Colour Challenge 35 - Feldgrau

This will be my shortest post to date. Another greeny-aqua kind of colour. I doubt I have anything close in my wardrobe, it's not the sort of thing I'd deliberately pick up, and I've no idea how it would be described by most designers. (Camouflage green?) Also I've had a tiring week and by this point in the challenge, I'm starting to get a little jaded. It reminds me of - well. What I DO have - and have been playing around with recently - results in this picture. Time for a little fun - can you spot where I'm hiding?

~ Where's Fledge ~

I actually found it really restful sitting here and contemplating beautiful scenery and the clouds moving past, like the summer we haven't had much of (and Scotland probably less so!) Often I can find tranquillity in SL where I can't in RL, and it helps to zone out a little and blunt the constant demands on my attention. Being a rock and doing absolutely nothing, with no expectations, is very soothing.

Location: Highlands of Scotland

Avatar: Grendel's Children 'Tiny Rock' (includes temprez Henge for hiding, dance HUD, wings and writing slate chat typer). 

I retinted my volcanic basalt version with a nice lichen stone texture; the volcanic rock gives off a fiery 'mist' but I think they have a mossy version that does normal fog - I just turned off particles to take the picture. It is otherwise unaltered except for cropping and border.

Colour Challenge 34 - Russett

When I first saw this colour I thought "Russet" which is a warm reddish brown - I even double-checked by googling and on Chirag's colour wheel which is my adopted guide - so I was at a loss to explain how a nice warm brown could turn out like putty?! Then I happened to notice Russett under Russet on the wheel... why this shade, which has next to no red in it at all, has a name derived FROM red is beyond me, but at least I can stop being indignant that someone with red-green colour blindness had mislabelled  russet! I also think this is the colour you get when your kid mixes up all their plasticine/play-doh.

Anyway, not much chance of having anything russett in my inventory, I thought it was the right sort of colour for a zombie - and zombie skins I DO have aplenty. {Frick} saved the day there with a skin which was pretty close, and as I was inventory surfing I found some Nomine demos for zombie missing parts addons - they were only L$100 for the set, probably because they utilise invisiprims and won't show up if you have lighting/shadows enabled, so I couldn't resist the purchase even though not everyone will be able to see them inworld. I will use them again though. They came with a really awesome scary skin too but it was the wrong colour for the post so I used the gentler {Frick} version. Zombies can be a little bit sexy too! ;)

The location is a roleplay adventure sim with a haunted house and zombies which rez at trigger points and actually fight you (I did some clever double-click tp'ing around to avoid them). The windlight is theirs but I increased the contrast on some of my pictures rather than lose that nice horror show darkness. The sim is great fun but construction of the adventure, with clues and coded tp points, is still in progress. It also hosts some of my favourite macabre stores (Yellow Jester, Snowbound, Weather or Not) and club nights hosted by the DJ who runs Avatar Bizarre.

vV,.,Vv  In the Dead of Night vV,.,Vv

Grrr...

Aaargh...

Brainnnnz!

Needz teh protein for major reconstruction ;)

vV,.,Vv  Credits  vV,.,Vv

Location: Village of Nyght

Pose: Zombie: Animated by Chiri Tokugawa (free)

Rotten Toe zombie hair/dirty grave

Gala Eyes Halloween Zombie

Frick skin Bloody Decay in mud

Nomine Zombie stage 4 (mid) - invisiprim missing bits of flesh

G&G Designs Seashell gloves/pants

free underwear

Colour Challenge 33 - Tyrian Pinkle

Tyrian purple, also known as royal* or imperial purple, has a long history as a dye made from shellfish. It was expensive to produce but the colour would improve rather than fade with wear/weathering and it was used as a mark of status and ceremony. To my mind it is a very pinkish purple, very similar to some of the raspberry pinks, which is why I call it pinkle. The only things I had in this colour were my hair, horns and the pattern on my jump suit, which suggested a cyber raver demon; the wings are old freebies which matched the suit design rather well and were tintable, and I just had to put on my roller skates. 
*Although we've already done Royal Purple and it wasn't even close to this shade...

I don't really know why I had to shoot this on the moon; maybe the sheer impossibility of finding a location to match or at least not clash too much with this colour. But the moon is really rather a good place for a roller-raver disco demon to dance; nice low gravity, lots of space, good lighting - and you know the music won't annoy the neighbours! I took lots of action shots for this one and decided to put together a kind of show reel, since I still don't know how to produce videos in SL. I keep astonishing myself with what I can pull out of my inventory, but bless Bare@Rose for their multiple colour outfits! The colour is actually closer than it looks due to the magenta glow given off by my Poi ribbons, which throws it off a little. I could have turned it off but I liked the glow effect.

Incidentally can someone please fix the camera bug which has kiboshed the auto-refresh? Action shoots are so much more difficult now you have to keep clicking 2 buttons, it isn't the effort it's the fact you lose a lot of shots due to the response lag T.T I can't seem to find anyone official who understands what I'm talking about but there are so many photographers on SL, surely this has a well-documented JIRA entry by now?

oOo See You on the Dark Side of the Moon oOo

Dance Series 1

Dance Series 2

Lunar Raver - best shot

Closeup

oOo Credits oOo

Location: Mos Ainsley space base (ty Linden Public Works)
Windlight:  Lunar Morning 7Animations: Urban Aly Designs "Cotton Eye Joe" Dancer
SFX: Abranimations Poi Dance Set (Ribbons) - set can also do fire, ribbons are colour change, has HUD for performing special trick moves

Outfit: Bare@Rose "Black Jump" - purple

Hair: +DV8+ Elektra Cyberfalls - Wicked Wine
Rollerskates: +DV8+ CyberJammer Skates (colour change) - both items from Twisted Hunt   Sept09 and store has sadly closed
Horns: {Rue} Horn'd/Chieftain: Winecup (ridged)
Skin: {Frick} Noir Smudged - Goth (with dark brows)
Makeup: { birdy. } - color me - purples
Eyes: Lapointe Purple eyes
Wings: Bat Wings, Large Tribal by Faerie Muse (free, full perm - I flexified and tinted them)
Tail: Dark Delights Demonic DeTail
Jewellery: Unique Needs Black Fang Vial Necklace
o.O Awesome Sauce O.o Beaded Gummibear choker & earrings

Colour Challenge 32 - Jonquil

We have a slight divergence in colour here - I generally use Chirag Mehta's colour wheel for easy hex and RGB colour values to make sure I can get as close as possible. For Jonquil, Chirag's shade is a lot lighter than the one Luna posted. I went with Chirag's, because the 'official' (challenge) version is almost identical to Dandelion, which we already covered. Honestly it's only a couple of values out (254, 216, 93 vs 250, 218, 94 which is a difference negligible to the human eye)  and at first I thought Luna must have grabbed the wrong colour swatch, but the discrepancy exists between different official colour charts. I've noted the value differences at the bottom of the post for anyone who is as interested as me in the quirks of the colour naming system (probably nobody ;) 


Colour discrepancies aside, this was my fastest challenge response yet! I tried my new dress first and thought yep, close enough; then had this skin in mind - perfect! - Decided to make a fairy and rummaged about for crazy hair, I have photos of the CHH3 prizes for quick reference and this one jumped out at me; finally just had to find wings, and once more, casually flipping through my wings folders, I tried on this pair and they really worked. So that was all four major pieces of my outfit at first try! Sunflower eyes and jewellery seemed a fitting necessity and at first I was going to try some shoes but decided that a fairy dancing in a meadow would have bare tippy-toes so as not to squash the flowers. I couldn't quite get the skin tone of the feet to match my skin and it shows on the pictures more than I would like, but otherwise I'm really pleased with the results. I went hunting for flower meadows and found this location very quickly, only realising after I'd done the photoshoot that it's part of one of the sims - Oubliette - I already have bookmarked for thorough exploration.


I love putting on pretty avatars and dancing in SL, so here I am, in my element in yellow, a flower fairy dancing in a summer meadow. Note that fairies make their dresses out of feathers, not petals, which is a romantic but impractical idea for tailoring.

~ Flower Fairy Summer Meadow ~

Treading light above the flowers

On fretted fairy wings

At last to rest in meadow bower, while the crickets sweetly sing

There's no place like gnome!

This last picture shows me emerging from a magic portal behind the door of a gnome's house, which leads from inside the little jewellery store to a really amazing underground cavern full of waterfalls; just one of the many surprises in Oubliette, which is an incredible place well worth a visit and a nod to the tip-jar.

~ Credits ~

Location: Wanderstill, Ode - home to Frippery Artistic Jewelry
Windlight: CaIWL


Pose: Juicy "Divinely Naughty" angel pose6


Boudoir "Yellow Dress" - secret L$100 retirement sale, may still be on sale
DragonFly Designs "Golden Sun Fairy" skin
Bare@Rose "Rainbow Bud" hair from CHH3
(N) Untamed Wings - Tranquillity class - by Neural Blankes (the T class wings are unique, so I have the only pair in this style in SL, but she sells (or sold) plenty of other beautiful wings)
SLink Jolie Pied Exotix feet
KRC Eye Sun Flower Eyes
Brat Designs Sunflower jewellery


Colour value comparisons
Luna's Jonquil #FADA5E :RGB: 250, 218, 94
Energy Yellow #F8DD5C :RGB: 248, 221, 92 - closest match on Chirag's wheel
Dandelion #FED85D :RGB: 254, 216, 93
Chirag's Jonquil #EEFF9A :RGB: 238, 255, 154 (used here)

Colour Challenge 31 - Wales

I have been wanting to make a post about my dryad for so long, now finally I get the chance! This is one of my favourite and continually evolving avatars. Sometimes she has a woody, bark skin and autumn foliage so depending on the colour choices, she may turn up again... This is the summer version, and I found a really beautiful location for my photoshoot. I'm a huge Tolkien fan and I think the builders have captured the essence of Lothlorien (the elven city in the trees) perfectly. Here I represent the spirit of the largest Mallorn which holds aloft the royal court; without the cooperation of the dryads, the elves could not make such beautiful tree homes.

~ Dancing Dryad ~

Sylvan Queen

Moonrise

Window

Fountain

Lothlorien

~ Credits ~

Location ~ Lothlorien Forest (just after sunset)
Sin Skins ~ Etheria ~ Epimelia
The Stringer Mausoleum ~ Swansong ~ Mane & Eyes of Earth (ltd. ed.)
Grendel's Children ~ Dryad ~ Branches and leafy drapes
Fallen Gods Inc. ~ Arboreal ~ Tree feet & leg additions (yes I have toadstools)
KOSH ~ Maplewood Smith necklace
Ivy pants/shirt ~ SL wasn't letting me see who created them but they are freebies & trans.

Punk Rock and Monster Mounts

I should blog more besides the colour challenge, I just never seem to find the time with looking after a small boy all day. Recently I was made aware of a huge jewellery sale at Finesmith (some kind of rebranding exercise, not quite sure what was going on really) but I had a huge disappointment - I found about L$1K worth of stuff I really wanted (and that's at sale prices!!) but dithered because to me that's still a lot of money. The sale was meant to be running til the end of the month so I thought I had plenty of time. Turns out, the sale ended on the 14th (how is that anywhere near 'end of the month'?!) and SL managed to stop me getting all 3 group notices about it :S I was so upset I went checking other group notices to see what I might be missing out on, and promptly took advantage of two secret sales at Boudoir (L$100 each for retiring dresses!) then could not resist their Vivienne Westwood Tribute creation which is a fantastic Sex Pistols outfit with the Union Jack, huge skirt panels, shoulder holster bra and mesh corset (and ripped tights). That wasn't on sale, so among all these new purchases I managed to blow nearly the whole grand I'd been saving for Finesmith, but hey, RETAIL THERAPY!!! Also Finesmith? Your loss, learn to advertise properly :P I might still pick up the odd thing from there but at their regular prices there's no way I'll be getting everything I had my eye on.

Two lions and a punk rocker

I went to Little Britain to photograph my dress, and was immediately attracted to a side shop apparently filled with alien dinosaur skeletons... When everything rezzed properly I fell a little bit (well a lot) in love. Unfortunately I'm not L$1500 per mount in love (where in heck would I ride them? Though 'everywhere and I'm not getting off' springs to mind...) but in a world where everyone seems to have a virtual horse, this line really caters to people like me :3

Friends bear these critters in mind if you ever feel like getting me an awesome present ^.~


Outfit credits: 
Boudoir Sex Pistols outfit from Vivienne Westwood Tribute event (L$650)
Lovely Mi Westwood Contrast Eyeshadow (also from the event, only L$80, various colour combinations available but I went for black/white - the white eye is hidden by my hair)
DemotiK 'Demonology' bone tipped ankle boots (hunt prize)
<DK> Effie hair - Cherry Blue


Yay I did a non-colour challenge post! \o/

Colour Challenge 30 - Aqua Island

"RAIN SPIRIT"

When I put this outfit together, the hair at first made me think of an angrier kind of creature, a storm witch perhaps. But my face is too sweet natured without an expression pose and the location I found was too beautiful and serene to evoke storms. This year, the UK has had one of the most dismal (if not wettest) summers on record, due to an unfortunate kink in the jet stream, and where I live it has rained just about every day for two months - longer than the biblical 40 days! A dancing rain spirit therefore seems a most appropriate avatar for this post. I hope by posting pretty pictures I will appease her and bring some much needed sunshine. On Sunday we had our annual family outing at a children's adventure theme park and the weather was absolutely gorgeous - this was after I'd put together the look but before the photoshoot, so I'll take it that she is pleased with my efforts. Today is mixed cloud and sun so I thought I'd better get posting!

Water Dancer

While shooting the pictures, I was thinking of one of my favourite pieces of music, Enya's 'Storms in Africa' but after finding this video on YouTube, I linked to another compilation where the poster has put Enya's 'Book of Days' (another of my favourites) as the soundtrack to Disney's 'Firebird' from Fantasia 2000. The tempo of the music really fits the action as though they were made for eachother and it is an amazing experience, much better (if you like Enya at any rate) than the original to my mind! The video is also very fitting to a rain (or nature) spirit.

Conjuring the Clouds

I must apologise that it looks as though I'm showing my nipples. I promise I'm not - I was very careful to adjust the raindrops of my necklace to cover the area, unfortunately, at this resolution, the raindrops just look like what they are hiding instead... I couldn't find a way to fix it without messing up the photos and anyway she's only dancing, it's not in the least a sexual pose, so I think we can all live with the result as adults ;)

Kissing the Raindrops

Cupping the Rain

"CREDITS"

Windlight: Alchemy Immortalis - Fog Lifting; Water [TOR] Liz Taylor
Location: Fruit Islands Tropical Rainforest


Poses: ANIMAH AO Flying Down & spinning (#1)
Striking Poses Jean Harlow (#2)
Striking Poses Kiss the Frog (#3-4)


JASstore JewelDrops Aquamarine Rain Particles
Gala skin & eyes - Halloween - Smoke
YIPs belly teardrops, necklace, waterdrop short ruban & pants
Alli&Ali Designs crazy magician hair (from CAHH2)
ni.ju tintable white claws
SLink Exotix Jolie Pied Flat Feet