Colour Challenge Week 11 - Aquamarine

AQUAMARINE

FINALLY!!! A colour I have a whole avatar already kitted out for. Surprising, you might think, but when I decided to make a mermaid, I wanted to do something a bit different from my usual golds and reds. I know I already posted a mermaid for Coral but she was made up from scratch for the Colour Challenge. This mermaid has been around in various incarnations since I started SL, as it is one of my 'fundamental' avatars - the ones I really enjoy wearing and tinkering with and continually improving. I think this one has bits and pieces from at least four different merstores, plus other parts to suit, so she is entirely unique.


Naturally I couldn't just put on a 'Here's one I made earlier!' outfit and be done; I have to make this a real challenge and bug at least two of my friends and family to death before I'm happy. So I had to look for a really lovely and suitable photo-location, and then when I finally found that, I had to up the ante and decide to take pictures of me swimming with dolphins. Well I had just bought the thing, it seemed the perfect opportunity to try it out. I don't mean to belittle the product, and I did get it working in the end, but man did that dolphin cause me trouble... When it first rezzed, it promptly sank to the sea floor and lay there on its back, thrashing spastically and squeaking continually like a car alarm. Fortunately I'm friends with the creator, a fun and lovely person, and she helped me sort it out. I did find that, sadly, you can't use such things to cross sims, because the scripts reset on sim entry and you need to set a memorised swimming route, so it just forgets what you'd programmed in. But for swimming around inside one sim, or indeed just leaving to frolic in the waves like a wild dolphin, it does very nicely and finally I got my pics. Actually I got rather too many pics for this post, as I really didn't want to leave out the dolphin after all the trouble I went to..!


So, here's my Aquamarine Mermaid:-

~ I'm a fishy girl, In a virtual world

Love my life in water, I'm the ocean's daughter

You can brush my hair, and pose me everywhere

Just don't let my scales dry, or then I will cry! ~

Homage to AQUA ~ "Barbie Girl" (Sorry just couldn't resist... This ought to be the theme song for SL really, and OMG I just played the original and she's reading My Little Sea Horse under the dryer!!!)

Twirl

Reflection

Sparkling Seafloor

Hello jellyfish!

Head detail

Bracelet detail

Swimming with Dolphin

I didn't want to get carried away and picspam so I made a film-reel type montage of my dolphin shots; to see them in larger size, visit my Flickr page :)


CREDITS


Location: Seriphos Island in the Sea of Fables, Cortez sim (see shout-out)
Windlight: Sky = Fairy blue (Paulina), Water = Glassy


Avatar:
Shape - mine, but slightly modified face for a more fae look
Mermaid Salvage OrchidBeta Mertail and fins (& bubble blower)

Gala Skin - Halloween - Smoke
HCT: Saleen Hair - Teal
justB creature eyes CYAN with Skinthesis Linden lash killers alpha
Schadenfreude Mer-elf ears
[ni.ju] tintable claws
:KH: Merman AO -feat.Dramatic Sea- and additional poses (I chose a male AO because it had slightly more aggressive poses)


Clothing & Accessories:

Evie's Closet Blue Mermaid ~ prim pearl drape top & arm pieces, scale tatts, face ridges & archerfish lure (on forehead)

Analise *tal* Mermaid Costume gloves & jacket (the ropes of pearls)

Bewildebeest Moby Bracelet & Amphitrite Hair Ornament (store sadly closed, but such amazing jewellery I had to show the bracelet in detail)
*TSM* Laurel of Water from the Elemental Manes pack (the pearl headdress)
Mother o' pearl knotted bead strand by Fallingwater Cellardoor of Shiny Things (but I think this was a freebie from the Gnubie Store)
I really should have been wearing my customary L&E sun & moon arm rings but forgot to put them on >.<


Angelic Designs "Swimming with Dolphins" ~ 1 prim rezzable, rideable, free-wandering programmable dolphin (mod/copy but no-mod script)


Shout-out for this week's location:
I was incredibly lucky to stumble on this location. Not just one but twenty eight sims (28! - that's 7 whole servers!) make up the Sea of Fables, as part of the Linden Public Works project. Most of them look empty and are great for sailing; but if you dive down under water, every single one has been carefully landscaped with undersea plants and creatures, sunken temples and hidden treasures. There is even a kraken! Above water, there is a sprinkling of islands, beautifully decorated with Greek architecture, or statues and temples right out of the ancient Greek legends. There is even a Mount Olympus which you can climb, and sit at the top in a gilded chair eating the food of the gods. Most (all?) of the sims have a rezzable area where you can put your sailing boat, or dolphin, but in general are just a fantastic place to explore. I added the windlight settings given above for that special Mediterranean atmosphere. Discovering this huge set of sims, here for no other purpose than as a public place of beauty, has made me forgive LL many sins. I heartily recommend you go explore, and I was thinking of putting up some photos but don't want to spoil the surprises ;)