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.

A Shameless Plug: The Library of Wonders

One of the many projects I have been working on during my captioning lull is closely related to TG captioning.  I got hooked on playing TG roleplays a while back.  It's been a nice creative outlet, but the site I cut my roleplaying teeth on has been drifting in a direction that makes letting go and just having fun in a game difficult.

The best way to foster the roleplay environment I want to play in was to build and moderate my own RP site.  Thus, the Library of Wonders (http://www.libraryofwonders.net) was born.  Several fellow refugees who value a good story with a plot over random, meaningless sex and violence have joined me.  Over the past year, we have laid the groundwork for the safe place where we all would like to play.

Until now, membership growth has been slow through private invitation and people who've followed the minimal breadcrumbs that I set out.  The time has come for me to set aside my dislike for self-promotion to encourage a new phase of growth for the site.

If you like writing creative and interactive stories while getting a chance to play out some of your fantasies in a safe environment, the Library of Wonders is for you.  We welcome a wide range of interests: gender change, mind control, light BDSM, and other physical changes.  The main goal of the site is to maintain a safe place for all involved.

Still not convinced?  Take a look at one of our active games (click here) to get a better idea of what we have to offer.