First and foremost, this demo is NOT work safe.  It contains images of full frontal male nudity.  You have been warned.

And now that that’s out of the way…

I wanted to do an online art demo for the Dark Diva Reviews Yahoo group a couple of weeks ago.  Every third Friday of the month they have ‘Casual Sex’ Friday, and it’s a fun online party where readers and writers are encouraged to chat, share excerpts, and post favorite naughty images.  I had intended to do this demo the last Casual Sex Friday but due to technical difficulties (two back up power supplies in our house went belly up!) and then further technical difficulties (the software I wanted to use would simply NOT cooperate), I ended up delaying a couple of weeks.

In the end, it turned out to be for the best, as the image I decided to create for this demo is not as simple as I had initially imagined.  The working title of the image is ‘Go Fish’ and it’s a scene between a merman and a male fae at the edge of a pool of water.  I’ve decided to do this demo in stages, doing each character first, then setting up the backdrop, doing the lighting and rendering, and then handling the post-work.  Ideally, this should work out to be a four-part demo, with a new installment posted each week.  I hope to have part 2 done by Friday evening, but it will depend on the work load.  In the meantime, here’s part one.

I decided to start with the male fae character.  I’m using DAZ Studio from DAZ3D.com.  This is a free software package used for character rendering and animation.  If you’re not familiar with 3D programs, it’s sort of like having a combination photo studio/doll house inside your computer.  Basically, DAZ Studio allows you to take pre-built models and pose them, modify them to a certain extent, and render or ‘photograph’ them.  It’s very similar to Poser (which I also have, but found too expensive and too prone to crashing to keep up with). 

I recently purchased a new character and texture pack from Renderosity.com, called Daniel for D3.  Yes, he looks like a certain boy wizard, all grown up, but I like this package because it takes the original model we’ll be working with – DAZ3D’s D3 or David as he’s known – and makes him look actually human!

Here’s D3 before I add the Daniel character morphs and textures:

Pretty boring, isn’t he?  No skin texture, face like a block of stone, dead eyes, and oh look! He’s got no genitals.  Let’s fix that right now (this is supposed to be an erotic piece of artwork, right?).

For the record, D3 comes with genitals, but they don’t just automatically show up.  They’re a separate model that has to be added on.  Talk about your detachable penises.

So that’s the basic model we’re working with.  Now to add the Daniel character morphs and texture.  The character morphs are basically changes that re-sculpt the face of the model.  In DAZ Studio, once you tell the program to add a morph, you get a little dial that lets you decide how far you want to re-sculpt that particular feature.  For example, let’s say we wanted to lengthen the nose.  We’d load up a morph target for a longer nose, get our dial, and then we could turn the dial to get a longer or shorter nose as need be.  You can take morph targets to ridiculous lengths, by the way.  I once made a morph target to flatten the nipples of a character, and ended up sending them shooting out the backs of her shoulder blades.

We’ll also be adding a texture to the character.  Think of the texture as an image to be wrapped around the 3D model.  In this case, we’re adding the skin and facial texture.  If you’ve ever seen an animal skin spread out, that’s a lot like what a texture looks like, only it’s an image drawn in pixels, and not real leather and fur.  Let’s see what the D3 model looks like with the morphs and texture:

Wow, what a difference!  His face looks a lot more human, sexy even, and he’s got body hair to go with his genitals.  In addition to adding the Daniel character morphs to his face, I also added some other morphs to his body, to give it a youthful but well-toned look.  And I’ve added a hair model (a sort of 3D wig) so he’s no longer bald.  The wings are the standard fairy wings that DAZ gave out with the version of DAZ Studio that I downloaded.  One of the reasons that I like buying from DAZ is that they do give away a lot of free models and I use them as much as I can!

Looking at this, I like the wings, but I realize it’s not quite what I’m going for.  It’s too… fluffy?  So I’m going to try something else:

These wings actually belong to a different model, this one a dragonfly.  I’ve got the whole dragonfly model attached to the D3 model, but you can only see the wings.  I told the program to make the rest of the dragonfly invisible.  These wings are more what I want, and I think this character is about complete.  The image is a little dark though, so I took a few minutes to play with this last render in Adobe Photoshop, to see if I could adjust the skin color and brighten the image.  This is called ‘post-work (for those not familiar with the process of creating 3D artwork, post-work is when you jump from 3D to 2D to clean up an image, add special effects, and do other nifty things you can’t do in the original 3D program).  Here’s a quick post-worked version of the male fae:

I can still see some things I want to change, like that shiny highlight on the abs, but overall this is about what I want.  At this point, I’m ready to move onto the next part of the project, which would be creating the merman character.  I’ll leave that for the next post in this series.  I hope to have it up in about a week or two, so keep checking back!

Check out the hotties over at Erotica Cover Watch!

I love this!  For a while now I’ve been frustrated by the lack of erotic male imagery in mass media.  Everywhere I look – on book covers, on magazine covers, on TV and in movies – I see naked or mostly naked females, all meant to imply the same thing – this (movie, book, TV show, magazine, product) is sexy, erotic, hot!  It’s just infuriating and it makes me want to ask; since when does ‘naked woman’ necessarily equal ‘erotic’?  Aren’t naked, or nearly naked, men erotic too?  How come we never see a lot of images of naked men?

Okay, you can see naked men if you surf the internet looking for gay porn, but other than that, you have to admit that eye candy is almost universally female.

Well, apparently I’m not the only one who’s been irritated by this nonsense.  Two erotica writers, Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd, have put together the Erotica Cover Watch with the intent of raising awareness about the serious lack of man flesh on the covers of erotica books.  This is not a joke either, but a serious look at what’s going on in the publishing world.  Over at the Erotica Cover Watch, Mathilde and Kristina are pointing out the obvious lack of testosterone in erotica publishing, especially on the covers of erotica books whose target audience is supposed to be women.  Think about this.  I mean, really think about it.  A publisher puts together some hot erotica that they specifically want to sell to women, and then they dress it up in images of naked women!  Does that make sense to you?  It does if it’s a lesbian anthology, but what if it isn’t?

I realize that women are beautiful and sexy (that’s because I am a woman, and yes, I am beautiful and sexy, and if you say otherwise I will introduce your tookus to my beautiful and sexy combat-boot-clad foot).  And I agree that there is a certain visual appeal to the female form.

But you know what?  I’m a heterosexual kind of gal, and I like looking at naked men.  Naked women just don’t do it for me.  And if you’re a publisher or an editor looking to get me to buy an erotica book, if you put a naked woman on the cover, I will simply walk away.  You see, I’ve seen all the naked woman I need to see.  The world supplies me with an abundance of naked woman imagery to ogle.  In fact, if I wanted I could go into my bathroom right now, take off my clothes, and see a gorgeous naked woman.  Really, she’s right there in the mirror!  But naked men?  Well, those are a little harder to come by (and yes, go ahead and make all the ‘harder’ and ‘come by’ puns you like with that line; I know you want to). 

But seeing as how I’m heterosexual, you know I’m more than just the teensiest bit curious about what men look like with their clothes off.  I mean, isn’t that what being a heterosexual female is all about?  Being turned on by naked men?  So, if you, like me, are tired of seeing the same ol’ thing on erotica book covers, and you, like me, would give your eye teeth to see some hot naked man flesh, pop on over to the Erotica Cover Watch, read their blog, leave a comment and pick up their nifty link button and post it on your web site.  Because it’s really sad to think that we might have to live in a world where we never, ever get to see naked men.  And I for one won’t stand for it.

I’m going to go attack my husband now…

This has happened to me far too often.  There’s nothing so frustrating as having the whole story in your head and not being able to capture it.  That’s my best friend Mary on the bench with me, by the way.  She knows about all my writing woes, and yet she still puts up with me.

It looks like I’m going to be home all day today with a sick Pixie, so maybe I’ll get started on the next cartoon today so I can have it done by next Saturday.  Meeting a deadline… wouldn’t that be nice!

I recently got news that Demon By Day is now available in print through Amazon.com.  So if you really, desperately have to have a print copy, you can buy it here:

Demon By Day print book (from Amazon.com)

And if you’d rather have the digital version, you can get that here:

Demon By Day e-book (from Mojocastle.com)

Support an erotica writer. Buy my book!

When I first started writing Demon By Day, I put a lot of thought into what a demon would be in the context of my story.  I was working in a complete fantasy setting, building my world from the ground up, but also borrowing some ideas from mythology and religion.  A lot of the names of the demons in the book are derived from names of demons and angels in Christian mythology (and yes, I’m going to call it mythology because I’m Buddhist, so to me it is a myth).  I decided that the demons in my book would be incredibly beautiful but also incredibly cruel and arrogant.  They had been condemned by a mother goddess to live below the earth or else risk being burned to death by the light of the sun (thus the conflict raised in the title of “Demon By Day”).  Their fall from grace mimicked the same fall that Lucifer and his fellow rebels took, and their ensuing plots to take control of the earth above also shadowed Biblical myth.

At the surface, it didn’t sound very original, but rest assured, I didn’t just only rely on the Christina religion for inspiration.  In fact, my first and main inspiration was one of my favorite authors, Tanith Lee.  Her novel, Delusion’s Master, is still one of the best and most beautiful works of fantasy that I’ve ever read, and her main character, Azhrarn, Night’s Master, was the inspiration for Orziel in Demon By Day.  However, where Azhrarn was the mightiest of the mighty in the realm of demons, I made Orziel the lowest of the low – a bastard, half mortal, with barely any magical power to speak of.  I wanted a real under-dog to take on an established hierarchy of vicious demons, and that (I hope) is were the originality of the story lies.

So that’s my take on what a demon is.  A few weeks back, I did a give-away contest for Demon By Day on Brenda Williamson’s Romance Party where I asked readers to tell me how they define a demon.  Here are the responses I got:

From Dawn M.
I like to think of demons as beings of another dimension rather than creatures of Judo-Christian hell. Not necessarily bad / evil though perhaps having a different concept of moral norms. So I like that this gives authors a chance to take stories in different directions out of the "norm" of paranormal creatures. They can explore demons from the basis of different religions or purely as a paranormal creature and thus it gives them a wide ranging basis to work from and more imaginative story lines.

From Joan R.
I think that demons can mean different things to each person.  I think that there is good in everything but you just have to hunt for it. I would like to get another type of look on demons to see how you bring the good out in your demons.

From Amy R
What are demons?  Why do I like reading about them?  Basically evil supernatural beings.  Tired of vamps and common weres/shifters.

From Cynthya
I think demons are the ultimate tortured heroes.  I love to read about them because they have to battle the dark sides of themselves in addition to outside forces.  
 
From Ashley A.
I think that Demons are supernatural creatures that have the ability to make anyone lust after them, to cause havoc when they so choose, and make life difficult because they find it fun.   I love to read about them because I find them sexy, and I like to see what "mischief" they can cause!!

From Tina
I think demons are misunderstood mythical creatures that are a little naughty and are in desperate need of love to curb their natural bad boy tendencies..

From Leah
I like reading about demons because they're different.  Vampires and werewolves seem to be the more popular paranormal.  Demons just seem to be very unpredictable!
 
From D.N.
I think demons are the darkest of souls incarnated in bodies that suit their crimes. I like to read about demons because it stirs up the possibility of evil in everyone, no matter how purist they are, when they read it.

From Carrie
Man what a question - I have tried to think what exactly Demons are before. If you believe in heaven/hell then one could think they were the devil's work - But if you don't then maybe they are half breeds - once upon a time there were a lot of full aliens or something & then they started getting it on with full humans.  I like reading them because they have powers that are not always thought of - more of a taboo kinda cause they can look like humans more then say were's.

So, lots of different answers to my question.  How close did any of these ideas come to my idea of a demon in Demon By Day?  Some were dead on, I’ll tell ya that!  Read the first chapter of Demon By Day here and see for yourself.  And if you have any ideas on what demons are, or why you like to read about them, leave a comment!

M. Christian, erotica writer extraordinaire, has posted one of my stories on Frequently Felt!  “The Monster Beneath the Bed” is an erotic horror story in the erudite sub-genre known as tentacle porn.  I’ll be podcasting the story next month on the Heat Flash podcast as part of October’s monster theme.

About M. Christian:

M.Christian is an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 300 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and Web sites. He is the editor of 20 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, and others. He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, and Filthy; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, and Painted Doll.

This is the real reason why we need four hands and two sets of eyes.  Multi-tasking is very important to us writer-moms.

By the way, this one took forever to draw – four characters plus all those seat.  Ugh!  It was worth it though.  That hottie in the passenger’s seat? That’s Orziel, the main character from my e-book, Demon By Day.

(Insert shameless pimping here!)  Demon By Day is available from Mojocastle Press.

After the irritation with Picassa last week, I finally broke down and set up a blog just for the Cynical Woman cartoons.  You can find them here:

www.theadventuresofcynicalwoman.blogspot.com

This blog is just for the cartoons, nothing else, so if anybody wants to go through and look at them without having to wade through all the other blog posts, they can do that with no problem. 

I’ve also set up a Widgetbox Widget so if anybody wants to show the cartoons on their web page, you can do that now with no problem.  You can get the widgets here:

The slim sidebar version: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-adventures-of-cynical-woman-lixxie99

The wide version (wider for her pleasure…): http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-adventures-of-cynical-woman

If you log into Widgetbox, you can customize these a bit, in case you want a different color.  So enjoy the cartoons and spread the word!

Well, Picassa has effectively killed my incentive to use it any more for posting the cartoon. Sometime in the past week, they changed how they handle links to web albums, so that I can't simply e-mail the link from my computer, but have to do it from the Picassa website instead, meaning I have to have addresses set up there, probably need a Gmail account (which I don't have and don't plan to get at this time), etc. And it looks like if folks want to see the cartoon, they now have to log into Google as well, which don't work if folks don't have a Google account. Basically, Google took what used to be a simple, handy operation for me and made it useless in their attempts to pimp themselves.

Fortunately, I think I have found a way around that.

I'm testing out Zoundry's Raven this week, to see how it works for posting blog entries and images. What I like best is that I can upload images from my computer to a designated place on MY webhost, as opposed to some third party service like the aforementioned (and now useless) Picassa. So let's see how this works shall we? I'll upload my cartoon with the click of a button and...

Presto baby! Now if you click on the thumbnail below, you get the cartoon but not the Picassa album. Looks like this will work just fine for now. Still need to get a regular web comic site set up though. I'm working on it...

Labels: Cartoon

Raven doesn't seem to be able to directly publish to Blogger blogs that are hosted somewhere other than on the Blogger servers. The blog entry shows up, but only as a draft, so I still have to log into Blogger to publish. I'm trying this one more time.

Labels: Test

Trying once again to see if this gets through.

Labels: Test

Last week, someone on the Marketing For Romance Writers Yahoo group asked if there was an efficient way to post the same post to multiple blogs. I've been wondering that myself, since I have three blogs and am considering starting up a fourth. I did some digging around in the Blogger help section and came across a list of third party utilities that offered such services. I decided to give Zoundry's Raven a try. This is the first test post to see if it does what I need it to do.

Labels: Test

Labels: Demon By Day, Helen's Reviews