Fair Play: "Accessory Fair 2011"

I made my way over to "Accessory Fairy 2011" today, produced by GLANCE, and sponsored by MOOD, Gems & Kisses, GOS, and Finesmith Designs.  Accessory Fair takes place over two sims, "Cherry Hollow" and "Cherry Valley," both themed to look like an archaeological expedition to ancient Egypt!  Proceeds from many of the items for sale go to support GLANCE's Relay For Life effort, so shoppers can grab unique items made exclusively for the Fair while simultaneously helping out an amazing cause!  Accessory Fair 2011 runs from June 11 to June 26, so make it a point to stop by before the event ends...you definitely don't want to miss this!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cherry%20Valley/82/138/33

Shape:  Sy Whitesong

Skin:  "Edward"//Subaru

Cosmetics:  "Black Eyeliner"//A'VION

Hair:  "Hoke Troika"//Gritty Kitty

Eyes:  "Herbalist Eyes"//A:S:S

Outfit:  "Lady Of Egypt"//N.A.M.E.

Jewelry:  "Queen Anubis"//Finesmith Designs

Pose:  "Mr. Egypt"//Body Talking

Model & Photographer:  Sy Whitesong

GLANCE: Day 4

STYLING SESSION!!!  OMG...I sweated my tush off for 2 days straight getting ready for this.  Yesterday morning I logged in and hated EVERYTHING in my inventory.  So...about 10K Lindens, 48 hours of consecutive play, and a dozen friends' opinions later, I was ready!  Wicca was as gracious as always, complimenting me on my choice of designers and accessories, while making patient suggestions for each outfit.  My casual outfit needed a little more accessorizing, which we did on the spot.  For my swimwear, I needed flip-flops, which I found at SEY (thanks for the help Brendan and Jonas!).  Wicca suggested that I use a hairbase and attachment for my headshot (with the Valeria set from Finesmith), rather than the Uw hair I had planned, so I finally settled on "Sun" from Purple Moon after extensive shopping.  Lastly, Wicca requested that I experiment with some avant garde hair for my formal photo, so I went with "Baum" from 3636.  Styling done...raw photos submitted...now I just sit back and wait for Wicca to tell me who my super secret photographer is!  CAN'T WAIT!  Here's a preview of my casual outfit:

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  Gritty Kitty
Jacket:  Xplosion
Shirt:  Xplosion
Jeans:  Xplosion
Shoes (not pictured):  Xplosion
Sunglasses:  Xplosion
Bracelet:  Finesmith
Pose:  Body Talking

P.S.  Special thanks to one of my oldest SL friends, Channing Absent, for going shoe shopping with me this morning...even though I was a hot summer mess.  =P

GLANCE: Day 3

Third class with Wicca Merlin at the GLANCE Model Academy.  Today's topics:  inventory organization and runway/posing.  Inventory organization?  PLEASE!  I'm the most OCD guy I know when it comes to organization.  I can probably name every item I have in my inventory from memory, and find it for you in less than 5 seconds.  Runway and posing, however, have me TERRIFIED!  As is blatantly obvious from my previous pictures, I have little to no photography experience in SL (or RL for that matter)...hence, no posing experience.  Runway scares me even more, as there are SO MANY things that can go wrong during a fashion show (lag is a beast!).  However, Wicca is a rockstar, so I'm sure she'll have me whipped into shape in no time.  She gave me a lot of helpful tips on fighting lag during fashion shows, as well as some helpful pointers on improving SL performance overall.

At the end of class, Wicca announced that our next meeting would be used to style 4 outfits for my portfolio shoot:  formal, casual, swimsuit, and headshot.  I swear, you could probably hear the neurons firing as I ran through all the possibilites in my head, coming up with outfit ideas left and right!  The last 3 don't worry me too much.  I'll probably wear some casual stuff from Xplosion, my swimsuit will definitely be from Kobalt, and I'm absolutely wearing the Valeria set from Finesmith for my headshot.  Formal, however, is not my forte.  After stalking the blogosphere for ideas, I settled on four outfits (2 from Champagne, 2 from Violator), then sent out pics to several friends, asking them to choose their favorite.  Below was my top pick, and the one that I thought was the most "me":

I can rock purple like no other, and I love the soft shimmer of the latex.  However, most of my friends agreed it wasn't dressy enough, so I went with 2 of my original options from Champagne, plus an additional Champagne outfit.  I also stopped by Essential Soul earlier today to pick up my X-Poser HUD (which I LOVE), and dropped by Body Talking to buy some poses.  Below is a preview of one option for my formal pic, with my new favorite pose from the "RicoRacer" line at Body Talking. Thanks to Brendan Macarthur for the pic!

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  UW
Outfit:  Champagne

Pose:  Body Talking

GLANCE: Day 2

The first part of today's class was all about one's attitude as a model...being pleasant to work with, accepting and incorporating feedback gracefully, not being a raging beast, etc.  I like to think that I'm a fairly agreeable person, so I don't really have too much to work on here.  The last half was about something super exciting though:

ACCESSORIES!

I'm a bracelet/watch/wristband WHORE!  I love them, and they love me.  But, a huge part of this experience is going outside my comfort zone to find new things that compliment my style, making me better and more versatile as a model.  So, I embarked on an epic journey to THE Second Life jewelry boutique:  Finesmith.  On my first visit to the store (accompanied by Jonas Laviscu, my SL hubby), I may or may not have overheard a scandalous conversation being held between Yula Finesmith (owner) and Cade Nansen (manager) on the roof...but that is another story, and shall (not) be told another time.

A lot of the stuff at Finesmith is (obviously) too girly for me, but most of their bracelets and bangles do have a very unisex appeal.  Yes, I know...MORE wrist jewelry.  But this is shiny CLASSY wrist jewelry!  :-D  Then, when all hope seemed lost, I came across this (yes, the outfit still needs some adjusting...focus on the jewelry):

Behold...Valeria:  a limited edition necklace/earring set, with only 100 copies available.  Now, I'm a sucker for anything exclusive anyways (aka limited edition), but just look at the detail!  I'm in love, and it  is by far my favorite SL investment to date.  P.S.  it comes with scripts to resize, retexture, change the gems, add/remove glow, add/remove fullbright, etc.

I also bought some spiffy shoes from Xplosion (new fav clothing store), but that will be saved for another post...

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  UW
Face Tattoo:  White Widow
Outfit:  Bare Rose Tokyo
Necklace & Earrings:  Finesmith
Wings & Halo:  Living Lights

GLANCE: Day 1

First off, gotta say, I LOVE my trainer at the GLANCE Model Academy!  She is none other than Wicca Merlin, the supermodel herself, and she could not be a more fun person to work with!  I've heard so many horror stories about trainers ripping poor quivering noob models to shreds, and it was NOTHING like that. Obviously, I have a lot to work on.  Most things I am willing to change, a select few I am not (I really don't wanna change my skin...I've had it since my second day in SL, and it has become "me").  Wicca excels at constructive criticism...providing helpful pointers on what can be improved, balanced by giving compliments where they are due.

So...my first class was all about my avatar's (avi's) basic appearance:  shape, skin, hair, eyes, eyelashes (yes, male models need them too!).  Hair, I've got down...I own an ungodly amount of hair.  The rest, I needed to work on a bit.  My avi, like me, is 5'7".  While this is cute and adorable in RL, I look like a dwarf compared to towering 6'9"-7'5" SL models.  So...Sy underwent a massive amount of growth hormone therapy, and is now 6'9".  YAY!  I also made his nose a bit smaller, because that joker was HUGE!  Next on the list was new eyes.  All of my Second Life I've had Stars In Your Eyes from A:S:S, but it was time for a change.  At Wicca's suggestion, I went with Chai Eyes by Lana Fauna, and LOVE them!

AND NOW WE DELVE INTO SY'S OWN PERSONAL MODELING HELL.  PARENTS WITH LITTLE ONES IN THE ROOM, AND THE FAINT OF HEART:  AVERT THINE EYES!

PRIM LASHES!  *dramatic pipe organ music*

These mothers took me HOURS to fix!  I originally went with no alpha lashes from Kosh, but (2 hours of adjusting) later decided to go with a pair of Miamai no alpha lashes instead.  For any normal person, expect to spend about 30 minutes getting prim lashes to look decent.  For someone as insanely OCD as myself, however, expect to spend HOURS macro zoomed onto your eye, making sure every single prim (40ish prims per eye) is PERFECT!  I survived, however, and below you can see the fruits of my labor.  This pic was before I switched to the Miamai lashes, so they're still Kosh.  Miamai lashes are in all future posts, however.  Enjoy!

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Kosh
Hair:  Gritty Kitty

Shirt:  Kobalt
Jeans (not pictured):  Kobalt
Shoes (not pictured):  Kobalt
Wings & Halo:  Living Lights

Baseline

Hey everyone!  Allow me to introduce myself!  I'm Sy Whitesong, aka the Shiny Angel.  I've been in Second Life (SL) for almost a year now, and have been a dancer, DJ, manager, and am now currently enrolled in the GLANCE Modeling Academy.  Over the past year I've met soooo many amazing people, some who have come and gone, but who have all touched my life in different unique ways.  Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to track my progress as I complete modeling school, then (hopefully) as I step out into the professional modeling world.  Wish me luck!  Below is the first picture I ever took in SL, when I was a fresh little nooblet.  Please forgive the horrendous prim editing, as I hadn't yet figured out how to edit linked prims.  I probably didn't even have an Animation Override (AO) at this point!  *shudders*  This shall serve as a baseline, because it can only get better from here!  *winks*

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  A:S:S:
Hair:  Find Ash
Outfit:  Living Lights

Wings & Halo:  Living Lights