LOTD 07/16/2016 – Gradient!

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Green/Blue Gradient… I have no clue why but I felt I wanted to do something with that :p

First I went through my inventory and looked for something in green and blue, when I remembered that I always loved the string and deep colors fo Zibska.

Then I saw the amazing “Zsuzsa” dress from Zibska. Originally it was made for a Thumbelina inspired event.Β  With the amazing leave shaped skirt and the beautiful little petals that are floating around the whole outfit it seemed to be perfect for my idea πŸ˜‰

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With the huge color HUD I was able to color the dress to a green/blue gradient, so I just had to fins something green for the top half of my body and something blue for the bottom. The down part was kinda easy as we released not too long ago a snorkel blue version of the “Montana”boots, that perfectly matched the idea.

The upper part was not that easy until I remembered the “Kiri” collar and head-piece as well from Zibska. Usually it is always easier to match colors if you use items from the same designer as mostly they use a close color pallet for some of their items. The green of the “Kiri” ensemble matched so perfect and when I found an option to even color the spheres in a light blue tone.

The amazing makeup is a mixture of 2 eye shadows from Nuuna’s – the “Ere Makeup”Β  and the “Mya Shadow” in blue and the amazing apple green “Leah” lipstick from Glam Affair.

Even if black is my favourite color, sometimes I have some colorful moments :p

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Details

Outfit: Zibska – “Zsuzsa”

Jewelry & Headpiece: Zibska – “Kiri”

Shoes: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Montana Boots”

Hair: Wasabi Pills – “Chibi”

Makeup: Nuuna – “Ere” & “Mya”

Lipstick: Glam Affair – “Leah Lipstick 13”

Poses: DARE

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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Bird of Prey – Pose & Picture Processing Studies with DARE Poses

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Collar” (#81)

I more and more find my own fun, in playing and fooling around with poses, experimenting with angles and learn new picture processing techniques…

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 63 – “You Can’t See Me” (#63)

When I started blogging, I always saw the need toa full body shot, a head shot and maybe even some close-ups of certain accessories. Nothing wrong with that, but the longer I was blogging, the more it was kinda boring to do always the same kind of pictures for each post.

What is a very common way of blog pictures – and yes I tried that as well *grins* – is to have one big picture and then include little close up circles or squares for more details. Nothing wrong with that either, but over the time I more and more had the desire of making more artistic looking pictures, which still showcase the designers work properly.

Pose Studies Dare 2

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Imma Burrito” (#82)

If you have a full body shot, often enough the shoes, the jewelry or even nails often enough are too tiny to really showcase them as the full avatar gets kinda tiny when you try to have all of your body on your picture. Mostly I had the feeling then, that I had more ambience and background on my pictures, than the actual items I wanted to showcase. I thought by myself, what would be wrong to have real closeups as a full picture… sometimes maybe my head or face was missing but is that so important, if I want to showcase an item that my face is on the picture as well? Yes and no… certainly you want to show that the pictures are of yourself and brand yourself for marketing purposes, but sometimes you can even show your face in one closeup and have other pictures with certain parts of your body or furniture. I realized, that if I do that, I need to find interesting angles for the pictures, as if I just crop them they can look boring very easy.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

I already talked about how you can twist and turn poses to weird angles and in the end they turn out as amazing crops or closeups. Some pose stores help with that kind of pictures and ideas, as they make unusual, editorial poses, which sometimes look weird if you see them as a whole or just from the wrong angle. Exactly those poses can be the most interesting if you go for crops, closeups or even interesting angles.

During the last Ferosh Fashion Weekend, I discovered a pose store, which I basically know for a long time but kinda lost out of the view over the time – to be honest I do not really know why…

Chance Greatrex, owner and creator of DARE poses, has a very special vision for his poses. They are really out of the box and different to so many I found on the grid. Just the fact that all his poses have each a unique and story telling name, shows that there is way more behind his poses than just an animation πŸ˜‰

Pose Studies Dare 1

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 62 – “The Struggle Is Real” (#62)

Lately I got s pose set called “Face Hands”, which probably was made with the intention to feature a hand/face combination for example for makeup and nails, rings or hand jewelry. They re perfect for closeups and different angles and while snapping I even had a hard time to sort out the ones I love the most, since I cannot overload a post with over 20 pictures*snickers*

Β Since I wanted to do a pose study, I decided to go for something simple but still with ym personal twist for the outfit. I realized, that La Petite Morte has a sale going on where Voshie gives her skins away for 100 lindens! As I still do experiment with my new Catwa head and do not have much skins for it yet, I TPed over to the La Petite Morte and took a look. I was very surprised as I just expected older skins to be on sale, when I realized there are as well newer ones with appliers for several mesh heads and bodies!

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Bedtime” (#78)

I have to admit, I have a weakness for fantasy skins even if I am not able to use them too often, but for pictures they always add something special to the whole look. When I was looking around – after I found the TP to the sales room… typical me… – I immediately fell in love with the “Belle” skin in diamond. It comes with a Catwa applier and when I tried the demo, it looked so stunning that I could not resist to get me one πŸ˜‰

The face has a wonderful ornament around the eyes and the lips are one of the most stunning lips I ever saw on the Catwa head. With the light purple/grey touch and a shimmering finish, the skin screamed for something mystical or fantasy looking.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

To not disturb the view on the body too much I went with the “Siren Set No. 1” by Pixicat. The tight fit on the Slink Physique and the minimal covering of the body was just perfect for a poses and skin showcase. The cool “Bird of Prey” head-piece, we made a little while ago for a themed event, and it just went perfectly with the rest of the look, even if it is a pity that it covers the amazing eye makeup of the skin… that requires another post with this incredible, amazing skin soon I guess :p

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 55 – “Now You See Me” (#55)

The cool finger rings I found at the last round of On9 made by [Since 1975] and I am pretty sure they will be at their main store now.

For the hair I wanted something pulled back, what did not interfere with the head-piece too much and so my choice fell on a ponytail from [taketomi].

Pose Studies Dare 4

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Damn Hot Coffee” (#80)

What as well took me a lot of time lately was polishing my picture procession. I played less with windlights and tried more to work with a graphic program to post process my pictures by painting and drawing certain things like shadows and lights and as well I tired to find new techniques to create certain effects. Fog was something I really wanted to learn for a long time, something that looks realistic and not just painted on and edgy looking. As well, how I can create shadows without using the SL shadows, or my shaky hands to draw fuzzy lines πŸ˜‰ YouTube has a lot of offers for learning new things and from time to time it is really exciting to test something new, like green screen against white screen shots and the possibilities you have with those kind of photography.

So for this post I mixed clean pose studies with interesting angles and new techniques of picture processing and even if it took me a while it was a very intensive learning time, which I really enjoyed πŸ™‚

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..::DARE::.. – Runway pose 18 – “Edgy Leaned Feet Apart” (#18)

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Set No. 1” (Gacha Item at their main store)

Headpiece: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Bird of Prey Mask”

Hair: [taketomi] – “MamiPlared_Bento”

Nails Rings: [Since 1975] – “FangRings”

Shoes: :)(: (Pixelfashion) – “Slavia Shoes” (for Slink high feet)

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Bella”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 49 – “Floppy Wings” (#49)

Winter Dreams

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I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

[Bing Crosby]

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Dreaming of a white Christmas… yes .. exactly that was what I was doing for the past days. I still did hope that at least a few snowflakes would show up for Christmas but… sadly not even a single one…

So I had to play with snow for the pictures πŸ˜‰

First I wanted to dress up all in white, sometimes I like it when I can blend myself into the scenery or background as to me that usually makes it most dreamy and interesting.

I started with the “New Age” pants in white, I always liked those pants and the special shape of them. Then I added the “Orion” collar from [sys]. The collar covers the chest barley and if you move it shows more than I like πŸ˜‰ So I had to search for something that I could use as a base to not distract too much but as well cover my body at least a little bit. I used the layer of the “Mummy Bride” of Ezura Xue. Just a few bandages around my chest and waist πŸ˜‰

The shoes are from Wicca’s Wardrobe. The “Shenna” heels in white of the ‘Chic Edition’ pack. I already had a funky touch so I went for the amazing horns from Death Row Designs. The cool knee patches are part of an [sys] outfit called “Alcane”

Now I had to find a place with snow and after trying a lot of different sims which are just Christmas themed I found this wonderful little place. A wonderful landscape with a natural and realistic looking ambience. Sadly I forgot to LM the place and after hopping around so much I forgot how it was called *grumbles* But I will try to find it again and update the post then πŸ˜‰

*UPDATE: Found the place again and it is called “Let it Snow”

I hope you all will have some wonderful, relaxed and peaceful days with the ones you love.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Art 4a

Pants: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “New Age Pants”

Top: [sys] – “Orion Collar” (part of an outfit)

‘Unterwear’: Ezura – “Mummy Bride” (part of an outfit, store not anymore existing)

Knee Parts: [sys] – “Alcane”

Bangles: Edelfabrik – “Bonfire” (part of an outfit)

Horns: DRD – “Darkforest”

Hair: Analog Dog – “Pipe Dream”

Face Tattoo: Nuuna – “Zion 2”

Eyeshadow: L.Fauna – “Twotone Makeup (silver warm-gray)”

Location: Let it Snow

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Snow Art 2a

The Crow – Dark & Strong

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Today I have the great pleasure to showcase another hat for the Art in Hats 2015 charity. This time it is the contribution of Miss Darcy”.

The “Stillness” hat not only includes the hat, but as well a wonderful and sad dramatic looking face tattoo.

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The “Stillness” hat looks like a tree branch coming out from your head and has sitting a little crow in it. Additional to that you have crows flying around your head too what brought me on the idea of todays look.

The face tattoo reminded me about 2 things. First of all about the old silent movies, where pantomimes were used or even about the pantomimes, that you can find out on the street in the big cities who entertain the people while they are shopping.

And for the second reason.. I am a child of the 80s and back then those sad clowns, called Pierrot, were very popular. I know that the general term is way older, but they kinda had a revival in the 80s in black & white. And the mask kinda reminded me of that as well.

Miss Darcy 1

When I was putting the hat and the makeup on, I looked at it more and more the Crow theme was growing in my head. Again and again black crows and dead trees were floating through my mind.

The dead tree totally called for something late fall winter looking in my opinion and I remembered the “Corvo” outfit from Zibska. The dark branches were right what I was looking for.

The outfit is made by Leezu and I just used the clothing layers for today. The kinda ripped off lately was the perfect base for the idea I had.

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For the shoes I was thinking a long time what I should wear. Boots? … to heavy for the filigree look with the branches… heels? … to elegant…

While I was trying several different shoes, a gift came to my mind. I got this shoes as a special gift, to remember something while I would wear them. The shoes are not common shoes, they are just leather straps wich surround the footΒ  and the ankles and as a heel they just have one iron pin. I am sure, that those shoes are kinda painful to walk in and as well not very comfortable with poking constantly into the back of the heel *shudders* But since I did not have to walk a lot for the shooting.. it was worth a try :p The shoes kinda underlined the gothic character of the look as well as they were filigree enough to not overload the whole look.

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With my addiction to tattoos, I certainly could not miss one of my favourite tattoos from White Widow πŸ˜‰ . The “Cavage” tattoo is available on the We <3 RP event and it is a full body tattoo, which goes from the upper body,shoulders and arms down over the belly to the upper thigh of the right leg. That was perfect for the kinda ripped lately since the bare skin was covered by amazing ink then πŸ™‚ The tattoo works for the normal avatar and as well for all popular mesh bodies.

Last but not least I added – to complement the shoes – I added a collar from Revolt ([R3]), called “Isobel” with some chains and buckles to bring back those accessories from the bottom to the top as well.

Miss Darcy 2

Details

Outfit: LeeZu – “Liquid Latex”

Attachments: Zibska – “Corvus” (part of the outfit)

Shoes: Pixelfashion – “Slavia Shoes”

Hat & Makeup: Miss Darcy – “Stillness” (Art in Hats 2015)

Collar: R3volt – “Isobel Collar”

Tattoo: White Widow – “Caravage” – NEW (We <3 RP)

Hair: no.match – “No.Why?” – NEW (On9)

Poses: Del May

Location: Digital Art – Cammino e Vivo Capovolto

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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Fears, Anxieties & Nightmares…

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I still cannot believe it… I was invited to an Art Gallery as an artist!

Not too long ago I was IMed by someone, that told me if I ever would have considered my pictures as art…

I was quite speechless, because until now I never thought about making art I just made pictures for my blog posts*giggles*

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But now I would like to talk a little bit about the guy that found me πŸ˜‰

John (Johannes1977), owner of the Windlight Gallery and the Windlight Magazine.

He and his partner, the lovely Emma Portilo, created that amazing place and Magazine that features new, aspiring artists as well as experienced and popular artists of Second Life.

To have such a place, is something very precious as you rarely will find something like that… giving young and new artists the same chance as already popular and well-known names.

When he asked me, if I ever thought about having an exhibition or show for my pictures, I nearly did faint…

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I really could not believe, that an experienced and well-known artist would consider my pictures art and it took me some days to get familiar with that thought*giggles*…Β  you can ask him, how insecure and excited I was…

He was so nice and kind and encouraged me for quite some time, until I dared to agree to try it.

Now I had to think about making art… what did not make it easier*chuckles*

I thought back and forth what I could do and I guess, I kinda ‘over thought it’ as I did not find anything that I thought would be as good to be displayed. Then I just slapped myself and forced myself to not think too much and just do what I feel.

The idea was to have several different pictures for the gallery, but when i started making some pictures I more and more came across, that I wanted to tell a little story with my pictures.

I ended up with 2 different series, which were born out of 2 totally different visions.

The first one is the one I have on this post.

I called it “Chased…” as a work title. The idea behind was that in our lifes we are running from fears, nightmares and anxieties, just because it is something we do not know better.

So the steam punk looking fishes are kinda synonymous for all those things we run from.

Sometimes we even feel attacked or even bitten by those and try to defend us and survive or get rid of them at least for the moment.

But what, if we stop running and turn around facing them?

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Maybe we can get them known better and all of a sudden they are not anymore formidable? It might not work for all of them but with some we maybe can make our peace after some time?

It might now work with all, but for many it can, at least for some it was like that for me. And in the end you might be able to go along with them like I did with swimming together with the fishes instead of always running from them πŸ˜‰

Β If you would like to come over to the Windlight Gallery and take a look at all those amazing artists and art pieces here is your limo :

Windlight Gallery http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Froien/172/109/23

While you are there and look at all the amazing pictures, do not forget to pick up the latest issue of the Windlight Magazine to be always up to date and informed about the SL Art World πŸ™‚

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Details

Outfit: r2 – “Kagaya”

Leggings: Sheer – “Leggings 29a: Very Torn Black”

Boots: Stelloane – “Heloise”

Bracelets: [sys] – “Khaleesi”

Hair: [sys] – “Micha”

Necklace: [The Forge] – “Chainlink Tassles”

Makeup: Nuuna’s – “Litzi Black” & Madrid Solo – “Twice Shy-Selfish Silver”

Tattoo: White Widow – “Insidious”

Fishes: 22769 – “Floating Boat” (part of the boat)

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Can swimwear be avantgarde or couture? – Mad Diva shows it!!!

I never thought about that it would be possible to wear a bikini and still show my love and addiction to the extraordinary fashion πŸ˜‰ Kalyabreeaa Capelo showed me different. She made a bikini, named “Yula” that totally will be my choice for the upcoming summer season!

The whole “Yula” bikini is made of prims, no clothing layers at all but it covers all needed parts πŸ˜‰ The basic color is a mixture of black metal and red… again a plus as that are my favourite colors as well πŸ˜‰ For the shoulder ring you can decide between a straight one like I am wearing for the pics, that goes around both shoulders and then there is another version that more diagonal and lays on one shoulder higher than the other. Swimwear goes couture πŸ™‚ I guess Kalybreeaa Capelo, designer of Mad Diva showed of in an incredible way that this os possible and very sexy as well πŸ™‚ You really should make your way to the Mad Diva Mainstore and see by yourself how innovative and new all the designs are! Or you can watch the Claim the Fame shows on every Wednesday as well where Kalyabreeaa Capelo is one of the contestants as well and shows a male and female outfit every week πŸ˜‰

Details

Bikini: Mad Diva – “Yula”

Skin: Glam Affair

Hair: Miamai

Earrings: Finesmith Designs

Shoes: SLink

Poses: Corpus

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin