Surprise!!!

I'm sure that everyone had thought that this blog was long dead, and there have been times that I have thought the same thing.  I do, however, occasionally get the drive to create something.  This little number here is the result of one of those muse inspired bouts of creative delirium.

Before you get excited at my triumphant return, I'm going to caution you.  I do want to keep making captions, but it's not going to be on a regular schedule.  I will cap when my muse smacks me over the head and says that I must.  (No, I'm not taking applications for the position of muse.)

Nip / Pluck: An Adventure in Explaining My Process

A recent challenge was made to have several captioners take a single source image and put an individual spin on it.  The idea is that by explainining the thought process behind the scenes that new captioners might benefit.  Since the request has come up recently on the blog as well, I'll open this post up to do my best to answer any questions on my captioning process.

Here was the source image everyone was given to work with:

 

The first thing I noticed with the image is that it's a lower resolution tumblr pic.  That doesn't leave much real estate for adding text without modifying the image to add some.  I chose to remove the blur of red in the top right corner and stretch the shadow on the right to make more space.

The image itself gave me the feel of Snow White and the witch's hand for some reason, so I ended up on a bit of a fariytale slant.  Somehow, I settled on a reverse Pinnochio theme...real boy becomes puppet girl.  I added a frame to the image to give the feel of the classic storybook illustration brought into real life.

That left the writing.  It's the most important part of the whole caption to me.  The words should mesh with the image just enough to tie them together while letting the image speak for itself.  The controlling shadow hand in this image is ideal for themes of control and loss of it.

Since D/s themes can sometimes become heavy, so I chose a lively and fun font to keep things light.  It may not be the most readable font, but it expresses the undertones of softness and femininty I want the hidden dominant to have.

I like to add a teaser title to captions when I can to give a quick taste of the full caption.  I will usually put that in some 'dead space' in the image where it won't interfere with the core focus of the caption.

Last, and hopefully least, I add a transparent watermark to the caption to help deter other people on the Internet from claiming credit for my words and artistic adds as their own.  If this hadn't been a problem in the past (see here), I wouldn't bother.  Sadly, there are schmucks out there who scrape and repost captions while claiming they did the work.

And here is the final result:

Have questions on something I didn't cover in my explaination?  Ask them in the comments, and I'll try my best to answer.

Everything old is new again

A discussion recently came up where captioners were asked to dig back into their archives for one of their first captions to show new caption writers that even some of the best artists started small.  Part of the exercise was also in taking that first caption and re-imagining it with our current skills.  These are the results of my efforts.

The original caption from way back in 2007:

This is my updated version:

So...what do you all think?  Aside from fixing the typos, is the new version better?

Checking In / Checking Out

I recently had a bit of time to caption for a change.  I had an idea hit me that just demanded that I make it into a caption.  I won't bore you with the details.  If you're still following my blog, you've waited long enough for something new.

The Artist: Comic-Conned?

I've had an idea for a caption series rattling around in my head for a while, and I finally had some time to create a caption worthy of introducing it.  'The Artist' will be making some repeat performances in the future.

Can You Keep a Secret?

I was bitten by the capping bug yesterday and decided to explore some new territory of formatting.  This cap is an attempt to achieve a clean look that doesn't include the standard rectangular image insert.

In case it isn't clear enough from the caption, the setting I envisioned is one where a couple of guys have just accidentally stumbled upon something that has turned one of them into a infinitely knowledgeable genie.  This is the conversation that occurs shortly after.

Treasure Chest

I was rummaging through some of my captioning folders and found a gem of a caption I had created for AnneOniMouse (http://aomouse.blogspot.com/) on Rachel's Haven that was never posted here on the blog.  Some of you may have seen this one before, but I'm posting it for those who haven't.

Prima Donna

I know it's been ages since my last caption, and I'll frankly be surprised if anyone is still following my blog by this point.  Life has been on a constant ramp up of things vying for my attention, and captioning has fallen by the wayside.

I'm still around.  I haven't fallen off the end of the world.  I just need a clone to take care of all the stuff I need to do so I get more time to do what I want to do.

Anyhoo.  If you're still reading to this point, I'm sure you want a new caption instead of my sob stories.  You're in luck.  I have one.

Post Exam Jitters

It's been a long time since I've had either the time or motivation to create a new caption.  Inspiration struck me earlier today from an image that I found a few days ago.  Simone has been wonderful at making captions for me to hit various fantasies of mine, and I wanted to give her something in return.

I may not have hit her buttons dead on, but I wasn't really trying to put extra pressure on myself to hit one out of the park.  That will come in time as I try to shake off the rust and get back into the swing of things.

Without further ado, here's something new.

Update:  I realized after I posted that the text in the caption looked a bit rough.  I went back and checked a few things, and I had forgotten to smooth it like I normally do.  I'll leave the old version up to show what a difference a bit of text tidying can make.

Fixed version:

Old version with pixelated text:

Turn the Page

This photo practically screamed at me to create a caption for it.  I decided to go with a different direction than the obvious one.  Hopefully some of you can appreciate where I took this one.

The Cold Shoulder

I had a bit of inspiration for the November caption contest on Rachel's Haven.  The rules for this month include a restriction that the captions tell the story through only dialogue.  Since the vast majority of my captions are done in that style, it seemed like I would be remiss to let it pass me by.  The result is this caption.

The Final Cut

It turns out that today is a double feature.  Not only do you get some guest captions to sample, you get a brand new two panel caption from me.

My thoughts have turned to Halloween with the month of October rolling in.  With it has come a creative slant toward a more horror genre...or at least a horror spoof.  I'm sure that anyone reading this caption will immediately know the source of inspiration that spawned it.

As soon as I saw the image of the long haired Asian girl with her back to the camera, my mind went directly to work.  You might say that it haunted me until I pulled together the pieces to loose it on all of you.

Read carefully, dear reader.  You never know if the spirit of the season might come for you.

Guest Caps by Dawn Carrington

I was recently contacted by a reader of this blog with an interesting proposition.  Since I've been busy fighting the good fight with real life recently, I decided to give it a try to see where it goes.

Dawn Carrington, a writer at TG World, came to me and offered up some of her own captions to be posted here.  After taking a look and seeing promise in them, I've agreed to post up a batch of her captions for you all to peruse.

Feel free to leave comments to let me know how you feel about me posting guest caps.  If you like what you see, leave some feedback for Dawn here.  If you really like them, go read her own caption blog: http://tgcaptions-metamorphosa.blogspot.com/

Gifts of the ... *Ahem*

Yesterday finally gave me the motivation to get off my butt an make a caption for someone.  It was the birthday of someone that spends a lot of time doing stuff for other people, so she was worthy of a caption to celebrate.

Pictures, Postcards, and Faded Memories

For the month of July, I was doing a caption shower and a fund drive for a friend and casual pet on Rachel's Haven.  While we didn't reach the goal that I was hoping for, I did make a caption to add to the many that were given.

An Appreciation for Fine Art

I managed to find time and inspiration today to make a caption that involves a favorite theme of some of my very best online friends.  Enjoy this one.  I hope to get some more time soon to browse my picture collection in search of another image that speaks to me.

Waiting for a Call

I'm slowly getting back in to the swing of getting a few captions made.  It's still going to be slow going for the foreseeable future.  My attention is focused on other ventures at the moment.  I'll continue to post caps as I'm able to churn them out.

Join me

I've wanted to make a caption for Simone (http://misstresssimone.blogspot.com) for a very long time.  Every time I tried before, I always ended up scrapping a partially finished caption.  I finally found an ideal image and a story to go along with it formed.  Everything came together to make something I wasn't embarrassed to give to her.

Without further ado, here it is...

Mistress Knows Best

Has it really been over a month since my last caption?  Ugh.  Life had obviously been getting in the way of my creative time.

I had some quiet time last night so I made a caption for a dear friend, who I met through my blog here.  It just seemed fitting that my first caption in a while be made for someone who I met through the blog.  I'll try not to let another month pass without anything new, but I don't seem to be in control of the tempo of my life at the moment.

Enjoy it while you can...

Elly's Downfall

I got into a bit of a caption tussle with someone on Rachel's Haven last week.  The story of the previous captions was essentially that I was brought in to take advantage of someone turned into a friend's pet because of that person using me before.  Then the friend decided to take advantage of me by turning me into a girl for the night too.

This caption was made as a follow on for me to get revenge on the friend for using me for his/her pleasure.