I went out and bought some balloons and filled them with water. I'll try them out later tonight.

This is, of course, my very comfortable jersey knit dress, worn here with black hose and the floral pumps.



I rarely do profile shots, as it's very difficult to edit the beard out and get the profile correct. I'm proud of this one...I think I correctly "reconstructed" my naked profile.

More pics on Flickr and probably one more posting later tonight.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part Two

Well, I went to Kmart and exchanged that too-small blouse. They didn't have the one I wanted in a larger size, so I went for a deeper purple top in the Jaclyn Smith line. I'm pretty sure it'll fit, as most JS extra-larges are OK on me.

After this set of pics, I'm taking a break from dressing and posing until I work out a problem with one of the false boobs. It keeps leaking (although the other one doesn't).

Anyway, here's that lovely sweater and floral skirt combo...with bone pumps this time. It really looks delightfully feminine, doesn't it?



More pics on Flickr.

Pre-May Day Dressing, Part One

To start with, some misadventures. I went to the basement to get the stuff for dressing, and discovered a mouse had gotten to my seed-filled boobs...so I had to go back to a previous idea--water-filled storage bags.

Then I wanted to start with the new checked skirt and new lavender blouse...and the lavender blouse is too small! I'll have to take it back! I also wanted to wear the white blouse with one outfit this time around...but I forgot to collect it from the storage locker. I did, however, bring a black stretch top I'd forgotten I even had.

Then, as I was getting ready to take these pics, I lost an earring...and had to scramble to find it on the floor.

Anyway...here are the first pics from this three-day session. Any comments on the new skirt?



More pics are on Flickr.

Women We'd Love to Be--Semi-Finals, Week 1

Twin Set

Time for another of these. Can you guess which is the boy? Does it matter?

Giving in...

Well, I couldn't hold off...though I tried. Knowing the wife would be away early next week, I began planning for a dressing and photo session. I went browsing at Kmart, Walmart and Target last week and yesterday settled on somethings from Kmart. I got a cute short black-and-white checked skirt, a lavender blouse (should go well with those darling purple pumps), and a pair of orange crepon lounging pants. Kmart's web page doesn't let me isolate images for linking, but all of these are on there, so you can look them up if you want. They're all Jaclyn Smith.

And today I went down to the storage locker and got out the stuff I want to wear next week...but the urge was too great. I had to put on something. So right now, I'm wearing a cami, panties, frilly socks, and my pink pumps, all with male shirt and jeans.

OK, so I have no will power!

Women We'd Love to Be, Quarter-Finals--Week 10

Scarlett took the final spot in the quarter finals with 15 votes out of 62, or 24%.

So, here are the top ten women we'd like to be:

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scooby-Doo)
Drew Barrymore (Charlie's Angels, Music & Lyrics)
Olivia Newton-John (singer, Grease)
Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Sin City)
Diana Rigg (The Avengers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour)
Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, Batman & Robin)
Grace Kelly (To Catch a Thief, Rear Window)
Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island, Stepford Wives)
Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries, The Spirit)

Now, for the semi-finals, we will do head-to-head votes, #1 vs. #10, #2 vs. #9 and so on.

Don't I Wish, Part 2

Here are three more new fantasy images of yours truly:

Dani falls afoul of a marketing manager and finds herself transformed into a living display in a department store. Changes here include "plasticizing" the skin.

















Finishing her take on the finale of Gypsy--"Rose's Turn"--Dani accepts the applause of the crowd. Lots of lighting effects here, and a much emphasized ass.
















Dani enjoys the admiring looks of her fellow workers as she takes her place as an office girl. Subtle lighting effects.

Do these all work for you?

Don't I Wish...

I've done this kind of thing before...taking recent photos of myself and altering them to a kind of "fantasy" image of how I'd like to look. This time around, though, instead of just giving myself the "va-va-voom" figure I'd love to have, I'm also playing around with other parts of the picture.

In this first one, I took my least fave outfit--the infamous gray suit--and tried to see if I could make it a little more interesting. So I turned the skirt into a long, tight hobble skirt that somewhat outlines my legs. Did it work?







In the next one, I wanted to create the effect of posing outdoors. This isn't just pasting the image onto an exterior. I played with the hair and the skirt to give a breeze-blown effect and attempted to make the lighting match. Your thoughts?






Finally--for now--here's that sexy schoolgirl look. Here, I turned the top into a midriff-baring crop top and put Dani on a school campus, complete with appropriate lighting. Is it effective?

There will be more to come.

Women We'd Love to Be, Quarter-Finals--Week 9

The lovely Grace won with 25 votes out of 89, or 28 percent.

One week left in the quarter-finals.

Michelle's Addiction

Odd Developments

It's strange how quickly things can change. I thought the discussion Sunday night would dominate my homelife this week...but by Monday afternoon, it was almost an afterthought.

Why?

Because Monday, elder son called and announced he wanted to bring his girlfriend home for Easter weekend. First, of course, there was the question of appropriateness. Wife and I decided we knew they'd abide by our rules while here. Second, there was...OMG! We have to get the house in order! Most importantly, there was the pigsty of a room that our two sons share when they are home from college. (Fortunately, younger son is not coming home for the weekend.)

So, for the next several days, I'll be "shoveling out" that room and making it semi-presentable for a guest. Suddenly, we are both far more interested in being good parents and good hosts than anything else in our lives.

This gives me time to rethink a few things as well. I'm going to be taking all the femme stuff...every stitch, every wig, every shoe...back to the storage locker for the next couple of weeks and I'm seriously considering only dressing when I know my wife will be away, instead of taking advantage of nearly every day off from work, as I'd been doing since Christmas.

Brolly Dolly

This set of poses was inspired by shots like this one:

These are the girls called "race queens"...the models who pose at auto races and car shows in Japan and other Asian nations. Many of them seem to have an umbrella...I suppose to protect them from the sun and to give out as promotional items.

Well, it seemed like such a neat prop, that I decided to give it a try:





And one last one, posing with a purse.

Additional pics are on Flickr.