Colour Challenge Week 6 - Alice Blue

Oh my, this was the hardest colour for me yet; I don't do pastels and this shade is so pale, it actually shows up as white under most lighting conditions. I thought at once of a skin I have, which is very pale sky with clouds, and wanted to do some kind of air elemental (elementals are a favourite concept of mine). I wasn't 100% happy with the result; I like the look, but think it's far more 'mythical monster' than 'spiritual sylph'. She is more of a bird goddess than a harpy, a little like the Hindu divinity Garuda. Fine for the challenge but not quite my elemental - that's going to take some future revision. But for now, I bring you the Harpy of Ice Mountain. Sorry, no story this week - RL has been super busy and it took long enough to put the outfit together and find a photo location. But I'm really thrilled so many of you liked my story from last week :)

Incidentally, do you know how hard it is to find mountains in SL? Why does nobody do mountains D: I tried 'ski resorts' and finally got lucky, though I had to put the draw distance down to minimal to phase out all the tourist cabins - charming, but not the rugged wilderness look I was going for. If you know of a good public sim with mountains, please tell me! They don't have to be snowy. But properly high, and pointy, and not out of reach in off-sim void-space, so I can fly in them and take pictures.

The Harpy of Ice Mountain

Behold my Kingdom!

This colour just screamed ice and snow, and the clear, cold air of high mountain passes. If I wasn't so hooked on non-human avatars, I'd have done a skier in an alice-blue snow suit. And then I'd have had to find a snow suit *g* 

Face-shot

The skin is the focus of this challenge; everything else in the outfit is just to build and complement the look of the avatar, especially the dress, which I just had to use even though the blue is too dark. It's called "Goddess - Sky", so how could I not? I tried tinting the feathers the correct shade but then everything just looked white so I went with a range of blues instead, as befits a supernatural creature of the skies.

Flight

The Grendel's Harpy AO is superb, and I couldn't resist a show-off flight to demonstrate my snowflake wing trail :) Perhaps the harpies are the mythical bringers of snow to the mountains, seeding it from the frozen tips of their crystalline wings?

Shadows

Yes, I'm still in love with shadows on the v3 clients. I particularly like how these little shadows look like clouds, and complement the clouds on the actual skin. I don't know what was throwing the shadows; possibly objects outside my very low draw distance, although mostly there were only trees and cabins.

Defending her Lair #1

Defending her Lair #2

I should maybe have tried a fiercer expression for the last two, but it was late; and she's not really a vicious predator, more a stern but kindly guardian of nature. More likely to resort to throwing snowballs at trespassers than peck out their eyes ;) This sort of behaviour may be why she has earned the reputation as the Harpy of the Mountain. She tries to keep to herself, but during the skiing season, the tourists get everywhere. Nature lovers will empathise, I am sure.

Credits:

Location: Wolf Mountain Ski Resort - Apart from the photo opportunities and the fact it's the only properly high mountain I've found, this resort offers a wide range of fun activities and cabin rental.


Windlight: Sunset. Daytime set to sunset for Behold! and Flight, sunrise for Shadows.


Sky skin by ^^dk^^ deadkitties ~ 'sky' avatar freebie (it has cool hair, which I also wanted to use, but the look wasn't gelling for me - another reason this one has taken so long).


Night sky eyes by Lola Frederick (a friend).


[ni.ju.] tintable white claws - perfect for an avianoid. I'm so happy I found these claws, I will be using them a lot!


Harpy wings, flight AO, legs & feather 'hair' from Grendel's Children ~ Harpy v.2 (white, re-tinted) - legs retextured with Isle of Wyrms silver dragon scales. The great thing about the legs is the claws close naturally in flight, only I had the devil of a time messing about because LL have broken invisiprims with their latest code and I had to find a leg alpha mask to fit. Every pair of v2/3 boots seems to have its own unique mask which won't suit anything else :(


Inspired Snow Fairy particle wings - themselves such a perfect colour match I had to use them, although they don't quite fit the style of the arm-wings. I should think some extra wing-power would be needed for such a large creature though.


Dress: Digit Darkes' Goddess - Sky. I'm really pleased to be able finally to feature one of my favourite dress designers in this challenge, as my posts aren't really about fashion, and the majority of my wardrobe hasn't matched the colours so far. You'd be forgiven for thinking that my inventory is higher on the avatars than the clothes, but nothing could be further from the truth (just ask my sister...) The reason I don't go around as a dragon all the time is that you can't dress up much in that shape! And anyway, shape-shifting is fun *g*


Jewellery: Lolapop! Blue Rain clouds; my usual L&E arm rings; YIPs "is a bird" feather armlets freebie; feather headdress *TSM* The Stringer Mausoleum Laurel of Air (from her elemental manes pack) which I tinted to match the dress.


Shoulder pet: HPMD* Little Birds - sky blue. These sculpted birds come in a huge range of colours, they are mod/copy and only 3 prims, they chirp and turn their little heads and are utterly adorable. They are a must-have for anyone who likes birds.