“No, I wouldn’t want to live in a world without dragons…”

“No, I wouldn’t want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery or faith.”

[- R. A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver -]

Sometimes you log into Second Life and then the journey downwards starts… This time it was me logging in and looking for my animals folder, which I had sorted something into about 2 days ago and it was all gone. First I thought it might have slipped into another folder like I did have it before, but even ifย  I typed “JIAN”, “Clover” or “HEXtraordinary into the search field of my inventory… nothing would come up… I was furious again.. there were tons of gacha rares, FLF and bought/gifted animals from the past at least 7 years in it – it was all gone and I am 100% sure it did NOT delete it myself. I wasn’t even near that folder except 2 days ago, when I sorted my new animals I got into that folder. First I looked on my inventory number which I watch very close and carefully kinda everyday. There was not much of a difference, that would make me suspicious or worrying. It was round about the same number as always and so I thought of other things that I could do if it just would be a glitch. I relogged, cleared my cache and even finally updated to the most actual version of the Firestorm Viewer as some people mentioned they got shapes and what not back when the updated their viewer. NOTHING! I was out of ideas and now filed a ticket about it and wait since yesterday for a response still hoping I can get that folder back somehow. I alredy peeked into redelivery terminals, but since many of that animals were blogger reviews, gachas or gifts… I would not even get half of then back ๐Ÿ™ That really would suck plus I am even scared to buy something ne fromย  non Casper Vendor, now that I have no clue, if it will be gone after 2 more days again *pulls her hair* Originally I planned a picture with the wonderful “ShadowBull” and the “Osaguar” from Clover, but since I already had them sorted into my animals folder they are gone now too… I had to get a different idea. Thank god I didn’t yet sort my “Dragon Hatchling” into that folder so that is the only animal which is left now in my inventory. The sweet little pet usually comes as a fully animated mesh prop. You will find a follower and an attachable pet with 3 incredible amazing animations in it. For my post I just rezzed them and did build my poses around them.

The amazing face chain you can find at the Man Cave event, made by L’Emporio. The cool chain runs from over your ears down your cheeks through your mouth. With the amazing ornaments it really makes a statement and matches to many different styles. The cool Hair you will find at the actual round of the JAIL event and was handcrafted by no.match.

I still hope that Linden Labs will be able to recover my missing items somehow and until then i just will see what I can come up with without animals for now *winks*

Clothing

Outfit: Art&KO – “Hunter Set” (Maitreya)
Sleeves: Moon Elixir – “Faunalyn – Arm Bracers” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Septum: Gorsimi – “Aeroliite Septium (Gold)
Nose: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Vertebrus Septum” (Gacha, Rare)
Collar: [Cubic Cherry] – “{Cata} collar BRONZE”
Feathers: – Tivoli Inc – – “Raven Feathers Tattoo” (LeL EvoX BoM)
Face Chain: L’Emporio – “*Lugosi*” – NEW @ Man Cave Event // April 2021
Upper Arm Band: Clover – “Potion Brace”
Nails: L’Emporio – “*Damned Claws*” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match โ€“ โ€œNo_Vikingโ€ โ€“ NEW @ JAIL Event // April 2021

Face Art: Nefekalum Tattoos โ€“ โ€œHunger โ€“ EvoXโ€ (EvoX BoM, Materials)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “Avalon 3.0”
Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”
Tattoo: .:Vegas:. – “Tattoo Dark Transparency” (boM)

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: selfmade
Animals: Clover – “Dragon Hatchling”
Location: Nymphai

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

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

Pose Studies Dare 5

..::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…

Pose Studies Dare 8

..::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.

Pose Studies Dare 11

..::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 ๐Ÿ˜‰

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*

ย 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!

Pose Studies Dare 3

..::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 ๐Ÿ˜‰

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.

Pose Studies Dare 13

..::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

Pose Studies Dare 9

..::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 ๐Ÿ˜‰ 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 ๐Ÿ™‚

Pose Studies Dare 14

..::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

Pose Studies Dare 12a

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

In a certain mood… playing with poses

White Room 4

Sometimes I really do like just roaming through my poses to see, if I can find any inspiration or develop some ideas based on poses.

This time I just put on one of my favourite fantasy skins lately, the “Amalthea” skin from La Petite Morte. I rarely saw such a light skin that still had all those wonderful details and it is still not white, it has a very dreamy tone.it comes in different versions, which follow an inspiration of the “Last Unicorn” One of them even has the darker star on the forehead where the unicorn of the enchanted Princess Amalthea is supposed to be, like we saw it in the movie ๐Ÿ™‚

White Room 3

The cool tattoo comes from TAOX Tattoos. I found it at the J&A Expo this year and with the amazing details and the huge size all over the body, I have to admit it pulled my view on that brand as i never heard about it before. As a tattoo addicted, you never can have enough places for good tattoos ๐Ÿ˜‰

TAOX provides appliers for nearly all popular mesh bodies and as well an Omega applier. The pack does not include any default avatar layer so you only can wear it with one of the mesh bodies.

The amazing horn on my forehead, was made by AiShA for the last round of the Enchantment event. For the hair I wanted something wild but still innocent and so my decision fell on the “Pocahontas” hairstyle from LeLutka. With the lightly windblown touch it looked perfect to the innocent vulnerable look of an enchanted unicorn ๐Ÿ˜‰

White Room 1

But now back to ‘random posing’ ๐Ÿ˜‰

Sometimes I really do like to go through my poses and just make it a challenge to shoot every pose I opened with the outfit I am wearing

That sometimes means to change the angle, if some parts would look awkward.ย  As well you can turn and rotate the pose stand to get an interesting angle. At times I get a weird feeling or view, but I still snap it, because sometimes later, when I work on it, it becomes more interesting as I thought on the first view ๐Ÿ˜‰ Shadows can do a big part as well to hide minor issues or errors. If nothing help, you always have the possibility to crop your picture. That as well sometimes gives a neat new view as originally thought. Sometimes you maybe just safe a shot with cropping it and other times the crop looks way more expressive and interesting.

Certainly it is easier, when you wear something that sticks close to the body. Some gowns or dresses can make a challenge like this nearly impossible. The “Siren ” ensemble from Pixicat was perfect for that purpose.

White Room 2

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Nr 1” (Gacha @ Main store)

Unicorn Horn: AiShA – “Armor Unicorn Horn”

Hair: LeLutka – “Pocahontas”

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Amalthea Skin”

Tattoo: TAOX – “Kenza”

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

White Room 5

Making a girls dream come true – Alice in Wonderland by Wishbox

A dream that many girls have inside maybe…one day being “Alice in Wonderland”… Wishbox made this dream come true in SL ๐Ÿ™‚

Wisp Jinn, designer of Wishbox designs fantasy clothing for the dreamy, enchanted moments of life. This short dress is one example… A wonderful interpretation of the “Alice in Wonderland” outfit. Every little detail is made with love.. take a look at the skirt, the little pockets on the apron are filled with so amazing accessories like the key or the watch or all the wonderful little items. As a special Wishbox included one skirt version with empty pockets where you can add your own items ๐Ÿ™‚ The sweet knee socks are also part of the outfit. The shoulders are decorated with 2 little shoulder attachments that repeat the color of the skirt. At the top you can see again the eye for the detail of Wisp Jinn, if you take a closer look on the sweet teal ornament that decorates the belly.

A dream for a day made by Wishbox. You should take a look at the Wishbox Mainstore to see all the other lovely creations made by Wisp Jinn.

Details

Outfit: Wishbox – “Alice in Wonderland”

Skin: Baiastice – “Pulchra” /pale

Hair: epoque – “Hot summer Mess” /chips

Shoes: In her Shoes –ย “Stiletto Teal”

Poses: Body Talking

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin