There is a great new club on the dA site and I am proud to announce that I have just become one of the club administrators. The new group is the dA-naturist Club and it was designed to help build a community of artists who create photographs and works of art that celebrate the natural beauty of the human body.

Body acceptance and personal freedom are core naturist values, and millions of people around the world visit nude beaches, clothing-optional resorts, and natural hot springs because these venues allow them the freedom to swim and enjoy the outdoors without clothes and without shame in a positive and supportive environment. We hope to create a virtual naturist venue here on the dA site so that artists can come together and share their ideas and their beautiful art.

I am especially pleased to be working with Kim [link] and Henrik [link] on this exciting new club. They are both active members of the dA community who have created wonderful stock galleries that include beautiful nude images that have been used in creative projects by many other members including me. Together, we hope to encourage practicing naturists to join our club as well as others who would just like to learn more about this lifestyle.

Nudity has long been a central theme in all art forms, and so it seems natural to us that we can help to recognize those dA artists who are able to find endlessly creative ways to portray the beauty and grace of the human form. Click here [link] to visit the dA-naturist Club profile page and learn more about this new group. I hope you will join us and encourage others to visit us as well!

I was long overdue to put up a new journal posting, so I thought I would use this space to extend my thanks to several DA artists who have generously fulfilled requests for new stock photos to assist me with my Human Canvas projects or who have shared private stock photos with me for my projects. This willingness to collaborate truly typifies the spirit of the DA community where we are all trying to create interesting art using a variety of media and techniques. Here are some of the artists with whom I have collaborated:

Mackenzie and Iza [“Stocked-n-Loaded”] have recently added dozens of classic artist’s life drawing poses as a result of requests that I made to them, and I have used their photos for several Human Canvas images. Even more incredible is the fact that they created the photo sets within a day or so after receiving my requests. Thanks for being so generous and for creating such great sets of poses!

RCook 13 are a couple from south Florida who have already posted many creative photos to their own gallery and have been big supporters of my Human Canvas style. I have worked with them on several of my projects, and they have willingly shared some wonderful private stock photos specifically for use with my work. They have fulfilled requests for specific types of poses, and the photos they have supplied are of the highest quality.

My gallery is filled with Human Canvas images created from photos that T & L [“torino-stock”] have made, and many of those photos came from their private stock collection that they generously shared with me. It has been a pleasure to work with their photos, and I am grateful for the support and interest that they have shown in my efforts. Be sure to check out their gallery since they add interesting and attractive new images all the time.

Several of my Human Canvas projects have been based on some great photographs that Tristin has shared in her stock gallery. She has not been active on the site for a few months, but I am hoping that she will return soon to share some new work for artists in the DA community to use.

I became interested in Chi’s gallery because she had uploaded some beautiful nude poses as well as an interesting variety of pattern and texture stocks—the two elements that I need to create my Human Canvas images. When I asked if she would consider doing a few different types of poses that would better fit my style of art, she responded almost immediately and posted some wonderful photos that I was able to use. I admire both her generosity and her personal courage to try some new poses.

Holly [“KnifeQueen-stock”] only recently set up her stock account, but almost immediately she fulfilled some requests for photos that I could use for my projects. She has not been active in the past few weeks, but I hope she starts to add more stock images to her gallery soon because she is a beautiful addition to the DA community.

Iida [“Stock of Ace”] is one of the first people I worked with when I joined DA, and I was amazed and pleased by her willingness to share her original Photoshop RAW files with me and to create some new private stock photos that she shared specifically for my work. Iida has also been inactive for a few weeks, but I hope she comes back soon with a gallery of new photos because I miss her beauty and her friendly messages.

I am very excited about the possibilities of one of my most recent collaboration since it involves two different DA artists. Simon is a great photographer and artist who has created painted jackets for his friend Olivia to wear. She is a model with natural beauty. The two of them have recently shared some private stock photos with me, and my plan is to create some new Human Canvas images using Simon' s art applied as overlays on the photos of Olivia. With their permission, I hope to have some new images uploaded to my gallery soon.

Kim has posted some beautiful nude stock photographs in the past few days that I have used to create some of my latest Human Canvas projects. She is a photographer, model, actor, and musician, and she also brings a wonderful and natural look to each new pose she creates for her portfolio. I look forward to more collaborations with Kim in the future as she continues to explore the creative boundaries of her photography and modeling.

Mandy [link] has also indicated an interest and willingness to share photos for my projects, and I look forward to working with her work when she creates and uploads new poses. As I work with other DA artists on collaborative projects like these, I will add them to this list. Thanks again to all of the people who have shared photographs and textures for my projects.

Rick

My friend Iida from Finland ([link]) has just “tagged” me in her journal and has challenged me to post some information about myself in my journal and then pass the challenge along to other DA artists. I will give it a try:

First, here are the rules that have been passed along to me for the “tagging” game:

1. Post these rules so that they can be passed along to others.
2. Tagged persons should try to post 8 things about themselves in their journals.
3. At the end of your journal entry, you have to choose and tag 8 people and post their icons.
4. Go to their pages and send a message saying you tagged them.
5. Look for new people to involve-no “tag-backs” in this game


Here are some little pieces of information about me along with some words of praise for some of the people who contribute to DA:

1. One of the main joys that I get from photography and creating photo-manipulations from other people’s photos is the ability to celebrate and express the beauty of the human body. A few months ago, I created a blog site for this purpose called the “Human Canvas Project” ([link]) to showcase outside of DA some of the images that I have created.

2. I love to travel and I try whenever possible to visit nude beaches, natural hot springs, and clothing-optional resorts when I am on the road. Swimming nude outdoors under a warm sun feels awesome, and the people I have met at nudist locations are among the friendliest people I have ever known. If you have never gone skinny dipping alone or with a group of friends, I strongly urge you to give it a try.

3. I have not been a member of DA for very long, but I have already gained tremendous respect and admiration for the creativity and the incredible skills that I have seen demonstrated in works on this site.

4. I work with PCs and Macs all the time at home and at work, but I will always come back to my Mac when I am working on photography projects.

5. I have shared many nice messages with Iida from Finland, and I think she brings a fresh and natural look to the stock photos that she has posted in her galleries. She has only recently tried her hand at some nude images, and I enjoy the grace and beauty that she displays in her photographs. I hope that she continues to post more bold and creative stock images for DA artists to use.

6. I am a big fan of the photographic style of Marcus Ranum, and I continue to be impressed with his stock galleries here as well as the many other galleries that he maintains on his own web site ([link]). He creates masterful photographs, but I also like the fact that he is willing to bring whimsy and humor to some of his photo sessions and the fact that he generously shares many quality stock images to foster a variety of artistic projects.

7. I have enjoyed working with the nude stock images provided by the German photographer named Almudena. Her poses suggest a classical beauty and her stock images have generated a wonderful assortment of deviations.

8. For the same reasons, I also like the rich variety of nude stock images that Lockstock has posted over the past few years. I have already created a few deviations based on her stock and I hope to do several more in the future.

There, Iida—I hope I have satisfied your request. Now I tag these DA members and challenge them to do the same:

Welcome to my spot on the DA site. My gallery contains photo-manipulation images that are devoted to exploring the ways that creative photography techniques can be used to capture the grace and beauty of the nude human form. Some of the images posted here were created by projecting photographic images on nude models in a studio that was completely dark except for the projections. Others were created by transforming standard nude images using overlays created with photo editing software. The results are similar in appearance to body paint images even when the techniques used to create them are very different.