[Question] Do you still make cap series by request?

You Have Questions.  I Have Answers.

Straymanwhore commented on my recent cap “GainingIndependence” in the form of a question.  She asked “Do you still make cap series by questioners? If I requested a cap series made, could you make it?”

I was tempted to answer in a reply, but a couple things stopped me.  First, it was a long answer.  Not long by my post standards, but still longer than a reply needed to be.  And second, once I answered it would get buried and not help anybody besides Straymanwhore. So, while I haven’t done a ‘Question’ post in about 5 years, I figured why not dredge it back up and give a fully fleshed out answer (heh… fleshed). 

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The short answer to this is no.  No, I don’t make caps, let alone cap series, by request. 

The longer answer is… maybe?  When I make caps it’s because I’m feeling creative.  I have an itch and need to scratch it.  The inspiration for the exact scratch method, more often than not, comes from just browsing images at fuskator.  I’ll find an image that has a bit of story in it, then make it into a story.  If the story is small enough to fit into a cap form, then it’ll become a cap (or cap series if there are multiple images to use and the story warrants it).  If it’s too long or I’m feeling particularly lazy, it will become an obscura. 

Some recent examples of images inspiring caps are “TheMatrixes”, “Derby Hat”, and “She Drew Me In”. Recent examples of images inspiring obscuras are “Who Wore It Better?” and “Stepdaughter’s Blackmail”.  These were all times that I saw an image, got an idea for a story, wrote the story out, and then made a final product. 

There’s one other type that I do, however, that’s worth exploring, and that’s having an idea before I see an image and wanting to create it as a cap or even as an obscura.  A great example of this is “Endgame?”  I’d had the basic idea of that story in my head for a long time.  Months or even years.  Making the cap was equal creative itch and work though as I was trying to take a fairly nebulous and vague idea and put it into story/cap form.  The image wasn’t even something I’d imagined from the initial idea, it was something shoehorned in that worked.  And that’s the closest I can come to what it would be like for a request.  This was a request from me, but it still took me a long time to settle in with the idea.  And even then, it was work to make it flesh and blood real.  AND at the end of that process… I still don’t feel that good about it.

Besides my time at Rachel’s Haven, I think you’ll find that most ‘requests’ I made in the past were from close capping friends.  I took them as mini challenges.  That’s partially because it WAS/IS challenging to take someone else’s idea and make it into a form that I think they’ll enjoy.  That is often creatively stifling and can crush my creative itch.  Fun quickly changes into work.  I think that’s one of the subconscious reasons I slowly transitioned away from the Haven.  At first it was easy working at the haven with other people’s constraints and desires.  It helped to have a framework.  But later, the framework was just a rigidness that I wanted to do without.  I kept it up for awhile with the more direct challgnes/requests from other cappers, but those faded away and I can’t say I’m disappointed.

My current method is made to please myself.  If I please the audience then that’s great.  If it doesn’t please the audience, I’ve still sated that creative itch. 

With all that being said, I wouldn’t immediately turn away any requests.  I won’t discourage anybody from sending me a request.  They’d just need to know that it might not ever happen.  And if it does occur that I take their request and work it into a cap or obscura, it might take me days/weeks/months/years to get it done. 

I hope that answers your question Straymanwhore.  I figure it’s not the ‘yes’ you were probably looking for, but it’s an honest answer.  If you, or anybody reading this, would like to send me a request the best way to do so would be through email.  I check it a few times a week and will almost always check it before I start to cap (like I’m about to do now).  caitlynmasked-@-gmail-.-com (take out the dashes). 

And for that matter, if anybody out there has a question, you can send it to the same email.