Half Baked

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Here's the first of several half-morphs done over the years. I thought it would be fun to see a "before & after" in the same shot and Angela Mraz was the perfect subject to test it out.

Happy Holidays

Here’s a few of Santa’s Hardbody Christmas Elves to make you all holly jolly this season. Merry Christmas from Area Orion.

Danica Patrick Muscles Up

MailOnline: Danica Patrick like you've never seen her before! Racing driver displays bulky frame to film Super Bowl commercial... but it's just a muscle suit.

She is the most successful woman in the history of open-wheel racing in America – not to mention the most glamorous.

Fans of Danica Patrick were no doubt shocked to see her drastic new appearance on Wednesday.
The racing driver was spotted looking incredibly muscular while filming a commercial in Los Angeles.

But Danica’s bulging biceps didn’t magically grow overnight, and she was actually merely sporting a rather realistic muscle suit.

She is starring in the commercial for internet domain company Go Daddy, which will air during one of the highly coveted and expensive ad spots during February 2014’s Super Bowl.

With her glossy locks half pinned back and a big smile on her face as she jogged, you’d be forgiven for thinking those rock hard abs and burly limbs were real.

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One of my personal favorites from the early days. Amber DeLuca female muscle & breast expansion morph based on a photo from PhysiqueArt.com.

Originally published November 2008.

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Pia Johnsen.
Originally published November 2008.

Star on the rise

@cindytraining One of our favorite women in world, Cindy Landolt will portray Saba - Priestess of the Underworld in an upcoming Graphic Novel & feature film.

She writes, "I was informed through a friend of mine about anew project, to create a graphic novel and a full length feature film of the Irish hero, Finn McCool Now Finn's love was called, Saba, a Priestess, Warrior Women Supreme, I was told that I looked exactly like her from the novels artwork and it's true, I do, so I bid for the perk on the projects Indiegogo campaign and WON IT!.. Soon after I was contacted by the writer/producer of the Finn McCool project, Chris Brosnan, equally amazed by how much I looked like his vision of Saba! So from this moment on my image will be immortalized as that of Saba throughout the whole graphic novel series and then on to the movie when it's made, so exciting! This will be a whole new venture for me and something that has interested me for a while, but I’m a strong believer in waiting for the right opportunity to appear ... So here it is!.. Please watch the link below, it’s going to be great!.. you could even join me in the making of it! There's still lots of great perks on offer, so give the campaign your support, pass on the word and see me in the novel! Maybe even find yourself "Immortalized" beside me!! Great fun, great weekend, take a peek at: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/finn-mccool-celtic-ireland-s-greatest-hero--2

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Originally published October 2008

1st attempt to push some size boundaries with Marja Lehtonen.

Where Is She Now?

  
Valerie Gangi began her career as the city of San Jose and the California State Body Building Champion. Winning her status as a professional athlete in 1995 at the USA Body Building Championships, she climbed the competition ladder all the way to the Ms. Olympia stage in 1997. She then took eleven years off from competition to be a family woman.

In 2008, Valerie re-engaged in the IFBB as a Professional Figure Competitor and model.

Buff Swedish Princess

Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria has been pumping some serious iron. While the 36-year-old might not be posing any threat to Iris Kyle any time soon Princess Victoria is one of the world's most photographed women and she is sporting a pair of proper gym-built biceps!

This might be unsurprising to those familiar with Princess Victoria's love-life – she married her personal trainer Daniel Westling after he helped her battle an array of eating disorders.

See more at RealFemaleBodybuilding.

Girly Man

Originally published October 30, 2008

I was reluctant, but brought in the modified images for Meg... under threat from administration. They're printouts since no external digital devices are allowed...no exceptions. I was expecting a disgusted look from her, but she looked horrified and ran out. I haven't seen her in a couple days now. The prints must have gotten around, 'cause my new nickname around Orion is "Girly Man". I'm not a weakling or have a big athletic build, but big enough to hold my own in a fight... and have on occasion. I'm embarrassed about the name, but I've had worse.

To make matters worse, tonight's my anniversary with Lily and I'm here working. Things have been rocky with her lately and this won't help things. Hopefully flowers will work this time.

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The very first Area Orion Breast Expansion only morph - Erin Ellington.

Originally published October 2008.

Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton

In our final Strong Women in History segment, I’d like to honor Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton - the Godmother of Modern Female Bodybuilding & Fitness.

Wikipedia - Abbye "Pudgy" Stockton (August 11, 1917 in Santa Monica, California – June 26, 2006) was a professional strongwoman and forerunner of present day female bodybuilders, who became famous through her involvement with Muscle Beach in the 1940s.

Abbye Eville was born on August 11, 1917, and moved to Santa Monica, California in 1924. She acquired the nickname "Pudgy" as a child, and the name stuck, even though she weighed approximately 115 pounds at a height of 5'2". She began dating UCLA student Les Stockton during her senior year of high school; they were married in 1941.

Stockton and her husband were frequent visitors to Muscle Beach, where they primarily worked on acrobatics and gymnastics. One of their most famous feats involved Pudgy serving as the "understander", supporting Les (180 pounds) over her head in a hand to hand stand. Pudgy quickly became a media favorite, and was included in pictorials in Life, Pic, and Laff. She was also featured in the newsreels Whatta Build and Muscle Town USA, as well as ads for Ritamine Vitamin Company and the Universal Camera Company. She estimated that she was featured on the cover of forty-two magazines by the end of the 1940s. She posed with many of the top male bodybuilders of the time, including John Grimek and Steve Reeves.

In 1944, Stockton began writing a regular column on women's training, "Barbelles", in Strength & Health magazine, then the most influential fitness magazine in the world. She also helped organize the first sanctioned weightlifting contests for women. The first of these contests with a sanction from the Amateur Athletic Union was held on February 28, 1947 at the Southwest Arena in Los Angeles. In that contest, Stockton pressed 100 pounds, snatched 105 pounds, and clean and jerked 135 pounds.

Physique contests for women were virtually non-existent in the 1940s, and Stockton held only one such title during her career - she was named "Miss Physical Culture Venus" in 1948. She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000.Pudgy and husband Les had a daughter. Les died on April 19, 2004 at the age 87 from melanoma. Abbye died on June 26, 2006 at the age of 88 from complications due to Alzheimer's disease.

 

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Lisa Bickels. An Area Orion female muscle morph.

Originally published October 2008.

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NEW from the AO labs. Tubbin' it with Julie Zugarova.

An Area Orion breast expansion morph based on a photo from martinbucek.com.

From the Vault

The AO vault still has quite a few morphs that didn't make the cut. Every Thanksgiving I like to bring one out as my own little "Turkey Shoot."

This year I'm serving up Jami DeBernard. A beautiful woman and photo, but the final piece just didn't measure up to our high standards.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Artist Spotlight on Hardbodies

French artist Stef also goes by the name Hardbodies, and for good reason. His comic illustrations of muscle women for sites like Amy's Conquest have a detailed style, focusing on the bodybuilders as women first. A multi-talented artist, his gallery showcases work in various mediums and a wide variety of interests and inspirations.

I wanted to get to know Stef a little better and sat down with him to ask a few questions.

• What do preferred to be called?
Well, Stéphane is my real name, you can call me Stef.

• When and where were you born?
I’m born in Salon-de-Provence in the South of France in 1972

• Where do you currently live?
In a small village few kilometres from the city where I was born.

• What are your interests, hobbies or passions?
I always been interested by drawings and comics, of course not the comics you think about but “French comics”, even if I have read some American comics when I was young, in the late 70s. My other hobby is modeller. My apartment is full of military and sci-fi miniatures! And I play history miniatures wargames too… I’m really crazy about miniatures!

I’m interested also in history, architecture, American cars, sci-fi… I have so many things to do, 24 hours days are not enough to do all!

• Do you have a job other than producing your artwork?
I only make artworks in my spare time, it’s not my job even if some years ago I have done comics professionally. I had problems with my editor and I chose to stop and change job.

Now I’m a magazine graphic designer and also journalist in military history. I’m “specialized” in American Civil War and Russo-Japanese War.

• How long have you been an artist?
Well, I began to drawn some pro stuff in the late 90 but if you ask when I’ve started to draw, I can say that was at 4 or 5, and I didn’t stop since this time.

• What inspired you to become an artist?
I don’t really know. My dad was a bit an artist too, maybe I’ve seen him drawing. And perhaps Japanese cartoons inspired me a lot in this way. I loved TV Japanese anime like Great Mazinger, Captain Harlock or Captain Future… Muscular women came a long time after. At this time, I didn’t even know a woman can have big muscles! Even if I was greatly impressed when I read the first issue of She Hulk!

• Do you have formal art training or education? Where?
No, I’ve learnt by myself. My parents didn’t want me to do a school art lol!

• What artists have influenced you?
At first, Zebodoi, in the 90s, before web. I’ve bought some of his artwork at Athena2, a French shop in Paris. There was another guy in the late 90s, early 2000, on the web…I can’t remember his name but he was famous at this time. Oh yes! Scoundrel! He was everywhere and now totally disappeared… Technically speaking, my influences come from classic comics, mainly French, Italian and Belgium artists. I grown up with Japanese Anime but those didn’t influence me much I think.

• What type of artwork do you create?
Most of time my artworks are very comics style. I like to do all sort of things, mostly Sci-fi or fantasy things. When I do “Muscle Art”, I like to do funny, glamorous or erotic stuff, with often a fantasy touch. My characters are often sci-fi or fantasy characters, I liked the idea of hijacked Panthers such as described in John Norman’s "Gor" and to turn them into wild and very muscular jungle warriors.

I like to do “porn” things sometime, it’s quite rare but it’s funny. I prefer my women being quite realistic, I don’t like much “oversized” muscular women and I don’t draw very well this sort of thing.

• What is your preferred medium?
Pencils, markers and paper! I do colors on computers because it’s the easy way but I don’t really enjoy that. I prefer classic methods!

• Do you have a favorite subject matter?
Woman! It’s the most beautiful subject in the universe! :D  I love classic pin-up girls, and I like to draw muscular girls in the same way. It’s how I like really drawing bodybuilders: showing they are women first.

• Describe your artistic style:
Detailed, too much detailed sometime. Even if I have done more than one hundred pages of comics in my life, I’m still not really satisfied with my work.

• Is there something that makes your artwork special?
Hmmm, no, technically there is nothing special. The only special thing is perhaps the way I show female bodybuilders. Most of the time, I want to show them like women, simple women but with a little particularity. Yes, of course, I do fantasy stuff, but then, the characters are not bodybuilders, they are warriors, wild Panthers or Sci-fi soldiers… It’s a bit different.

Perhaps it would be interesting to ask to people who like what I do, they would give you the right answer! :)

• Who or what are your inspirations?
My inspirations often come from my Women Physique World and Muscle Elegance magazines, my main models are Denise Masino, Lindsay Mulinazzi or Annie Rivieccio. Of course there are others but I often use pictures from these women. To be honest, my very first model was Annie, she always looked awesome.

• Can you describe your creation process and technique:
I imagine a scene and when I can really “see” it, I start to do sketches. I use a light box and I can make many sketches before I can find the right drawing. Then I do a more detailed drawing, always with a pencil and my light box. Then, I can ink the final work from this detailed drawing.

• Was there one artwork or event that was a turning point in your career? Why?
Not really an artwork, but an event, or two. When I discovered female bodybuilding in the late 80s, first, I was amazed! The second time was when I bought a Bill Dobbins book. That was in 1997 I think and I started then to draw muscular women.

• Have you received any awards, prizes or other fame for your work?
Ahaha! No! Of course not! I’m just an amateur. I receive congratulations and encouragements from people who like my art, it’s enough for me.

• Is there one of your own works that's a personal favorite? Why?
Hmm, maybe the drawing I have done for the Freya website. It combines beauty, femininity and strength. And I like the “Mucha” style.

• Do you have any future plans or ideas you can tell us about?
About “female muscle”, I will go on working with “Amy’s Conquest”. I can’t do more. My days are not long enough to do more! :D

I’m working on a comic, something I do for my own pleasure (and maybe self published later). I want to mix my love of the 70s era and old American cars.

The story will be a sort of “Starsky and Hutch” stuff, about two cops, a man and a woman, in the Los Angeles of the 70s. it's an hard work, especially to make the atmosphere and appearance of the streets of Los Angeles at that time. And the fashion too!

• Anything else you would like to add?
Yes, thanks to all people who support me :)

See more of Stef's work at his Harbodies DeviantArt page.

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Amy.

Originally published October 2008

Mystery solved

Originally published October 18, 2008

I just finished up my first week and I love it. The hours are long, but the work we're doing here is epic, change the world kinda stuff! I've rarely left lab 2 except for the occasional food break.

I did see Meg from lab 1 and we had lunch again. We talked and talked and she told me her project in Lab 1, my heart started pounding. It's called a Celldat scanner and it sends out a ranged signal to scan organic & inorganic cellular material as well as anything data encoded. It can tell you the building components of a person, an ipod, or a software program, anything. Lab 1 is the closest lab to the entrance, and I bet thats what's been modifying the files on my flash drive. I must have been scanned along with my flash drive, to a range just outside the main security check. What fascinates me is how it recognized the correlation between the digital image and the innermost fantasies inside my head, then modify them. The markings might be some sort of digital conversion code.

I mentioned to Meg that I had some files that might have been modified from the scanner. She told me she needs to see them. Not sure I want to share images of my innermost fantasies with someone I just met. My girlfriend doesn't even know that I like big muscular women.