Saturday, December 8, 2012

Advent Gifts

Frost and Snow

The Advent season is a time of cheer in Second Life, particularly in the hands of generous creators! I have mixed feelings about Advent simply because I'm a forgetful fae and having to do something every day is pretty much designed to trip me up! So far I'm doing pretty well, though; almost everything I'm wearing is an Advent prize I've gotten over the past eight days, though all muddled up and needless to say not available anymore. The dress is from Falln Angel Creations, and is one of the many free things available at the store; there's an advent tree along with additional lucky prizes under the tree nearby and a free gift every time you enter the store as well! The glasses and horns are fun gifts from 22769, one of the more confusingly named stores, but definitely a generous creator. I'm particularly fond of the horns, with their flickering candles giving off light. The cosmetics on my eyes are from Elymode, and there are also outfits in the offing - a picture above the Advent prizes shows ranges of prizes to tempt you. The amazing hair with red and green highlights are from Alice Project, and she's releasing a new hair a day with the special coloring, which is really fun! Finally, the necklace and ring are from Ginza, and I really have loved a lot of the other jewelry releases already, so I'm looking forward to blessings in the days to come.

Pine Trees

SL Blogger Support has a sweet list of Advent Prizes, some of which don't start until the twelve days before Christmas. I don't know o anyone who is actually together enough to show off all of the prizes every day, but personally I identify the stores I really like the products of and then swing around them every day! Other stores I've been going to include Adorkable Poses, Swayland, Hopscotch, and Dark Moon Creations - all of them have really awesome prizes. I meant to use some of the poses, but I utterly forgot until after the pictures were taken (remember what I said about forgetful?). I'm having fun hunting out wintery sims and posing in inappropriate clothing all over them, though! A lot of places have decorated, though I always wonder if it's completely weird for people on the southern half of the planet, where it's summer right now.

Come In For Candy

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Glasses: 22769, X-Mas Glasses - fir green (Advent Prize)
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Holiday Liner and Shadow - gold (Advent Prize)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: L. Fauna, Red 1
Lipgloss: Mock, Mizu Venetian Red
Hair: Alice Project, Hyori Christmas (Advent Prize)
Horns: 22769, X-Mas Aries Horns (Advent Prize)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Necklace: Ginza, Dove necklace (Advent Prize)
Ring: Ginza, Bird ring (Advent Prize)
Dress: Falln Angel Creations, Amrita Gown (Advent Prize)
Shoes: G Field, Slingback Shoes

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Incendia Outdoors
Light Settings: Paulina, Fairy Dark Blue
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Thursday, December 6, 2012

2012 Color Challenge: Week 49 - Cotton Candy

Snow Candy

I love cotton candy - the food, not the color.The candy in my hand, I think a Gatcha prize from Saturnine Dreams, and my awesome Skinthesis wings were both rather closer to the theme than I had originally planned, but I ended up really liking them and I couldn't resist being literal! I actually started with this Gothica dress, which I've had in my inventory for a very long time and haven't had a chance to use before now. It was a perfect color for cotton candy, light and sweet but bright and playful. The flower theme was harder to carry over, though - the necklace is included but no bracelets or hair ornaments - so I ended up supplementing the pink daisies with lilies. The one in my hair is from G Field and is a staple of my inventory. The shoes were the most difficult of all, though; I ended up returning to an old staple from Deviant Designs, these adorable sandals with the lily detailing on the side. They are pre-mesh, but still incredibly well made. Finally, I ended up using a cute pig tail hairstyle from Wasabi Pills, but instead of using her jellyfish color (which was way too bright) I took one of her light white shades and tinted it to match the darkest part of the daisies. I also swapped out my usual relaxed SLink hand for the "bag" hand which looks like it's holding something, so that the stem of my cotton candy didn't fall on the ground while I was gallivanting around. I had impulsively bought the fatpack of her hands, but I'm really glad I have the versatility of them all, even if I usually just use casual! I paired a couple of eyeshadows - one a simple blush on the lid from Mock (adding a matching lip) and the other more theatrical and vivid, a heart from Schadenfreude to round out my look, and I think I look rather snazzy!

On a Bridge

The biggest challenge of the whole shoot, really, was the location and the lighting. I didn't want to overpower the outfit with a really dark location, but I did want to echo the pink of the outfit in the sky and hopefully on the land a little. I used a variety of lights, this time focusing them on one side of the body using grays and pinks. The gray was to take off some of the edge of the pinks - make it a little less obvious that the light was tinted, and to even out the light across the face and try to minimize the awkward and unattractive mesh shadows around the nose and lips. To get a shadow along the nose without catching the slightly off triangles at the sides of the nostrils is a challenge in Second Life due to the flawed mesh o its base avatars; that being said, I will take the customization of the basic mesh avatar over any mesh avatar any time of the day. I really wish Second Life would expand the options for mesh, maybe allowing a way of combining their adjustment system with fresh, better mesh bases. I'm beginning to think we may get there sometime - Second Life is slowly seeming to become more responsive, and so I maintain hope for a meeting point between individualization and style.

Furred Friends

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow 1: Mock, Carnivale Cotton Candy
Eyeshadow 2: Schadenfreude, Cotton Candy
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Glasside Lip - Carissima
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Megumi
Hairflower: G Field, Hibiscus Hair Clip
Wings: Skinthesis, Cotton Candy Wings
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Food: Saturnine Dreams, Home Spun Cotton Candy
Dress: Gothica, Clove Pink
Shoes: Deviant Designs, Beach Baby

Poses: aDORKable Poses

Location: Izzie's Mainstore
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Catastrophe
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Crimson Forgiveness

Vases

One of the themes of The Garden is forgiveness - in fact there's an entire cave I stumbled across on my first time around the sim named forgiveness and filled with masks of many types. There are a few items I've always loved and collected - and one of them is masks. In fact, I have an entire "mask wall" as I call it, covered with masks I've bought, masks I've been given, and masks I've made. The prize and pride o that wall is a mask I made based on a casting of my face - something I'll admit I've wanted to do since but not put the time into it. For many, many years, I went every summers beginning to the Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology, starting when I was seventeen. That is a bit young to express interest in Jungian psychology, but my interest was actually much older, sparked by Joseph Campbell and expanded through the years at the Conference. In the mask year, one thing which struck me in the past and still stands out to me is how different my approach to my mask was to the others who made theirs at the same time.

Mine was certainly the darkest and most dramatic - in order to get a black as dark as I wanted, I used the underside of a scarlet and black fabric; paint simply didn't create the smooth richness I wanted for the surface o the mask. Diagonally across the face is a thick band of bangles, and running out from under that is a long veil of iridescent green and black fabric. The mask is topped by feathers, two black and one peacock, and in the middle of the forehead is a gold circle which reflects the light like a mirror. I can't put into words what the mask means to me, how strongly I relate to it's elegant drama, but the fact that it was unique in our group in both darkness and drama remains vivid in my minds eye. It wasn't until I looked at the others' masks, a day in, that I realized how divergent our approaches were, and how much my mask seemed like play while there's were serious, inward-turning reflection. In hindsight, though, I wonder if what I had instead was just different from them - if my drama is levels deep rather than the surface level we often assume drama to be.

Dark Drama

Forgiveness is full of masks: dramatic ones, feline ones, grumpy ones, partial ones, pale ones and dark ones. Center point is a woman holding a bowl, and on the bowl is a book full of words that, well... don't entirely seem to fit, though I read them through carefully. Its all left me thinking about forgiveness and how it plays a role in the game there, though. As a prize for each game successfully played, you can forgive each o the figures of their sin - whatever those sins might be. Oddly, although I adore forgiving their sins, I'm neither a fan of forgiveness, or sins; the former I think is over-emphasized and used to make people feel guilty for protecting themselves from others with more social influence, and the latter I think are used to judge others while giving the self a pass. I like the idea of removing punishments, though - not giving, removing.

A lot of my job is with people with mental illnesses - people who struggle with things most of us take for granted, like recognizing a coherent shared reality, or managing basic tasks individually. Often, their difficulties have led to punishments; not ones meted out from on high, but ones born of ignorance, confusion, or self-hatred. The part of my job I love best is when I can discover one of these punishments feeding on the soul of one of my clients and kill it, or help my client to kill it; there is such joy in a moment of success, in watching a growing ability to navigate in the world both ablely and without evoking suffering in others. The first time one of my clients was able to communicate to me that he was getting tired and needed more help using words instead of beginning to accuse me of delusional things was a day I smiled for several hours straight.

On the other hand, sometimes I have to enforce boundaries and consequences. For example, I have one individual who I will not drive to the store unless that individual has bathed and put on clean clothing, and this often results in me being called a "fucking bitch"; my consequences, as it were. Another I often have to push myself in, convincing this person to do things in my presence which are difficult, even frightening, in the hopes of fending off the consequence of homelessness. I don't know if any of these more difficult situations will ever resolve to my satisfaction; sometimes it seems hopeless and I feel both helpless and evil. I'm not always sure I make the right choices, or even if there are right choices to make depending on the situation. I suppose that is the struggle for myself, a struggle which seems deeper than any forgiveness can ever reach; I have to live with what I do, it is true, but so do those whom I serve.

Cats Eyes

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Coal & Green
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick 1: L. Fauna, Neutral Red
Lipstick 2: Mock, Mizu LipGloss - Russian Red
Hair: Analog Dog, Ging
Coronet: Wishbox, Red Rose Crown
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Earthstones, Bullseye Set - Gold/Emerald
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Dress: Evergreen, Velvet One-Piece Red
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui, Skully Pumps

Poses: aDORKable Poses

Location: The Garden
Light Settings: Places, Beach Cay
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Monday, December 3, 2012

LEA 6: Core Sim Grant - Monthly Series

w h o   s t o l e   t h e   s k y by theda tammas

Date: June 2016 - May 2016

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA6/132/73/21

Related Links: 
  • Announcement by LEA


Curated by Secret Rage



Past Events:

TBD by Rem (Litho)

Date: April 2016 - May 2016

  
TBD by Kazuhiro Aridian

Date: April 2016 - May 2016

Related Links: 



Retrospective by Barry Richez

Date: March 2016
Related Links: 

Stranger Things are Happening by Krystali Rabeni
Date: January 2016
Related Links: 

When Life Gives you Apples...Run by Rebeca Bashly
Date: March 2015
Related Links: 


Speculum by Giovanna Cerise
Date: February 2015
Related Links: 

Lives of the Monster Dogs by Vilvi Rae
Date: January 2015
Related Links:

2Lei No Violence by 2Lei Resident and Lorys Lane
Date: November 2014
Related Links:

Follow Your Soul by Eliza Cabbasoun
Dates: September - October 2014
Related Links:

'Spirit Within' by Lagu Indigo and Stardove Spirit
Dates: August 2014
Related Links: 

State of Mind II by Miso Susanowa
Dates: July 2014
Related Links:

A Maze in Grace by Krystali Rabeni's
Dates: June 2014
Related Links:

Cyber Orthodox by Igor Ballyhoo
Dates: May 2014
Related Links: 

Americana Retread by michaelromani and beawildered
Dates: April 2014
Related Links:


CINEMA! Take II by Mary Wickentower
Dates: March 2014
Related Links:
  • Review by University of Western Australia

California Giant Redwood Forest by Sea Mizin
Dates: February 2014
Related Links: 
  • Review by Kara Trapdoor
  • Review by University of Western Australia

Fractal Cathedral by Gem Priez
Dates: January 2014
Related Links: 


Fisicofollia by Giovanna Cerise
Dates: December 2013
Related Links: 
  • Review by the University of Western Australia
  • Review by Ziki Questi
  • Review by Living in the Modemworld
  • Review by Virtual Outworlding

The Machine by Lilia Artis and Moeuhane Sandalwood
Dates: November 2013
Related Links:

Colour Key by Rebeca Bashly
Dates: October, 2013
Related Links:

SEPT 2013: Secret Rage, 'Connected by Commonalities'
Dates: September 2013
Related Links:


AUG 2013: SerenVide, 'Hope Springs'
Dates: August 2013
Related Links:


JULY 2013: Nino Vichan, 'Musical Tonalities & Colour'
Dates: July 2013
Related Links:


JUNE 2013: Kalanglarik 'Tomorrow'
Dates: June 2013
Related Links:


MAY 2013: Katy Isodo, 'Mentality'
Dates: May 2013
Related Links:


APRIL 2013: Krystali Rabeni, 'Virtually Real'
Dates: April 2013
Related Links:


MARCH 2013: Fuschia Nightfire, 'Fuschia's Fantasy Fairyland'
Dates: March 2013
Related Links:


FEB 2013: Nexuno Thespian ''Dr Moreau: Seaworld'
Dates: .
Related Links: .


JAN 2013: Barry Richez, 'Dreams in Space'
Dates: January 2013
Related Links:


The Tower: Created by Rebeca Bashly, it was a quickly put up build (it opened December 2) and is symbolic of  restrictive areas, of closed minds, of self limitations and the like with a fabled, fairytale air.
Dates: December 2012
Related Links: 

NOV 2012: London Junkers, 'Project Guernica'
Dates: November 2012
Related Links:

OCT 2012: Solkide Auer, 'Architectonic Build'
Dates: October 2012
Related Links:


SEPT 2012: Mary Wickentower, 'Cinema!'
Dates: September 2012
Related Links:


AUG 2012: Cajska Carlsson 'Whispers in Code'
Dates: August 2012
Related Links:


JULY 2012: Lolito Larkham, 'Walter's Dream'
Dates: July 2012
Related Links:


JUNE 2012: David Denton (DB Bailey: SL), 'In A Tizzy'
Dates: June 2012
Related Links:


MAY 2012: Fae Varriale, 'Mirror Worlds'
Dates: May 2012
Related Links:


APR 2012: Athena Bedrosian, 'Mulligatawny Light -- A Journey'
Dates: April 2012
Related Links:


MAR 2012: Kicca Igaly and Nessuno Myoo, 'The Labyrinth of Absurdity'
Dates: March 2012
Related Links:


FEB 2012: Romy Nayar & Ux Hax, 'An Interactive History of Life'
Dates: February 2012
Related Links:


JAN 2012: Artistide Despres, 'Where I found my Ivory Tower Surrounded by a Huxleyan World, Which Turned out to be an Orwellian World'
Dates: January 2012
Related Links:


DEC 2011: Haveit Neox's 'Second Libations'
Dates: December 2011
Related Links:


NOV 2011: Tyrehl Byk's "Catharsis" & quadrapop Lane's 'Retrospective'
Dates: November 2011
Related Links:


OCT 2011: Rebeca Bashly's 'Inferno', inspired by Dante Aligieri's Divine Comedy, Inferno
Dates: October 2011
Related Links:

LEA 5: Art Sandbox

Two hour auto-return on your ART! Join the LEA Art Sandbox group for scripts and events announcements.

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA5/122/129/24


LEA 4: Core Sim Grant

Spilling JueL Tones: Created by Suzen JueL Resistance

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA4/68/187/23

Dates: February 2017

Related Links:
  • Announcement by LEA


Past Events:

Farm to Table - Sustaining Mind, Spirit, & Body: Created by The Steele Family

In our world of modern living, where we rush from thing to thing, pay little attention to what we watch, read or consume, the farm to table project has become more and more vital. Being well isn't just about a mindstate - its a lifestyle.

Dates: August 2016

Related Links:
  • Announcement by LEA


St Isabella Island, USA: Created by Indea Vaher
Dates: August 2015


SEASONS OF LIFE: Created by Johannes1977
Dates: August 2015


Giant Snail Fan Art: Created by The Giant Snails of Second Life
Dates: February 2015 to
Related Links:







LEA 3: Welcome Sim

The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) was established to help create a center of arts activity in Second Life. It is a collaborative venture between Linden Lab and the arts community.

More info: http://www.lea-sl.org

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA3/31/80/21

Currently this holds a giant map of the sims and teleports to different sims along with information.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Contrasting Art Hunt

Contrasting Hunt ItemDetails on this hunt are a little sketchy, but you're looking for a scultped red moon at various art galleries. I couldn't find a blog, nor are there hints anywhere I could find, but it's a very short hunt and so a bit of an aparitif if you are of the hunting bent but don't have a lot of time (or desperately need something you can actually complete!). I found nine different stops with one stop (confusingly) giving a landmark to the next two.

This hunt began November 25, 2012 and ends December 25, 2012, so you have plenty of time.

Contrasting 1-6

1) The Cube Art Gallery - rotating, texture moving sculpture
3) Soulmate Studio - V in Lilypads by Dax Saffron (no copy/trans)
4) Melbeau Art Gallery - Red Poppy (no copy/trans)
5) 2SPS Gallery - Turtles&Sun
6) WU Gallery - Cubist Guitar (sculpture)

Contrasting 7-10

7) Gem's Art Gallery - Gem Preiz - Fractal Treasures (no copy/trans)
8) The ArtZone Gallery - Chakryn Forest II by Alyx Aerallo
9) The House of QXI Erotic Art - Who's Been Naughty (no copy/trans)
10) Panorama Gallery - Alien Sky (full)

2012 Color Challenge: Week 48 - Tangelo

Nested in the Rocks

I'm late for Tangelo, very late, but in my defense it has been a Hel of a week! It seems like once a year there's always a week where I feel a dollar late and a dime short in any possible, and that was this week. I squeaked in under some doors, but this one I ended up crashing through and ending up on a heap of tangerine on the floor, cursing the lack of tangelo in my inventory. I only found it in my hair from Analog Dog - and I'll be honest, I had no idea it was there. I searched, as always, for a word (this time the tang beginning, as I assumed I would have no tangelo) and found mostly hairs, and mostly tangerine. I had some tangerine shoes, but there was not a tangerine dress or outfit in my entire inventory! It blew me away, I had no idea I had such gaps in what I've grown of thinking of as a pit of everything on the grid.

Rose River

This picture set also feels very off-balanced, off season, of in every way, We're out of harvest season now, a long way from holidays of pumpkins, but the brightness of Rabbit Kiss' orange seemed to fit the over-the-top orange that was characterized by tangelo. I ended up muting it quite a bit in the background, though, so I'm not sure the over-the-topness really carries across; there's a failure there, I feel. I lighted this one a bit unusually, though, using two colors. On one side of me, the facelight tint is a rich red color. On the other side, it is yellow. If you look closely at the highlights and shadows on my face, in particular, you can see the combined effect - but it's relatively subtle. One of the reasons I love using in world lighting instead of adding lighting after the fact is because you can play with color with it; I need to remember to do bisected colors more often!

Dramatic Bridge Dancer

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow 1: Elymode, Solstice Moon
Eyeshadow 2: Virtual Insanity, Spring - Tangerine
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Lucir Lipcolor Tangerine
Hair: Analog God, ffwd - tangelo
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Dress: Rabbit Kiss, 2012 Halloween Lolita
Shoes: Eclectica, Garden Party - tangerine

Poses: !bang

Location: *Tatty Soup*
Light Settings: Places, Beach Cay
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Saturday, December 1, 2012

This is Not what you Think it Is

Modern

It is always amazing to be able to insinuate oneself into other peoples' visions - something which is most easily done in a virtual world where that art can be expanded bigger than an avatar. Gracie Kendal's Ce n'est pas une peinture at Linden Endowment for the Arts Sim 15 is an example of this with more brilliance than most - she literally transported her offline art into digital format and then bent and curved it, making it move all over an entire sim. You can fly through it, but I have to admit I found that distinctly overwhelming; Kendal's offline art is brightly colored and modern in style, and experiencing it all mixing and mingling in three dimensions was too much for me to try to capture in two - though I highly recommend you go for a flight. I found it much manageable where art meets water - or rather where art meets its own reflection.

I loved the combination of the clarity of these reflections, my own form, and my reflection was a lot of fun - I think it hints at the three dimensions without making them overwhelming.Adding in light sources from windlight and you could gain some amazing effects - like the spotlight above which I found by accident then struggled to immortalize in a picture. The blown out effect of any light source is something I find particularly pleasing, and to be able to bring it into Second Life always gives me little shivers of joy. Now and then I was also able to find ways to take advantage of the effect when the objects hit their own reflections - they were layered forward and back in three dimensions, so like a kaleidoscope where the objects hit the mirror at different places for different effects, the art simply seems to burst off of the screen.

Spotlight

I had originally thought to put myself together in shades of black, something simple and severe to stand out from the riotous shades, but then I couldn't get into the sim! Fearing the worst, I ended up contacting the illustrious artist and it turned out there had been a technical snafu; by then I had put back on my blush outfit from the recent Single Frame Story. Surprisingly, I really liked the effect against the colors - the slightly more neutral blush shades sometimes seem to fade into the background, other times to stand out distinctly, and with one windlight I tried I actually almost vanished into a peach and blush dream world.

The outfit is made up of combinations of many items, based on the Rosal corset and boots which I have absolutely fallen in love with. They are tintable and have several textures besides, making them hugely adaptable. The shirt is a very old purchase from G Field which I paired with a recent purchase from G Field in the form of her mesh shorts. I topped it off with a braid from elikatira which I fell in love with ages ago but only put on now. I crowned that with a gorgeous new group gift from World's End Garden to celebrate the newest remake of that amazing sim, a lovely band of flowers or around the brow. All in all, although it was a difficult look to accomplish, I was enormously pleased with the result!

Reflections Balanced

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Solstice - Moon
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Guardsman Red
Hair: elikatira, Wherever - Blonde 10
Coronet: Worlds End Garden, Le jardin de la fille hair wreath (group gift)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Jewelry: League, Pearls & Lace
Shirt: G Field, Floral Halter Top - peach
Corset: Rosal, Unmei Mesh Corset
Shorts: G Field, Frill Shorts - salmon
Boots: Rosal, Unmei Thigh Platform Boots

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Ce n'est pas une peinture
Light Settings: Various
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only