Baby Steps Towards Animation

Hey everyone!

This week I've attempted an experiment: an animated gif. You'll notice that the style of this drawing is a little cruder than my normal work. That's because this piece was more about learning the process of how to make this kind of a file rather than the drawing itself.

I think it was pretty successful in conveying the movement of someone getting his big toe tickled and the resulting toe-wigging. The animation is a bit choppy, as there are only six frames drawn. If I drew twice or three times that many, it would be a lot smoother.

Animation isn't going to be something I'll be able to do often simply because of the time involved. However, I'd love to hear everyone thinks of this one and if it's something you'd be interested in seeing more of in the future.

Sloth's piece this week finally features the pirate that greets you when you first visit the site, who I've affectionately named "Captain Greenfeather". This is one of my new favorites by Sloth, and I know you'll love it too!



Drop me an e-mail to let me know what you think of this week's update!

Achilles

By George!

Every now and then on this site, I've got to slip in a piece that is just for me. When the George of the Jungle movie came out, it was practically porn for me: Brendan Fraser, running around mostly naked and barefoot for almost two hours. The fact that there was a brief but intense tickling scene between him and Abraham Benrubi was just the icing on the cake.



My piece this week is for anyone who wanted to see that scene go on a little longer...



I've been promising a few people that I would post the requests that are still in our list, waiting to be drawn. I regret to say that some of these are a bit old, but I promise to get to all of them at some point soon! In no particular order, here are some of the images you can expect to see in the coming months:

-Foot tickling as a modern art installation, with pairs of feet sticking out of a wall, inviting visitors to tickle (this one has proven tricky to visualize)

-Carlo Masi on public display at the Folsom Leather Fair, offered up for $50 a tickle for charity.

-A classic beach burial scene with a young guy getting foot tickled by his two buddies (I think this is the image that will become the Summer 2008 homepage, so be patient!).

-A sequel to the "Orcs of Tickle Earth" with a little revenge on those giant Orcs.

-Christopher from the Sopranos being foot tickle interrogated while a bound Tony looks on (this one was on the back burner for awhile since we had done a few mafia pieces already).

-Another piece with the King from the "Good to be King" piece.

-A southern cub, held down and tickled by snakes.

-A pilot and co-pilot tickling each other's feet in the cockpit while the plane is on autopilot.

-The Fox news team Hannity and Colmes engaging in a little tickle torture in order to change each other's political views.

-Robin the Boy Wonder in a tickle torture or forced foot worship scenario. For you comic nerds out there, this will be the Titan's era Robin when it happens...in other words, he'll be at least 18.

-Tom Brady getting his revenge on the Peyton Brothers.

-Brendan Fraser's character from the Mummy tied and tickled on his feet and pits by Imhotep and his henchmen (this one may take awhile, since I just did a Brendan Fraser piece this week).

-CatinHat tongue-tickling Matthew McConnaughey's bare feet on a secluded beach (I asked Cat about this one, and he's all for it!).

-An excerpt from the story "Straight and Bound - Ryan" in which a jock is tied to some excercise equipment, tickled and forced to cum.

-An excerpt from another story in which a tough mafia guy is tickled through a hole in his dress sock (Wow, the mafia thing is a very popular scenario).

-Hagrid from Harry Potter having the tickling charm performed on his giant feet.

-Iroh from Avatar the Last Air Bender being tickle tortured on his feet by an Earthbender.

-A male cheerleader, forced to drop the girl he's holding aloft because someone attacks his very sensitive belly button.

-An excerpt from the story "Soccer Jock Slave".

-Prince William being tickled on his sheer socked feet by a bunch of his mates.

That's everything! If I've missed something, be sure to write and let me know. Also, feel free to write in with more requests. We're getting close to having 50 images in our member's section! I've got a special piece planned for when we hit that milestone.

Achilles

Lockdown!

This week's piece from Sloth answers a request from a member who wanted to see a prisoner in his jail cell handcuffed and tickled by two crooked cops. Sloth seems to be our go-to guy for policemen, so we had him tackle this one.

Also, in the Free Archive section this week, Mr. Zikkon has given us 3 previews of the characters he is developing for the upcoming comic he's producing exclusively for AchillesHeelArt! You'll find the character designs for Major Power, his sidekick Private Thawtz and one of the villains in his story, The Spook!



Enjoy!

Achilles

Late Monday Update

Hey everyone,

Don't Panic! I put aside the piece I had been working on for this week in order to do a piece in honor of the Superbowl. I'm not even a sports fan, but a member had requested this drawing awhile ago and it was so perfect considering how the game went down.

Tom Brady fans will love this one. It will be posted in the evening on Monday.



Achilles

Introducing: Mr. Zikkon!

Hey everyone!

We're proud to announce the debut of a new artist here on AchillesHeelArt! His name is Mr. Zikkon, and he hails from the UK. As you can see from his first piece posted today, he has a wonderful comic book style and a love of superheroes.

His piece this week is a single image of a poor hero in the clutches of an evil villian, but in the future, Zikkon will be providing us with a continuing sequential comic book story! He has already come up with a cast of characters that are going to be getting into some very ticklish situations...

My piece this week is a request I received from someone who wanted to see a certain HGTV host tickle torturing a buddy's feet with his fingers in "HGTT"



I hope everyone enjoys this week's update! 2008 is shaping up to be a great year for male tickling art fans, as I've got two more artists that I've been courting to come aboard.

Achilles

For You Tattoo Fans

This week, Sloth and I both inadvertently created two pieces that feature tattoos.

In my piece, an evil wizard tests out a new spell on a helpless assistant. It covers him in dozens of "Ticklish Tattoos" that torment the poor young man wherever they appear over his upper body.

In Sloth's piece, a rowdy biker gang has a little fun with one of their members' helpless bare feet as they go "Hog Wild".



This week marks our 20th update since we began back in August, and we have 35 pieces in the member's section. I'm trying to think of some cool way to mark the occasion when we get 50 pieces in there in the next few months.

Also, if any of you are familiar with a site called "Deviant Art", I just thought I'd let you know that I put up a profile there. There's nothing on my page that you can't find in my main site, but they have an excellent keyword searching system for you to look for other tickling artwork. Here's the link to my page:

http://achillesheelart.deviantart.com/

Check out the "Browse Favorites" link on my page there to see some of the foot and tickling related artwork I've already linked to.

Have fun!

Achilles

Pencil Sketches

This week we've posted the 11 remaining pencil versions of the pieces in my gallery. From now on (or at least for as long as I'm working in pencil) we'll be uploading two versions of my drawings, colored and uncolored. We won't be doing the same thing in Sloth's gallery. His work is 100% digital most of the time, so he doesn't wind up with original sketches. We both use Wacom tablets to color our work in Photoshop, but he actually does his line work directly onscreen too.

Here is a collage of most of the pieces that were posted this week:



Sloth provides a new image this week which was a request from a member to show a "casting couch" scenario in which a kinky casting director is trying to find the perfect ticklish actor for a torture scene in his film.

See you next Monday!

Achilles

A New Year, A New Price

With the arrival of 2008, I've decided to alter the pricing structure of the site. I realize now that it was a mistake not having an option to join with a non-recurring fee. Many people have expressed in e-mails and on message boards that they don't like websites with recurring monthly charges.

You can still sign up for a recurring membership starting at $12.99 for the first month, and $8.99 for each month afterwards. Those of you with pre-existing memberships, your fee will not increase. You will still only be charged $7.99 per month unless you cancel the account or it fails to rebill because of a credit card issue on your end.

In addition, I'm now offering non-recurring memberships in increments of:

1 month - $14.99
3 months - $39.99
6 months - $59.99

If you are currently a member with a recurring membership and you'd like to cancel it and replace it with one of the non-recurring options, it's very easy to do. Go to www.ccbill.com and right on their homepage they have an link to cancel a subscription. Simply cancel, wait for your membership to expire, then rejoin with one of the non-recurring payments.

I hope that by offering these options, some of you who have held out might at least sign up for a month to check things out. We've currently got 32 full-color illustrations in the member's section and that amount grows every week.

See you in the Member's Galleries!

Achilles

Black and White

I recently put a poll up on the TKLFrat messageboard about whether or not you would want to see the original pencils of my work, minus the Photoshop coloring. The last time I checked, the answer was 88% "Yes".

The raw pencil work definitely feels different from the final pieces. Some of them have more definition in the pencils than others. If you compare them side by side, you can really see how the color changes the mood of some of the drawings.

This week I'm adding the black and white versions of the original 5 pieces in my gallery, starting with "First Wish". We'll get the rest of the pieces in my gallery updated next week. It's simple to download either or both. When you click on the image it opens in a new window. At the bottom of the window are two links, one to download the color piece, the other to download the pencil version.



This week's update is called "Smooth vs. Hairy", which is a requested image from a member who wanted to see a very hairy chested man tied to a bed and foot tickled by a musclebound smooth man.

What's interesting about this piece to me is that when I was nearly finished with it I realized it was a lot like "Foot of the Bed", which is a piece in the remastered section of the site. If you put the two side by side, you can see what a difference 10 years of practice makes!

Achilles

The Last Post of 2007

It's been a great year so far. We got a late start in August, but response to AchillesHeelArt has been overwhelmingly positive. I'd like to thank every member who joined this year. I've enjoyed hearing all of your feedback, and especially loved getting your requests. It makes me happy to help to fulfill all of your tickling fantasies.

I'd love to hear more from you about what you'd like to see in 2008 and how we can make the site better. I've got two new artists lined up to appear in the member's section in early 2008, but I hope to get many more than that involved.

For the last update of 2007, we've answered two requests. First, Sloth provides "Officer Down", which depicts a State Trooper, overpowered and foot tickled in his own squad car.

My piece, "Not So Fast" is in response to a member who really wanted to see what happened next after the "Submit" image on our submissions page. It's posted in the free section, because it's serving another purpose. This will be the image that non-members see if they attempt to access the pay area. For you navel lovers, this features belly button tickling.



I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year, and I'll see you in 2008!

Achilles