Alice Kiss - Crux Legend

[Jollyrei]

Thank you Jolly, and thanks for your pictures which I have used in this thread.
If you have any more, please feel free to post them here.

I was just thinking I should do one, for her birthday and all. We'll see if I have time tonight. Now I have to go back through the thread to see which pic of mine you used. I'm honoured to be included among such other artists who have been my "tutors" and influences.

 

[phlebas]

Bob, it has been a delight to read through this thread, you are a true student of the crux arts and culture.

I don't think I have ever posted a manip based on Alice, but i have done some. A few years ago I worked on some manips featuring Heather Watson/Hermione Grainger, with a view to some kind of HP themed strory. I decided that Alice was an ideal body model for her, and did some face on body works, but I never did create that intended manip. Maybe I'll get back to it and post something.

Wow, I just found this montage I must have made and shown to someone in 2011, I didn't realise it was that long ago. I must get back and do something with these.

 

[Damian]

I hate to think these girls are in any way forced or coerced to perform as models in crux shoots, I know for sure Makar never forced anyone who either didn't need whatever money he paid, not very much I can assure you, but also playing out their own fantasies, it certainly is not uncommon. As for why there are so many Russian girls, well Makar was Russian and that is where he found his models, and of course they didn't have any inhibitions posing for these to be put on the internet. There is a hell of a lot of bondage material with women from all over the world obviously taking part voluntarily, I think it's a mute question.

 

[bobinder]

Bob, it has been a delight to read through this thread, you are a true student of the crux arts and culture.

I don't think I have ever posted a manip based on Alice, but i have done some. A few years ago I worked on some manips featuring Heather Watson/Hermione Grainger, with a view to some kind of HP themed strory. I decided that Alice was an ideal body model for her, and did some face on body works, but I never did create that intended manip. Maybe I'll get back to it and post something.

Wow, I just found this montage I must have made and shown to someone in 2011, I didn't realise it was that long ago. I must get back and do something with these.

View attachment 497376

Thank you, Phlebas. When I mentioned that Alice had been compared to Emma Watson, I had no idea that the theory had been tested so effectively! I look forward to seeing what else you produce on this theme. To date I have only once used a Makar photograph of Alice as a body image. In 'Via Appia 15', I disguised her identity with a wide-mouthed scream, although it seemed a pity to remove her original expression of torment.

The original picture is very large so here is a 50% reduction. All of the initial cutting, pasting and blending was done in Windows Paint. The figure was manually over-worked in Paint to improve its 'pixellated' resolution, soften the shadows and reduce the leaf-green light reflections on the skin. I obtained Photoshop just before I finished it, so I was able to make some further final adjustments in Photoshop prior to completion. Whilst not intended to represent Alice, her body is eminently recognisable from the Makar image - and I could not resist her wonderfully gymnastic, thrusting pose!

 

[bobinder]

I have very little information about the manips in this post. The first two are composite images, each showing a trio of Makar models and each with the Cruxdreams logo. In each case three separate pictures have been blended together to create a plausible triple crucifixion. Possibly they are Cruxdreams publicity pictures? The first shows from left to right, one of the girls from the 'Master and Slaves' set plus Alice and Erica. The second shows Erica, Jenia and Alice.



The manipulation showing Welsh Webb's Shannon being hauled by the hair past the crucified Alice (#4) I believe originally appeared on a site called 'Wasserman's Crucifixions'. The background looks like a screen shot of a woodland crucifixion scene in 'Xena Warrior Princess'. This is one of the few 'Xena' crucifixions in which neither Xena nor Gabrielle end up on crosses, although I do not recall the episode title. #5 is more recent, signed R.H.H. 2015, and numbered 01, which suggests it is the start of a series. The artist seems to be 'ricky' - perhaps somebody can assist with identification? The scene shows Alice in the left foreground with Makar's Julia crucified in the distance behind her. I am unable to identify the shackled model with her face pressed to the ground and an empty cross awaiting her.



Coming right up to date, 'After the Dark 1' (#7) is a dungeon scene by GoatJr, which he posted in his CruxForums thread, 'End Of Day Death In The Balance', just ten days ago on 4 May 2017. The shackled Alice has been removed from the Crux Forest and placed in the lower right corner of the dungeon scene where the darkness obscures her face. The colour hue and saturation have been altered towards the violet end of the spectrum to suit the dark conditions, making her almost unrecognisable. GoatJr acknowledges Madiosi's 'Crucifixion Manipulations Construction Kit' (CMCK) as a material source.



#8 is another saintjohny manip entitled, 'Alice in Wonderland'. The addition of the dinosaur to one of Alice's most expressive Makar portraits is a humorous reference to film themes such as 'Jurassic Park'. Apparently there are worse fates than crucifixion, as this prelude to a vore scene seems to suggest.

 

[bobinder]

Non-Crux Manipulations from DeviantArt.

Photo manipulations of Alice are not confined to crux art. The picture of Alice baring her teeth at #1 comes from the MPL shoot entitled, 'Basic Instinct' (possibly a reference to the 1992 movie of that name.) An expressive image of facial tension, I have employed it in some of my own artwork. It also provided the inspiration for a recent hanging scene by Russian photo manipulator Vladimir Zapoved (#2.) This was submitted to his DeviantArt gallery on 8 January 2017. Entitled simply, 'Ook', it is so far the only hanging manipulation I know which employs Alice as the subject.

Obviously it is only her head we are seeing here, and I do not know who the model is for the body. Zapoved has blended Alice's hair into that of the other model where it spills over the shoulders. Compared to Alice, this body has noticably larger hourglass dimensions, substantial spherical breasts and pubic hair (Alice always appears shaven.) The nude hanging apparently takes place in a derelict building, without restraints on the hands or feet. These details contribute to an erotic but somewhat disturbing image of tragedy with a young life literally ending in ruin.



'Femjoy 111396 014 Copie' (#5) is a curious picture by French manipulator Astrospartus, whose speciality is female nudes being assailed by a variety of climbing plants, serpents and imaginary creatures. Submitted to DeviantArt on 3 January 2014, the title simply acknowledges that it was copied from a Femjoy source, specifically from the 'Low Tide' shoot (#3, #4.) Since I cannot locate an exact match for the source image, it is probably a composite of the two shown here, or another similar view. Astrospartus has applied the slimy wet look to Alice's skin as well as something which looks like an aquatic sporran. Rather than modest attire, this is more likely to be some creature whose attentions she is receiving whilst spread out on her back in a state of ecstasy (well, I said it was curious...)



Staying with the subject of Femjoy's coastal shoot, the wonderfully defiant pose in #6 provided the source image for my illustration to Eulalia's story, 'Lassie-Hunting in the Northern Forest' (#7). The picture was submitted to DeviantArt on 15 November 2016. My choice of Alice as the model was partly to exploit a pun on the surname of the story's main character, Lulie MacAlister.

The Femjoy picture also expressed exactly the sense of attitude I sought, but simply transposing Alice from a rocky coastline to a northern forest was not enough. She had to wear an identifiable Dress MacAlister kilt in order to represent Lulie as she appears in the story. Eulalia provided a sample of the correct tartan (#8) and mutiplying this into a large enough piece of fabric for a kilt front was relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, reducing the size to fit the figure meant losing the detail of the characteristic diagonal weave. But the biggest challenge was making the kilt appear three-dimensional on the figure.

Ultimately I compressed the tartan setts at either side to give some impression of curving around the hips and applied the pleats individually where they are visible at the rear. The finished garment still looks a bit flat but is actually composed of about twelve separate pieces joined in Photoshop. The buckles of a kilt are usually quite sufficient to secure it but the addition of a belt assists in making it look fully enclosed around the waist. The extra reinforcement is also appropriate in view of Lulie's rapid movements through the forest. Unable to find a suitable source image, I took the belt off my trousers, buckled it round a bucket and photographed it. So Alice is wearing my belt, which adds a kind of personal touch to the picture.

 

[bobinder]

To date I am aware of only one crux drawing which is based on Alice. This is the second version of Steve Cordero's 'Didi', (#3) which he posted at the Crux Foundation in December 2008. As Phlebas has recently remarked in the thread, 'Your Favorite Artwork', this is a digital revisit by Steve to his original 'Didi' drawing on paper, from 2002, illustrating the story, 'Didi on the Cross: The Scandal in the Temple of Isis' by Tarquinius Rex. Both versions of 'Didi' are compared in Phlebas' post -
http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/your-favorite-artwork.6112/page-4#post-315721
Alice was fourteen years old in 2002 and it would be another five years before she was crucified by Makar, so the original drawing has no connection with her.

Steve had joined the Crux Group in November 1998, and to celebrate ten years of membership, he decided to produce a new Tenth Anniversary version of 'Didi' in 2008, since he felt strongly inspired by the story. The significant influential differences between his first and second versions stem from the fact that in 2008 he had a Wacom Tablet and Photoshop - and Alice had been crucified the previous year.

The creative process for digital ink drawing is described by Steve in relation to another picture, but his process was the same for 'Didi'. He explained, 'I 'draw' using a Wacom Tablet that has a stylus (a pen) which I use on the tablet and mimics the use of a pencil/pen/brush on the computer screen.' The drawing process blended the outlines derived from the upper half of Alice and the lower half of a figure in a monochrome photograph, to produce the pose for Didi.

Having made the inital outline, Steve worked the image '...in Photoshop using the hard inking brush (which simulates the ink brush used by comic book artists at Marvel and DC)... The rendering is based on a composite of two photos which are attached.' (#1, #2.) The figure was developed with digital painting and airbrushing tools in Photoshop, and layered over a background photograph of a classical cityscape which was softened and defocused to produce the effect of distance. The resulting effect is a background which compliments the softly rendered colouring of the figure of Didi. Apart from the blonde hair, she is recognisably Alice, and her wonderful expression of agony has been translated perfectly (#4.)

A highly successful example of digital painting and manipulation, the picture was well received and prompted positive responses from other artists, including Welsh Webb and Algabal.

 

[Eulalia]

Wow! Clearly a labour of love that has brought together a wonderful range of interpretations of 'crucified Alice'
by many - I think most - of the finest crux artists of the past 10 years.
As well as being a well-merited tribute to Alice herself, it's a fine memorial to the genius of Makar,
in getting the simple best out of girls just enjoying being girls and showing what their bodies can do
when exposed and subjected to the uniquely beautiful torture of the Cross.
I'm always fascinated by the 'back story' of the images we see here,
for me there's encouragement and inspiration in reading about young women who've discovered their true selves
in submitting to, and allowing themselves to be photographed or filmed
undergoing rigorous, demanding treatment of their naked bodies -
that's something I'm finding fascinating in Margot's recent posts about Jac Avila's actresses,
especially the newbie Danielle. http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/news-from-margot.4343/page-12#post-321215
While the later images of Alice show her to be a fine model, they don't, on the whole,
approach those shots on the cross in the forest, because she's being a model,
and not simply being a girl learning what she can do and endure.
Thanks Bob - and all the artists who've been inspired by Alice -
and of course, if she should happen to find her way here, thankyou Alice too!

 

[Eulalia]

I don’t know whether people in medieval times really used it or not, I chose good old wooden saw as a torture instrument on making my fresh re-start. Was it sir Arcimboldo’s invention?

The use of a butcher's saw as an instrument of torture (for both men and women)
is sadly documented among the atrocities of Chilean and Argentinian regimes in the past half-century.
Maybe Arcimboldo had read about that.
It also features (torturing a young woman) in Alain Robbe-Grillet's noveau roman,
Projet pour une revolution dans new York.

 

[bobinder]

Wow! Clearly a labour of love that has brought together a wonderful range of interpretations of 'crucified Alice'
by many - I think most - of the finest crux artists of the past 10 years.
As well as being a well-merited tribute to Alice herself, it's a fine memorial to the genius of Makar,
in getting the simple best out of girls just enjoying being girls and showing what their bodies can do
when exposed and subjected to the uniquely beautiful torture of the Cross.
I'm always fascinated by the 'back story' of the images we see here,
for me there's encouragement and inspiration in reading about young women who've discovered their true selves
in submitting to, and allowing themselves to be photographed or filmed
undergoing rigorous, demanding treatment of their naked bodies -
that's something I'm finding fascinating in Margot's recent posts about Jac Avila's actresses,
especially the newbie Danielle. http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/news-from-margot.4343/page-12#post-321215
While the later images of Alice show her to be a fine model, they don't, on the whole,
approach those shots on the cross in the forest, simply because she's being a model,
and not simply being a girl learning what she can do and endure.
Thanks Bob - and all the artists who've been inspired by Alice -
and of course, if she should happen to find her way here, thankyou Alice too!

Thanks Eul. At DeviantArt, I commented on Makar's 'Why Me?' on 17 February this year, his birthday, 'Alice, about to perform her finest work. Such anticipation.'

She was just psyching up for the role, but had yet to experience the reality, an Amour Angel sitting, shackled in the woods. Within the hour she was pushing the pain barrier. She became a crux star that afternoon.

For crux fans, she had performed her finest work, and nothing else in the rest of her modelling career would ever approach the dynamic energy and excitement of that day. For Alice, it was enough. She'd given it her best and would never do it again. But it was more than enough to win the undying respect and affection of fans who would never tire of looking her up on crux sites over the ensuing decade, and beyond.

The latest comment on 'Why Me?' was just four days ago on 12 May 2017, the day before her birthday, 'One of the most expressive BDSM pix I've seen.'

How would she feel if she knew she had inspired a whole cult genre of artwork? It was an afternoon's work for Cruxdreams, a one-off. I think she'd be surprised at our response ten years later, but I think it would raise a smile.

'Why Me?'



Because you're a Crux Legend.​

 

[bobinder]

An afternoon's work for Cruxdreams,

 

[thehangingtree]

An afternoon's work for Cruxdreams,

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with thanks to you, Makar, and especially Alice!!!

 

[bobinder]

Alice's first shoot with MPL was by Alexander Lobanov, who also photographed her in three further indoor sessions for the same studio. Alice, who was eighteen at the time, was presented as 'Lara'. The debut shoot, entitled, 'On The Edge', was published in 51 pictures on 25 February 2007. MPL described their new model as, 'edgy', which presumably inspired the title and probably reflects an understandable degree of nervousness on Alice's part.

She appears self-conscious, responding to directions for posing with a teasel. Later shoots certainly show her as more relaxed and confident. Nevertheless, this early session succeeds in presenting natural beauty without any unwanted attention from the makeup department. I rate these among Alice's most attractive studio pictures.

 

[bobinder]

Some more examples from MPL Studios' 'On The Edge', featuring the fledgling model in the months before her crucifixion experience (#1 - #6.) Her navel piercing retains its jewel in this series. She removed it, probably at the photographer's request, for some of her modelling sessions, including Cruxdreams. High resolution images reveal the empty pinhole in the skin above her navel (#7, #8.) More curious is the occasional disappearance of her tattoos, which should be visible in rear views. Presumably they are Photoshopped out in post production work.

 

[Gibbs505]

Models are often told not to smile, indeed some models, both male and female look better unsmiling!

 

[bobinder]

Models are often told not to smile, indeed some models, both male and female look better unsmiling!

Very true - I don't think Makar would have appreciated too many smiles (although he did capture a few for fun!)

 

[bobinder]

Gibbs505 said: Models are often told not to smile, indeed some models, both male and female look better unsmiling!

Bobinder replied: Very true - I don't think Makar would have appreciated too many smiles (although he did capture a few for fun!)

Happy smiling Makar models. Girls, you're not taking this seriously!

 

[Jollyrei]

Finally got a manip done - not sure it's exactly what I was going for. It's certainly surreal. I got the inspiration from the earlier pic where Alice is contemplating her impending crucifixion.

 

[bobinder]

Finally got a manip done - not sure it's exactly what I was going for. It's certainly surreal. I got the inspiration from the earlier pic where Alice is contemplating her impending crucifixion.
View attachment 498177

Thank you, Jolly - that's a wonderful image, combining 'before and after' scenes from the 'Crux Forrest' shoot. It also makes a subtle reference to saintjohny's 'Endless Circle' by making similar use of the semi-transparent, crucified Alice. The picture presents an ominous, spectral vision of her relatively short future. The dry stone wall marks a tangible boundary between the present and the future, and the rows of cultivated heather lead to the distant horizon where a healthy tree contrasts with the dead wood of the fatal cross and the stake.

The tension is increased by the contrast of lilac tones in the field and sky with the green leaves of the foreground. The whole scene has a nightmarish atmosphere which is very powerful. Alice's poses for Makar are all very expressive, and these two work together beautifully. She holds her head in disbelief, but the vision directly overhead is about to become a reality. Meanwhile, Koshka is facing the vision of impending death, and with her hands restrained, is unable to shut it out. It's a great work of Symbolism and a fine tribute. Thanks for including it here.

 

[Eulalia]

Gibbs505 said: Models are often told not to smile, indeed some models, both male and female look better unsmiling!

Bobinder replied: Very true - I don't think Makar would have appreciated too many smiles (although he did capture a few for fun!)

Happy smiling Makar models. Girls, you're not taking this seriously!

View attachment 498171 View attachment 498172 View attachment 498173 View attachment 498174 View attachment 498175 View attachment 498176

I love seeing girls obviously enjoying being subjected to exciting tortures!

Finally got a manip done - not sure it's exactly what I was going for. It's certainly surreal. I got the inspiration from the earlier pic where Alice is contemplating her impending crucifixion.
View attachment 498177

A lovely image - the field is surely full of lavender,
a refreshing and relaxing scent to be crucified with!