The Bleeding Edge: "January Inspiration" by Finesmith Designs

Yula Finesmith's Inspiration January collection hit the store directly after the fashion show, and it is AMAZING!  I love all of the pieces so so much, but my absolute favorite has to be "Lorena."  It reminds me of dandelions (my fav flowers), and I absolutely LOVE it!  My Photoshopping skills have improved dramatically over the last couple of weeks (notice the new watermark), but alpha textures are still the bane of my existence.  I tried my best to remove as much green screen as possible, but I'm afraid I still have a long way to go when it comes to removing all that green from textures as intricate as these:

Inspired by Lorena

As previously mentioned, this set reminds me of dandelions, which became my inspiration for this shot.  I finally gave up on trying to Photoshop this against a green screen, and just took the shot against a background in SL.  =P

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru
Eyes: L. Fauna
Lashes: Miamai
Hair: Find Ash

Shirt & Jeans:  Xplosion
Jewelry: Finesmith
Pose: Body Talking
Model & Photographer: Sy Whitesong

 Inspired by Blackbarbie

The curves on this set almost look like the fins of a fish to me, so I went aquatic with this shot, which probably turned out to be the best of the 5.  It also gave me lots of good practice playing with hue, saturation, and lightness...trying to get them to match the colors of the background just right.  =)

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru
Eyes: L. Fauna
Lashes: Miamai
Hair: 3636
Jewelry: Finesmith
Naughty Bits:  Xcite
Pose: Body Talking
Model & Photographer:  Sy Whitesong

 Inspired by Celestial

This set is so intricate and delicate, I knew I had to present it as a headshot to portray as much detail as possible.  It comes with 4 pieces total, 2 of which are shown here:  a veil, a necklace, a cuff that attaches to the upper arm, and a bracelet!

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru
Eyes: L. Fauna
Lashes: Miamai
Hair: Gritty Kitty
Jewelry: Finesmith
Pose: Body Talking

Model & Photographer:  Sy Whitesong

Inspired by Helen

Helen's Inspiration set is so futuristic looking, I knew I had to give this pic a sci-fi vibe.  The skin I chose was used by Wicca and Ari (well, the female version was used by them) in the Metropolis fashion show a couple of weekends ago, and was a perfect match for Yula's gorgeous creations!

Shape: Custom
Skin: ND/MD
Eyes: ND/MD
Jewelry: Finesmith
Pose: Body Talking

Model & Photographer:  Sy Whitesong 

Inspired by Zigi

The first of Yula's sets that I'm aware of to be inspired by a male avatar, Zigi is a new twist on an old male fashion standard:  the hat and tie.  The neckpiece comes in both male and female versions...the male version has a spiked collar at its focal point and is a bit more prominent, whereas the female version is more dainty and composed of sensual curves.

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

Shirt & Pants:  Xplosion
Jewelry: Finesmith
Pose: Body Talking
Model & Photographer: Sy Whitesong

Seen On The Scene: "January Inspiration Show" by Finesmith Designs

Today was Finesmith's monthly Inspiration Show, and it was AMAZING!  I'm IN LOVE with almost every one of the new designs Yula introduced this month, much to my wallet's chagrin.  =P  Pictures of the new jewelry sets to come.  SL was being a beast, so after my second crash I decided to use print screen rather than in-game snapshots.  Here are a couple of shots that I managed to salvage!

Jellyfish!  o_O

 My personal fav, Inspired by Lorena

Inspired by Zigi

 ARI!!!

 Tatanka Kaligawa

On The Hunt: "MENstuff Hunt"

Here it is...the mother (well, father) of all male hunts.  MENstuff was established to fill the void following the dissolution of the Make Him Over hunt, and features many of the same stores.  I started the hunt without Jonas, and failed MISERABLY.  I'm typically faster than him at spotting hunt items, but there's something about finding those black t-shirts that I just suck at.  =/  Frustration aside, the hunt is a lot of fun, and there are some great items available...totally free (I'm particularly excited about the outfit from Champagne).  There's also a styling contest at the end of the hunt, with 30K going to the best avatar constructed entirely from MENstuff hunt items!  Let the hunt begin!!!

TEST 001: "Engraved Hearts" by Finesmith Designs

After only minor prodding, I convinced my SL hubby, Jonas Laviscu, that we should enter Finesmith's Engraved Hearts contest...love you baby!  =D  I went right to work on a concept for the shot, first choosing one of the "Romance"poses from Body Talking.  Next Jonas and I collaborated on our outfits, deciding early on that we would be wearing nothing but Finesmith jewelry and our birthday suits.  WOO!  Jonas' outfit is comprised of several "Idioma" necklaces, wrapping their way around his muscular body in one continuous sparkling ribbon.  For my outfit, I used the "Leah" necklace as a loincloth, then made a belt out of approximately 5,000 strategically placed "Shae" bracelets.  To complete the look, I added "Yula's Tear" as a nipple ring, dangling from my chest.  For our photographer, I chose Ginevra Babii.  I absolutely LOVE her work, and chose her specifically for her usage of lighting.  I've asked Ginevra to produce 3 different interpretations of our concept, and below is the first of the 3!  For this variation, Ginevra chose an Asian theme.  She mentioned that the second variation is very nature inspired, and that the third will feature a fantasy background.  I'll post those as they're completed, but enjoy this one for now!

TEST:  FAILED

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru
Eyes: L. Fauna
Lashes: Miamai
Hair: UW
Jewelry: Finesmith
Naughty Bits:  Xcite
Pose: Body Talking
Models: Sy Whitesong & Jonas Laviscu
Photographer: Ginevra Babii

The Bleeding Edge: "Patty" by Body Talking

Ari (Arisia Ashmoot) has just released a new line of poses, specifically designed for the business professional, yet versatile enough to compliment any outfit..."Patty!"  The poses may be purchased individually, or the fatpack includes all 10 of the fabulous poses that you see below:

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L. Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  UW
Outfit:  Xplosion
Poses:  Body Talking
Model & Photographer:  Sy Whitesong

The Bleeding Edge: "Sweet Lady" by Xplosion

Xplosion JUST released a new set, "Sweet Lady", 2 days ago.

You can purchase the whole outfit, shirt/undershirt/tie, or just the undershirt/tie in a wide range of colors.  I paired the top half of this outfit with some older Xplosion pants from the "Crazy Business" line.  YAY SHOPPING!

Shape:  Custom

Skin:  Subaru

Eyes:  L. Fauna

Lashes:  Miamai

Hair:  UW

Shirt:  Xplosion

Pants:  Xplosion

Shoes (not pictured):  REDGRAVE

Rings:  Finesmith

Wings & Halo:  Living Lights

Pose:  Body Talking

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

Seen On The Scene: "Metropolis" by SL Art Couture

This was my first fashion show I've attended, and it rocked my world!  Every aspect of it was absolutely beautiful...the set, the models, the skins, the hair, the shoes, the jewelry, the music.  In a word:  Gesamtkunstwerk.  I took an unwieldy number of photos...below are my favorites:

sitting back, waiting for the show to start...

the stage

Wicca Merlin!!!

4 of the 8 AMAZING models, taking their 

final poses

Yula Finesmith *heart*

On The Hunt: "Pro Posers Hunt 3"

starts today!  YEAHHHHH!!!

Brendan Macarthur (CRS Productions Top Model) and I are gonna do it together, and I'm super-excited about my first foray into the posing world.  Think I'm gonna get a shiny new Xposer HUD from Essential Soul to organize them all.  o_O

http://proposerssecondlife.blogspot.com/

completed on 02/05/11

On The Hunt: "Finesmith Designs Forbidden Pleasures"

Did Finesmith's hunt right at midnight, actually, and although there wasn't too much loot that I could/would use, I had a blast!  I did walk away with a couple of awesome unisex(ish) bracelets to add to my collection, and found about 15 more pieces of jewelry that I gotta save up for (hehehe).  Yula Finesmith is one of the kindest people I've met, and I'm absolutely AMAZED by the amount of detail she puts into her work...the epitome of an artist, in every way.  :-)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/GULF%20COAST/216/188/22

IT GODZIRRAH!

Please note that I suck at Photoshop, and do not pretend to be good at photography, either in RL or SL.  All photos on this blog are provided in their raw, unedited glory...unless otherwise specified, or until I magically become competent with photo editing software.

This pic is really just to show off my new shoes (which are still peaking through my pant leg, after hours of fighting with resizing scripts...grrr!).  They're from Xplosion, and I absolutely love them, but (as they're girl shoes) they were quite problematic to fit.  After an hour of experimentation, I discovered that I could attach an invisible prim sphere around them, to hide my foot (i felt like just shrinking my foot size in the shape was cheating).  This looks AMAZING, unless i walk on or in front of transparent surfaces, such as my studio:

Seriously though, the shoes look amazing, and any part of them can be changed to 1 of 27 colors with the touch of a script.  Xplosion also makes a version with cute little wings!  *heart*

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  Gritty Kitty
Face Tattoo:  White Widow
Hoodie:  Xplosion
Jeans:  Xplosion
Shoes:  Xplosion
Bracelet:  Finesmith

Speaking Of Landscaping...

This is just a quick candid, and a shoutout to one of my oldest friends in Second Life:  Jayden Bettencourt. He is an amazingly talented landscaper and builder, and one of my favorite dancing buddies when I DJ.  The "makeup" in this photo is actually an eye tattoo from White Widow (LOVE Julie Hastings!), but most of it is covered up (due to my poor selection of hair).  :-P

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  UW
Face Tattoo:  White Widow
Tank Top:  Jayden Bettencourt Designs
Jeans (not pictured):  Kobalt
Shoes (not pictured):  SOREAL

Bracelet (not pictured):  Finesmith

Wings & Halo:  Living Lights

Experiments With Physics

So, my SL bestie, Zachary Kenyon, has recently started building customized beds, and needed a place to work.  After some debate, Jonas and I agreed to let him rez a platform above our parcel, from which he can work.

50x50 megaprim + 3500m + physics enabled =

Poor Jonas was right at ground zero when it hit at terminal velocity, bless his heart!  P.S.  That's Jonas there redoing this portion of the sim where my house used to be, and I think I'm somewhere in this pic as well.  Expect GREAT things when Jonas is done with his landscaping magic!  :-)

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

On The Hunt: "The Serial Killer Hunt"

Let me start off by saying that this hunt CREEPS ME OUT!  I started it because Xplosion was a part of the hunt, then I discovered that Jonas had NEVER done a hunt before, so I coerced him into accompanying me (to hold my hand and keep me safe from all the scary stuff!).  =P

 completed on 01/31/11