Colour Challenge 28 - Astronaut Blue

~ DANCE OF THE STORM CROW ~

I got this week's outfit sorted out before Sunday - a friend had just given me a beautiful set of jewellery with blue hummingbirds and then I stumbled over a pretty feather dress at Boudoir for only L$100; I reckoned with my new Nyxus mesh wings I could rustle up something decent. Yes I know I just broke my 'buying something for the challenge' rule but it was an unusual dress and not very expensive (shush already!) Once I'd put these together I decided I had to make a Tengu, which is a mythical Japanese half bird, half human monster. I decided not to use bird legs because it would be too similar to my Ice Harpy and anyway with the head and wings, that left the bottom half of the body to be human, so I tinted some feather shoes which came with the headdress (both were originally a creamy white).


Unfortunately, the location I had in mind for my shoot was a bust. I had only just discovered the adventure sim Retropolis and was really looking forward to exploring; the entry point is an old fashioned sailing ship on a storm-wracked sea and since Tengu are malevolent spirits often said to cause strong winds, I thought I could do some nice poses pretending to be the cause of this poor ship's distress. When I got there however, the land was up for sale - it would seem Retropolis is no more :( Beautiful, interesting public places are disappearing all over SL due to the current economic climate, and it's a crying shame. It also left me at a creative loss since I'd been developing my Tengu with just this scene in mind. That and the fact that RL exploded in my face this week is why this post is so late. 


Still, I think I managed to come up with something decent. I was searching half-heartedly for 'shipwreck' places when I came upon a rather delightful little WWII-era Japanese village with war planes (no I don't know why it's called Shipwreck) and because Tengu are Japanese and held to be harbingers of war, I decided it would do nicely. Please don't anyone be offended by the non-existent subtext; I'm not glorifying the war, just uniting history and mythology through art. There is a dark element to the pictures, since clearly the Tengu is sending the war planes on their way with her blessing. There is however a gentler, more modern side to the Tengu as environmental protectors and later on I was visiting Silent Sparrow for some clearance sale bargains and realised that her colour scheme is astronaut blue, plus, she has a giant birdhouse tower on the side of her store. So I couldn't resist a few shots there either, just for the pretty. Maybe this is where Tengu go home to roost after a hard day's war mongering ;)

#1 Storm Crow

#2 The Circling Flock

#3 War Dance

#4 Blessings of the Storm Spirit

#5 Witch Gaze

#6 Spirit of the Forest

#7 Home to Roost

#8 Who, me? I'd never ^.-

~ CREDITS ~



Location: #1-5 Shipwrecked, #6-8 Silent Sparrow @ TwoMoons Island
Windlight: #1 TOR scifi Lydian dinosaurs; #2 TOR night that spells moon2; #3-5 TOR scifi Rainbowtek - but note the island was encased in a huge artificial skydome which affected the true colours of the settings (I only realised later when panning out a long way).
Poses: #1-2 europa 'Nyxus' wings AO, stand
#3-4 Striking Poses 'Dancing with the Stars' Female couple pose
#7-8 Sit poses on birdhouse.


AnthroXtasy Avatars Phoenix ~ BIce F (birdhead) - old style avatars sold cheaply
YIPs birdy feather headpiece & shoes (tinted)

MAU's & MEJ's Brethil Asian hair ornament (jewel retextured with Earth)
Boudoir Homage Noir dress
Sin Skins Etheria ~ Crinaeae (my first re-use of an item in this challenge besides claws)
europa Nyxus wings ~ Aqua Tips
Kunglers Extra Nightingale ~ natura necklace & earrings, gift from Lola x






The auto-formatting on this is p***ing me off so I'll correct it later. Sorry for the random white highlight, I have no idea where it is coming from.