The Art Fish : Angels and Angles

Colour - Inspired by Vero Modero's Rainbow Angel.

I often try to support other people's creative SL endeavours in my own way and one such project is that of the events organised by FINESMITH Muses. These icons of sl style and fashion come up with some very interesting ideas - sometimes in benefit of a charitable cause; or sometimes just for fun!

The Fantasy Angels event organised by Tyra Eiren is one such occasion and I'm very glad to be able to incorporate some of the fantastic creations that will be available at this event in some of my current images!

Deep Blue - Inspired by GIULIA Designs' Goddess of Water

Deep Blue (Cropped) I might just be a little biased in my love for this dress
as it incorporates the use of my own little fishys!

And finally :

Crimson - Inspired by Romance Couture's Lady Dragon

Over on flickr I had promised to provide this flame background that I created specially for the above image so here it is in a PNG layer which you are licensed to use in accordance with creative commons

Dita's flame background - For your download

The Fashion Fish : Angels descend... on FINESMITH

The Fantasy Angels - hosted by Tyra Eiren

You are cordially invited to an unforgettable event which will be magical, sexy, ethereal and full of color and glitter in a unique environment to expose exciting and unique designs. It’s a Finesmith Muse project hosted by Tyra Eiren called "THE FANTASY ANGELS FAIR". And that will take place this February 14th.

 "THE FANTASY ANGELS FAIR" hosted by Tyra Eiren will last the whole weekend and which will give aperture with the grand show "The Angels has come down to FINESMITH with Glitter" on Friday, February 14th, at 2 pm SLT and that will count with the participation of large and well known Supermodels and more than ten designers that have joined and created each a fantasy outfit in a unique environment of magic and romanticism.

The amazing Angels you´ll see on the runway are:
Amita Yorcliffe
Annough Lykin
Beatrice Serendipity
Calima Dufaux
Carley Benazzi
Chevia Johansson
Locuala Madruga
Lua Vendetta
Natzuka Miliandrovic
Sylphia Constantine
Tyra Eiren
Widelmina Zeminoba
Xandrah Sciavo

They will delight you all while sauntering around the lush bedroom to showcase fabulous designs, beautiful and glamorous corsets, sensual and feminine boots, exquisite jewels and lush wings. Don´t miss the luscious stylings of this sexy angels fallen straight from heaven for your delight full of desire and charm.
The incredible Sponsors included in this event are:
AD Creations
Angel Dessous
Bax Coen Designs
Boudoir
blackLiquid
CELESTINAS Weddings
Countdown
Faster Pussycat
FINESMITH
GIULIA DESIGNS
HOUSE OF ELLIOT I HOE
LYBRA
ROMANCE COUTURE
SCALA
Solidea Folies
VERO MODERO
ZANZE
IsoMotion
MyANIMATION
PosESioN

Will be an honor for us to count with the presence of each one of you honoring this event prepared with love and too much fun and glitter.
Please make sure you turn up early to reserve your seat.
And you are cordially invited to enjoy after the show a PARTY to celebrate with the Angels and SCALA DJ Sea the Valentine´s Day in an atmosphere full of fun, music, color and glitter. There will be dancing, fun and beautiful people.
Show Producer: Tyra Eiren
Show concept & Script Writer: Tyra Eiren
ADV show picture: Falbala Fairey
Host: Veronica Krasner
DJ & Speaker: SCALA DJ Sea
Recording of the event: Kas Core
Official Photographer: Roman Godde
Powered by FINESMITH DESIGNS

The Fashion Fish : The Men's Dept. (Feb)

 Once you go mesh...

With a 500px dimension , this is about as good a closeup as its going to get here in this blog.
Check out the full pic below for a higher resolution image!

Dog's best friend. - Notice how jarring this portrait now makes non-mesh?

Of particular note in this round's TMD is Labyrinth skin's Mesh Ryker Head. Curiosity got me gender bending to give this one a go.

Now having recently helped along another style disabled guy towards a more beautiful Second Life, I feel qualified enough to offer my humble 2p on the subject of male aesthetics.

Ryker is a pretty cool looking bloke and has plenty of bang for buck considering - ($L300 for mesh head plus skins in hairy, smooth and happy trail is a serious bargain!)
Fantastic details for the detail ho such as pores, that slightly gaped pout, old scars, laugh lines etc...
Whilst I couldn't locate the "Seduction HUD" that would enable a more fully featured experience (this was not available at the store when I visited), you can attain relatively instant hunkiness without too much fuss using this system of matching skins and heads.
Works great if you're not too fussed about having cookie cutter good looks.

Because mesh is just so much more of a HD experience than the rest of low fidelity SL, you definitely need to be wearing mesh eyes with it. As luck would have it, you can get some lovely ones by {S0NG} in this same round. Caveat Emptor - You really need to be able to know how to adjust, resize and tweak the textures to fit just over your system eyes. Definitely not a project for the perma-noobie.

Other details :

Argrace RYO (New)

Labyrinth - Ryker Mesh Head

Birdy Boston Buddy (Cuddle)

Zenith Love Heart leather Bracelet

DECO Fedora Coconut

OIII Jeans

[monso] My Neck Warmer - Black

{S0NG} Lovelee - Toad Eye

Website : http://themensdeptsl.wordpress.com/

Taxi : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Pea/126/64/23

The Fish-Eye Lens : Arghs Tutorial IV - Puppet Warp Kungfu.

The Arghs Tutorials : Chapter IV - quick screen capture of the lost file 

The ARGHS tutorial is my way of restoring karmic balance and appeasing the techno-gods with a blog offering of a method byte. Other tutorials are here and this now continues with :

Dita's quick and dirty 

photo retouching/sculpting tutorial 

using Puppet Warp

This is a basic tutorial about my technique for retouching an image with Photoshop CS6 using 'Puppet Warp'

Geekery : I am using Photoshop CS6 extended on a Macbook Pro using a 2.6GHZ Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GT 650M (1GB Video RAM), Running OSX 10.8.5 with a 500GB M4 SSD (Solid State Disk) drive.

Finished Composition

Original Capture

Step 1: After selecting the area you wish to correct,
feather your selection and copy this to a new layer from which to work. Select Puppet Warp from the Edit menu.

Step 2: Puppet warp will convert the area into a mesh which can be manipulated by placing pins in areas you want to warp/pull/stretch/contract etc.
Start with laying down several anchoring points on your mesh and add more as you need

Step 3 : Using this method, it's possible to 'sculpt' areas and create cleaner perspectives and shading.
This illustration shows how you can clean up the 'arm pit' area of the original capture
with a more naturalistic 'join' between flesh bodies.

Step 4: Just a little has been done to illustrate the flexibility and power of this tool.
With one  process you are able to correct much of this area where the SL mesh is crude and refine it in post production.

And that is my ARGHS top tip. Hope you enjoyed it!

xxx

D

The Fashion Fish : TRAPHOUSE Collective

TRAPHOUSE Collective

Last year, Blades Foehammer sent me some complimentary urban tanks which I used in this image :

Kill The Hype

Since THC makes some really interesting and well designed fashion items, I thought - why not make it official and get in with the proper thank yous for this too :

Hang in there!

Fashion details :

In 'Kill The Hype'
I was inspired to create this image from this neat tank top by Traphouse Collective
Been meaning to use this amazing hair by Tiny Bird for ages now! Sadly the store like many greats in SL is no longer around which made me a little sentimental.

Other credits :
Gacha!:
(fd) Bossy Boots - Shiny Pink + White Socks
NEO** Knee Tattoo - Band2 - Color1
MG Necklace Love Teddy Bear - PINK

Freebies :
::LEO-NT:: Happy Duck Ring by Lady Leonard
=IZUMIYA= July Bangle/G
MADPEA Optix Goggles (on eyes)
Cigarette stub by Hall Igaly

Weaponry:
M/S Uzi (Pair)

Hair :
Tiny Bird - Sodom South Georgia - Sandy Blonde by autumn hykova

Clothes :
TRAPHOUSE COLLECTIVE - Girls Tank Kill
[R3] - Niki Shorts [V2]

Accessories :
[EY:NO] Chained cross Necklace (gold)

In ' Hang In There'
Pets :
!Ohmai : Mochi Kitten (Pet Ver - Head)
Birdy Pocket Pet  (Frenchy) Gray

Dolly Dita wears :
Dura - Boys&Girls*24 (Strawberry)
Beetlebones : Fowler Laced- Up Boots (Bone)
TRAPHOUSE Collective - Girls Fur Coat (Louis) M - This fits Dolly Dita perfectly!
{and} rattenbag. grandma (animates on touch and at the current round of Enchantment) <

The Meme Fish : Your Favourites?

So over on Flickr and sometime last year, No.7 creator Shortcake Sugarplum tagged me for one of those internet memes with a twist - it also included a neat little online mosiac programme that pieced together images of your choosing into a composition. So here goes :
(left to right)

My Favourites (2014) - Tagged by Shortcake Sugarplum (2013 - It was LAG!)

1) Color = Sapphire
2) Flower = Peony
3) Animal = Pygmy Marmoset
4) Singer/band = Bjork
5) Book = Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Fables and Reflections)
6) Movie = The Fifth Element
7) Hot drink = Mocha Latte (Chocolate and Coffee is GEWD)
8) Cold drink = Avocado & Banana Smoothie! (Yum)
9) Food = Sushi!
10) Hobby = Cooking
11) Outfit = Kaftans and Bohemia
12) Song = Princess of China ( Rihanna/Coldplay)
13) Number = 8
14) Place to go visit = Scotland
15) Season = Autumn

Please tell me your favorites!
bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php

The Art Fish : Latest Projects

Some time last year I decided to explore a different aspect of SL building and creation and that is cosmetic avatar enhancement. This was really born out of my interest in role-play and theatrical make-up. Under the brand "PalomaSnow Aesthetics", my product range consisted of a few experimental eccentricities such as shaved hairbases, hand tattoos, zits and acne scars as well as mesh black eye lenses. I've added to the range this year with two new hand tattoo designs now made to compliment Slink mesh hands as well as being able to be worn as tattoo versions.
These are :

Mehndi designs for Slink Hands : Blossom

Mehndi designs for Slink Hands : Vine II

Current Project :
Avatar eyes are something of an obsession of mine as their creation inevitably creates quite interesting philosophical ideas and questions such as :
Why do some eyes look more alive than others?
Are virtual eyes the windows into your Avatar's soul?

And other such idle nonsense *grins*

Having started the GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) range of contact lenses last year.

My current project is going back to the drawing board and creating a range of ocular cosmetics starting with my idea of a blind eye :

Test draft of eye lens based on my research into blindness caused by Glaucoma 

Back to the drawing board again : I've created a new eye template for  in-world use.

Draft of my new eye template for a series of eye'esque experiments

Beta test of my blind eye contact lens worn over IKON system eyes.