Yes, I retouch...

Yes, I retouch, and here's why;

I'm not representing real people in my work.

My work does not represent real people portraying characters - my work is representing characters portrayed by real people. They're the base of personas I've created in my head. I'm not trying to sell you a photo of a real person, I'm trying to share and tell you a fantasy story.

I retouch people all the time, I remove the pimples, the blemishes, I can enhance the bust, shrink the waist, increase the size of the butt, I've removed the bump of the nose ridge if I felt it was right.

I'm not trying to give into industry standards, fuck that, I'm just showing how good of an artist I am.

A former friend used to get a lot of shit online for retouching photos of herself - I know on self portraits I remove the sleepy eye bags from my eyes *mind blown* no one is that perfect.

The reason I do this is because fantasy isn't real, if you're disappointed with how I look in person vs what I look like in a photo, how is an assumption made of me, my fault? If you've seen my selfies or videos - you know I'm not plastic perfect. I've never had any surgery to modify myself, the only one I've had was a health concerns at 18. Hardly a body mod.

If you are upset by this, I implore you to have a different opinion, to disagree and to be mad, but understand, I'm making art, not trying to share family memories.

There's a drastic difference between the two, and the fact that I create from my mind to bring reality to an idea should be celebrated, not hindered and looked down upon, I'm sorry if I have spent the time to learn to be a photo wizard, but really, I'm not sorry, why should I be? Because it's "not natchy" (not natural)? I strive to create the supernatural, my job is to create content that opens your imagination to explore other possibilities in the world, instead of living life in the linear, I try to make it viewable from all angles.

Open your mind and think for yourself, get mad at me if you want for modifying my artwork, and making a fantasy appear to be reality. That just means that I'm doing a good job.

(Disclaimer - this is not meant to sound cocky, it's just meant to show that I'm different than the average idea of what a 'retoucher' is.)

-Sarah Trickler