Shop Forum More Submit  Join Login
D6bumum-7bf94075-dbaf-4095-9bc3-36548fe9d13d by Rob66

1. Your DeviantArt profile page says that you “like to play Damsel in Distress and some other fetishy roles, mostly in Second Life.” How long ago did you become involved with SL? What was it that got you interested in Second Life? What are the non-damsel in distress “fetish roles” you are involved with there?

I started on Second Life in 2008. One or two people had been nudging me to get on there for a while. The very day I got a PC capable of running it, I loaded it up. I liked the idea of a visual environment for the kind of roleplay I was interested in. I guess I got that and a lot more.

I intended "fetishy roles" to mean... I guess stuff like mind control and willing sub that doesn't quite fall under damsel in distress. I switch and play domme sometimes too, but I seem to get some questionable responses when I mention that.

2. What led you to join DeviantArt 11 years ago?

I think I signed up just to be able to follow certain artists. I first started posting my own pics... well as I remember it, most of my motivation was to help promote a Second Life roleplay sim I'd subsequently severed my ties to, but I guess after that I had momentum to keep going,.

3. How and when did you first realize you liked the bondage/damsel in distress genres?

Early. It was the usual, TV and movie scenes, and playing children's games. There was an odd kind of kid-friendly horror streak through children's media when I was growing up. I think Count Duckula introduced me to concepts like "dungeon" and "torture" and they were fascinating to me.

4. When did you create your first bondage drawing and what was it?

Literally drawings? I probably doodled stuff when I was young. I really can't draw; I've never gotten the idea of sketching an outline first and everything. Years ago, there was a Yahoo! group where the idea was to post five minute drawings with the whole intention of them being quick and scrappy. I gave that a try and got quite into it, but the group abruptly vanished as Yahoo! groups tended to do. I think those drawings are lost to time.

5. What bondage artists/cartoonists or photographers do you admire, and have any of them influenced your artwork?

I know this is going to be tricky because I'm going to overlook mentioning people I should. I've done pictures specifically influenced by... I know osvaldogreco was one; I usually mention it specifically when I've been influenced by somebody. vladen13 is another artist I like a lot (especially when he draws me!).

Mystery Of Ripper Alley By Vladen13 Dbqme2x-pre by Rob66
courtesy of vladen13 

6. Your dA gallery also showcases a host of other kinks and fetishes – magic, BDSM slavery, chloro/sleepy, hypno/mindcontrol, tickling, and quicksand/mud. How did your interest in each of those fetishes develop?

Oh boy, each of them? So I guess this is based on my individual gallery folders.

Magic: Seeing the Zig Zag Girl illusion on TV when I was young, being really freaked out but fascinated by it.

BDSM/slavery: I kind of waver on whether I'm into more conventional BDSM. There's roleplay-influenced stuff I've done that goes in that folder. There are people I do things with. but it tends to have kind of a DiD twist.

Chloro/sleepy: You know, there are kinks that have always appealed to me and there are some I never put together without being exposed to them online. The "sleepy" thing is in that category of seeing it online, having overlap with bondage, and thinking "oh yeah, I like this".

Hypno/MC: Well this has pretty much always appealed to me. Influenced by vampire stories, maybe... I always liked that vampires could control people.

Tickling: Internet thing. I never used to like being tickled. Seeing it related to bondage kind of opened my eyes. It's a kink that fades in and out for me.

Quicksand/mud: Again, probably an internet thing. It's interesting that it's a niche fetish that seems to get a lot of attention and discussion. The quicksand cliche had probably vanished from popular entertainment by my time, so it was more about online exposure.

Miss Britain  Shadow Of Doubt By Englishdamsel Dca by Rob66

7. Tell us about your OC, Miss Britain – Who is she? What inspired you to create her?

When I was first getting into roleplay on Yahoo! Messenger, I was curious about the superheroine community and wanted to have my own character. I kind of enjoyed it when people talking to me thought British women were sexy... Miss Britain was initially developed just to play into that. It took a while for her to grow into a real character. Doing group RP in Second Life was a real baptism where I worked out who she actually was.

8. Do you have any other original characters you’ve created? If so, tell us a little about them too.

Beestung is my other major superheroine character, a naive, enthusiastic younger heroine. I haven't done much with her in a while, but I consider her still active. I have Corporal Cain, my villainess that I'd still like to do things with. Rose Red, another heroine who's kind of fallen by the wayside. A few others I've tried out.

9. Which one piece of your work are you most proud of and why?

Xmas 2012 By Englishdamsel D5p59pq-pre by Rob66

Xmas 2012 is one that seemed to come out just right, with the pose, angle, the expression, the just-sexy-enough outfit.

10. What has been your most challenging work? Why was it so challenging?

Fmp  Penelope Maidified By Englishdamsel D2uem7j-p by Rob66

FMP: Penelope Maidified stands out as one that... seemed to take a lot of work for something that doesn't really look like much. I guess that I was doing an homage to a couple of other artists and really wanted to get the details right. It had a number of "back to the drawing board" moments.

11. How did you come to be a regular member of BMovieVillain’s cast of damsels?

This goes back to before I was active on DeviantArt, when bmovievillain was on Yahoo! Groups. Somewhere --2004-2007? I think -- I followed him and commented occasionally, so he was aware of me... I don't remember if he asked about the first model of me or just surprised me with it, and I started appearing in my own peril sequences. I was in the first bunch of online damsels he used as models, there were just a couple of others. That's how I've been part of his pictures for over a decade now.

Just Milking This Job By Bmovievillain Db6gx8t-pre by Rob66
courtesy of bmovievillain 

12. In your favourites gallery, there is a “Me” folder that nearly 127 pages of artwork featuring you and a “Miss Britain” folder with 17 pages of art that features your OC. What do you think makes others here on DA so interested in featuring you and your OC in their work?

I'd like to say it's my personality or something... I think I did a lot of networking in my early years on DA, and I had a distinctive enough look and people were willing to depict me... And after a while there's a snowball effect where people I haven't actually seen before are contacting me because they saw me in someone else's art. With Miss Britain I think she fills a niche in the superheroine peril community because nobody else had that kind of UK-representing character... She does, I'll say myself, have a very memorable look to her.

British Invasion By Amazonarrow Da5gano-pre by Rob66
courtesy of amazonarrow 

13. What other dA or SL artists have you collaborated? How does the collaboration process work with you and those other artists?

Collaboration is anything between me outlining the concept for a picture, to me providing my SL shots and somebody doing additional work on them. 

"Collaboration" in SL is kind of different since it usually means at least two people piloting avatars... Often my shots are just me and friends doing a roleplay scene, more like candids really. Sometimes I've worked with people to use their avatars in one of my pre-planned shoots, but it can be more trouble than it's worth getting exactly what I want... With all the "turn a little to the left. No, my left." There's a reason I've often run multiple avatars myself.

14. You’ve mentioned comic books a few times in journals and status posts. What comics do you read and for how long have you been into comic books? Do you have an all-time favorite comic or storyline?

This is actually kind of touchy because I quite publicly quit comics a few years ago. I've been inching back into DC's output without really committing.

I pretty much learned to read from comics of the DC Thomson school, and got into American-style superhero comics via the X-Men cartoon in the mid 90s. The New Mutants is a particular favourite of mine (Claremont and about half of Simonson - yes, I'm that one person who really likes Gosamyr). The New 52 Justice League International is a touchstone I keep going back to since it introduced me to Godiva. I'm currently reading Doomsday Clock - in part because it finally got us an update on her - and I'm skimming Heroes in Crisis just to see if the deaths are going to stick.

15. As an 11+ year veteran of dA, what do you think are the best and worst features of the site?

Favourites, gallery folders are great. Sta.sh I'd have to say is a really undervalued addition.

For worst, I'd have to say I hate that people can deactivate their accounts on a whim, or have it deactivated for them for some reason, and have everything permanently vanish in a few weeks. It seems like I've spent a lot of time lately scrabbling to archive people's art offline.

16. What do you enjoy doing when you take downtime from DeviantArt?

I enjoy film, music. I've been getting more into theatre in the past year. I've got some shows booked for next year, including seeing Cabaret live for the first time.

17. What else do you want people on DeviantArt to know about you and your art?

I'm going to say... I'm pretty sure I started the whole thing of SL bondage pics on DA. Maybe somebody was doing it before me, but I remember looking around when I started, and seeing landscape and fashion pictures but not really seeing anyone else posting fetish stuff from SL. And a lot of the early stuff was pretty poor quality, screenshots with HUDs and UI visible. I started to up my game with editing to overcome the limitations of SL. Now I'll see people who've surpassed me; shots where I really have to squint to tell whether it's SL or something else. Looking at the sheer volume of stuff out there now, it's a weird legacy to have.
EnglishDamsel must be one of the most recognized people on DeviantArt.  It's rare that a week will go by that she doesn't post to her gallery and or some other artist fails to depict her in their art. I've been watching her for a long time and, after doing several other interviews with people from Second Life who also share their work on DA, I decided it was time to let folks who don't know Penelope get to know her at least a little through this interview.

All pictures in the interview are provided by EnglishDamsel with special thanks to amazonarrow , bmovievillain and vladen13 for letting me include their depictions of her as well!
Add a Comment:
 
:iconshadowhawkone:
ShadowhawkOne Featured By Owner Feb 9, 2019  Hobbyist Digital Artist
I have seen EnglishDamsel around before this but this interview really filled in a lot of missing info! Going to be watching them now!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner 6 days ago
Very neat.  Her gallery is really full of gems!  Glad the interview pointed the way!  :)
Reply
:iconshadowhawkone:
ShadowhawkOne Featured By Owner 6 days ago  Hobbyist Digital Artist
If they gave out achievements for someone being a true spokesperson for getting artists noticed it would have your name on it!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner 6 days ago
That is very flattering  :)  I'm humbled but appreciate it a lot! Thank you!
Reply
:iconposergirlsintrouble:
PoserGirlsInTrouble Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Always good to hear from EnglishDamsel again. It seems you can't wander far on the Internet - or my corner of it, anyway :) - without bumping into her at some point.

I hope she won't mind if I repost a couple of my own pictures of her, dating back to the days of the Peril Place Yahoo group:

Penelope 04 by PoserGirlsInTrouble Penelope Learns to Skate by PoserGirlsInTrouble
Reply
:iconenglishdamsel:
EnglishDamsel Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019
Wow, takes me back seeing those again! Thank you!
Reply
:iconposergirlsintrouble:
PoserGirlsInTrouble Featured By Owner Feb 9, 2019  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Glad you like them!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019
WOW!  Thanks for sharing those!  It's neat how many people go that far back with Penelope and it's great that she's enjoyed such longevity on Yahoo, SL and DA!
Reply
:iconposergirlsintrouble:
PoserGirlsInTrouble Featured By Owner Feb 9, 2019  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Good times. :)
Reply
:iconfredkaluppke:
Fredkaluppke Featured By Owner Feb 7, 2019
wow, huge thanks for that interview- and sure about time for it! won´t forget that English Damsel was among the very first profiles to find and welcome me on dA after I dared to publish some clumsy bondage stuff for the very first time in my life. she somehow has a reliable nose for everything literally "english" and "damsel" related, meaning a fine mixture of mental and physic, horror and kindness, roleplay and madness, is the kind of buddies you can be sure is around and says a hello to you every now and then, and- as you said, working continuously since respectable 11 years. People that make dA and it´s bondage section what it is :-)
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019
I'm so glad you liked it and I'm sure Penelope will enjoy reading that really nice comment too.

Thank you for the kind words  :)
Reply
:iconfredkaluppke:
Fredkaluppke Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019
:-) :-)
Reply
:iconperzianverzian:
perzianverzian Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Should be titled "Interview with a Bimbo". 
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Nah. I'm happy with how it's titled.
Reply
:iconart1watcher:
art1watcher Featured By Owner Edited Feb 6, 2019
Nice interview! I have followed her works here on DA for a while now, and I like when other portraying her. I'm a true :iconenglishdamsel: fan! :)
Reply
:iconenglishdamsel:
EnglishDamsel Featured By Owner Feb 7, 2019
Thank you, that's really nice! I've very much enjoyed the commissions you've gotten!
Reply
:iconart1watcher:
art1watcher Featured By Owner Edited Feb 7, 2019
me too Nod , I'm glad that you like them too :),  well… hope you´re staying on Deviantart many years ahead, I have watched your gallery for a while and going to continue that way ;)
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
I'm sure she's happy to know that and that you enjoyed the interview. Thanks!
Reply
:iconvladen13:
vladen13 Featured By Owner Edited Feb 6, 2019
Ahh Charming Lady Penelope  :iconenglishdamsel: , Thank you for that kind mention :)


Good Show to you both! :clap:  .. An Interview well made and received Rob Ranger , you've kept the British End Up ;P , in a manner of speaking :D 

Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Thank you! And nice Spy Who Loved Me reference :)
Reply
:iconvladen13:
vladen13 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
;)
Reply
:iconfdcomics:
FDComics Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Another great interview :) Thank you both
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
I'm glad -- as always -- that you liked it  :)
Reply
:icondriver651:
Driver651 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Nice interview with Penny! I have always enjoyed her excellent work.

Penny was the first SL bondage lady I featured in my "Ladies of DA" gallery, which opened the door for many more SL ladies to appear in my galleries.

She was also the first SL lady to star in an extended art/story series (9 pictures with text) that I created.

Penny has also appeared in several stories with and created by Molly Footman (you should interview her sometime). 

Now that I think about it, Penny is due for another appearance in my gallery...
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Glad you enjoyed it!  That's really neat history there with regard to your gallery!

I think I will have to look into your suggestion about Molly Footman.  I am not familiar with her or her gallery but you're maybe the 3rd person to suggest her to me  :)

(And thanks for the other faves today!)
Reply
:iconking-napper:
King-Napper Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019  New Deviant Hobbyist Digital Artist
Great interview! It's always nice to be a bit of a trailblazer, I'm a little late to the game when it comes to using Garry's Mod but just as EnglishDamsel has improved over the years with SL, hopefully I can do the same with my format. I had no idea SL had so much verstatility.
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
Thank you very much  :)

I've interviewed a bunch of people who only have good things to say about SL!
Reply
:icondungeonguy59:
dungeonguy59 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Thanks for another interview I certainly had to stop and enjoy reading. I first ran across Penelope back in the yahoo groups era, probably about the same time I noticed her being a frequent, and sexy victim of bmovievillain's attentions. She was hard not to like following, especially with me being one who always had a weak spot for British damsels in dark and creepy dungeons. It was fun stretching the imagination imagining her in all sorts of situations back when writing was my main creative outlet, and always couldn't wait to scheme up some new story involving her in dark and kinky scenarios.
When the yahoo groups were on the way out, I think she was the one who mentioned to me this new Deviant Art site I should check out, and here we are, this many years later. 
And it's still fun to see Penelope involved in all the various scenes others get inspired to put her in, as well as her own ideas!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019
It's neat that you two go back so far.  And, of course, I'm glad you enjoyed the interview!!!
Reply
:icondungeonguy59:
dungeonguy59 Featured By Owner Feb 7, 2019
Yeah, we do go back aways, once I started counting things off! Still enjoying the way she brings some fun to her situations.
Thanks for another great interview with someone well worth knowing a little more about. 
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 8, 2019
And you are both still around after all this time. That's pretty neat too!
Reply
:iconmirrorkhaos:
MirrorKhaos Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019  Hobbyist General Artist
Excellent to see more of EnglishDamsel and read her interview.
Good job both of you.
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
I'm glad you enjoyed it! This was another of those that I finally got around to doing when I should have done it much sooner!
Reply
:iconmirrorkhaos:
MirrorKhaos Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2019  Hobbyist General Artist
:)
Reply
:iconwicked-detective88:
Wicked-Detective88 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019  New Deviant Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Interesting......
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Glad you think so!  Thanks!
Reply
:iconwyldisle94:
wyldisle94 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Another great interview, Rob!

Also many thanks to Penelope for sharing a bit about herself!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Appreciate the very nice words!  Thank you  :)
Reply
:icontazlooking:
TazLooking Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
I was actually aware of EnglishDamsel before I read this interview however, I had not seen much of her work. Just seen mention of her and some renders of her.
A true veteran of DA!!! I actually read of her demise (Curia-DD & femfan1) story before I read this interview!! She definitely goes on my "Roundtuit list"!! 
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Glad to hear it  :)  Well worth getting round to.  And thanks for reading the interview!!!
Reply
:icondannysuling:
dannysuling Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019  Hobbyist General Artist
Many, many thankyous to you, Rob, for this lovely interview with English Damsel.

And to you, Penelope, for your forthrightness and willingness to share yourself with us.

Despite my presence in Yahoo! groups during the early years of this century, I never ran into anything by English Damsel...although I did go to BMovieVillain's group a fair amount (from about 2007). But it was certainly easy to put two and two together once I joined dA 12 years ago (you and I have about the same tenure, Penelope) and began to frequent English Damsel's gallery  (starting in 2009) and BMV's (starting about 2012). I was really charged to see the focus on the "Penelope" character at his gallery.

You might remember, Penelope, that when I first started visiting your gallery I gave you a little trouble about SL, and how its platform simply didn't really represent good art (all the distortions, etc.). And yet...and yet...as the years have passed it became very apparent to me that, even given the limitations of SL, you have been one of the very few users who could successfully bend it to your creative vision as much as it could be bent. I have in mind such early yet incredibly startling images as:
"Tribute to Cyd Charisse" (2009)
"Brides of Phoby" (2010)
"Talons Of Fang Quan" (2010)
"Ballet Bondage Princess" (2010)
"Mrs V" (2011)
"Rose Red's New Look" (2011)
"Abduction Of A Lady" (2012)
All of these images brought something into a constained SL snap that took the image far beyond that platform, and made it clear you had talent and vision up the kazoo!

Hence my deep admirration for all that you've done, and for being...in a truly important sense...a pioneer. (And obviously a critical spur to BMV's output over the years, too).

As I noted in my recent comment post to you, I found it striking that, of the approximately 850 posts in your main dA gallery (and the 120 or so in scraps), more than 75% of them occur before 2012. Your postings after 2015 are few and far between. I can only hope that you aren't losing interest in dA (depite its very significant problems). Or perhaps it's SL that is becoming tiresome to you.

In any case, many many thanks for all the wonderful images you've posted, Penelope. Thanks for sharing them. And for being willing to share a bit of yourself here, with Rob. (Thanks again, Rob.)

Best to both of you,
Danny
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
You're very welcome  :)
Reply
:iconenglishdamsel:
EnglishDamsel Featured By Owner Edited Feb 5, 2019
First, thank you for your comment and your compliments.

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not sure I remember having that exact discussion with you. I do remember, with my early postings, occasionally getting comments pointing out issues that were just the nature of Second Life, such as chains made with particles not lining up properly. And I probably responded "Those are particle chains, it's just what they do" and, with a touch of irritation, worked on making them look better the next time around. Said comments were what led to me upping my game in the way I described in the last paragraph; it also slowed my output as I spent more and more time on editing pictures, and discarded some where I didn't think they could be salvaged.

Not coincidentally, 2014 was the last time I was involved in any collaborative SL roleplaying that went anywhere, depriving me of a reliable source of group scenes for pictures. Second Life is looking less and less active and I don't know if I could find that again if I was looking for it. I did consciously take a step back from SL, and announced at some point that I wasn't going to be actively looking for roleplay - basically, hanging around for hours in the hope of getting a scene going - anymore. So there was less flow of images to post, and the work put into editing started to seem like more and more of a chore. I do have a backlog, going back years, of things I always meant to get ready to upload. It's only thinking about it now that I realise most of that is probably never getting touched.

(Also got to be said, the shift towards mesh-based clothing and avatars in SL changed a lot. I'm reluctant to post the earlier pre-mesh stuff now, although the difference is probably only obvious at a glance to SL users.)

I've tried to be more of a presence in SL lately, mostly to find very little going on and a lot of places abandoned. Nothing's over, my output isn't what it used to be but I still consider myself active, and keep telling myself I'll do more. Where I've fallen behind as a photographer I'd like to think I've found an additional niche as a model, in shots by RopemasterSecretspy and commercial work for Miss S. Tights.

I don't think there's anything to wrap this up with except to say thanks again, and a thoughtful comment called for what I hope is a thoughtful response.
Reply
:icondannysuling:
dannysuling Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019  Hobbyist General Artist
I really appreciate your prompt and very thoughtful comment, Penelope. Your willingness to share this context hlps explain a lot, both technically and otherwise.

I do remember irritating you on occasion. For that, of course, I once again apologize. I'm less naive now, and much, much more tolerant and understanding. I had a lot to learn...and still do.

Best!
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Thanks for the really nice comment and the remarkable timing with your and Denise's story  :)
Reply
:iconfemfan1:
Femfan1 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
Proof that happy coincidences do happen :-)
Reply
:iconrob66:
Rob66 Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
It really was  :)  But, like I said in the description box, she turns up everywhere in other people's art  :)  Just like you, now that I think about it!!!
Reply
:iconberseh:
berseh Featured By Owner Feb 5, 2019
I've seen her name a few times but don't go because I'm not a fan of SL aesthetics (but I really enjoyed the :iconvladen13: image you've included here).
First time I read someone has been in DA long enough to be able to claim she started a trend, which made me wonder: How old is DA?
Always something to learn from your interviews dear!
Reply
Add a Comment:
 
×

:iconrob66: More from Rob66


Featured in Collections

Literature by JimmyJohnson101


More from DeviantArt



Details

Submitted on
February 5
Submitted with
Sta.sh Writer
Mature Content
Yes
Link
Thumb

Stats

Views
1,224 (1 today)
Favourites
43 (who?)
Comments
65