New World Notes

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Color-Saturated Virtual Home Decor Pics by EXIS

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

EXIS  is a Second Life decor blogger whose work is instantly recognizable by her rich, saturated colors. “Times Are Changing” sets a Bohemian mood. I confess that as much as I love these decor-rich photos I would have the jimjams with the degree of clutter. My preference in decor is fire inspection-ready with clear walking space, nothing on the floor, and nothing too close to outlets, lamps, and heat sources. As pretty as this is, for me it’s pure fire hazard. I guess that is the byproduct of losing everything to a house fire, which by the way, had nothing to with clutter.

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Immersive Hunting Game Repurposed for Peaceful Landscape Photography

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

What can I saw about “Relaxing Rain and Focus on the Moon” by SandyJ-Black that isn’t superfluous? Are words necessary to explain why this picture is so arresting and beautiful? Well, since it is my remit, the moon lies in the sweet spot of the Golden Mean. The horizon is placed one-third of the way from the top. Then there are the two main colors are complementary, directly opposite each other on the color wheel and similar in intensity. It’s just perfect and is from the immersive simulator The Hunter: Call of the Wild.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Kevin XI Russo's Perfect Composed Duotone Pics

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“The Old Skatepark Revisited” by Kevin X Russo is a composition masterwork. A duotone, the contrasting light and dark spaces give him all sorts of edges. The dark wall on the roof lines up exactly a third from the bottom. The top of the subject’s head is exactly two-thirds from the bottom, and the subject is placed just to the right of where exactly one-third from the right would be. He is looking down at his feet and his shadow that intersect that line. The choice of making this a duotone rather than full-color made its geometry the most forward element. It’s a fascinating picture. The longer you look at it the more you see.

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Ultra-Violent Far Cry 5 Turned Into Setting for Beautiful, Bucolic Photos of Rural Life

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

BravoSoap’s pictures from Far Cry 5 speak to the teeny-tiny part of me that gets homesick for country life. While it may be a politically charged game about a Montana doomsday cult, Far Cry 5 is set in a bucolic countryside that invites great photos.

This beautiful image of a field with front-mount cultivator on a tractor in the field is nostalgic, reminding us of family farms. Of course, on real farms, farmers don’t leave their machinery out in the field to get rained on and rusty. They also drive along the lines of the planting, not perpendicular to them, but that’s getting picky and is the game creators’ issue. Perhaps our farmer is having a picnic off-screen. The leading lines of the fence and road lead our eyes into the picture.

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick: Nefekalum's Transgressive Fantasy Fashion Photos

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I love Nefekalum’s photostream. Relentlessly inventive, exploring the boundaries of fashion and gender, Nefekalum’s photos are never boring. “Sweet as Honey” is beautifully constrained in its colors and has an initial impression of glamour, but with a closer look, the smears of honey taken on a transgressive feeling. There is a wildness there that is not obvious at first sight.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Benoit de Montgelas' Photographs French Royalty Roleplay

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

It is always fun to take a peek at the role-playing groups such as History Recreated. There you discover artists like Benoit de Montgelas whose photos show a strong effort to be historically accurate. I was drawn to this picture which is called “MdM Spring Collection” even though it clearly advertising his own creations by the cherry blossoms. They are opening here in Portland and the streets are brilliant with their blossoms along with the magnolias and camellias.

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick: Barra Sweetwater's Beautiful Virtual Landscape Photos

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Barra Sweetwater does excellent and intriguing landscapes that make me want to travel to the sims she highlights. This (above) is “Ukivok” taken at the sim of the same name. Ukivok is a sim by Serene Footman and Jade Koltai who have brought to life Furillen, Black Bayou Lake, Khodovarikha, and other memorable builds. Often when sims recreate real-world locations, they are made false by their emptiness, but Ukivok is a village that was abandoned decades ago when their school was closed. Sweetwater’s picture captures the melancholy loneliness of a place that has lost its people.

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Flac Astay Photographs Final Fantasy XIV

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I like how well Flac Astray conveys movement. I chose “Rarum Makino” first because it is such a pacific picture. She’s just strolling along, no battles, no real exertion, and yet we still recognize she is in motion. This is made more active by being turned slightly on its axis. Wind can blow a skirt when a person is standing still, yet it still adds to the sense of movement.  

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: The Nine Minimalist Masterpieces of Yuya Jinx

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

You can see Yuya Jinx’s entire photostream of Second Life images in a moment. This photo is called “...” which implies a continuation which surely works with a ship at sea, but then she uses ellipses for other pictures. I love how the clouds reflect on the water, the brilliance of the sun and the birds following the boat which is placed using the Golden Mean. It is exquisite.

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: SL Screenshots Edited With an iPhone Into Visual Art

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Mayumi Sugarplum’s recent Flickr stream is an exploration of editing and experimentation on Second Life photos she took in the past. “At the Seashore” reminds me of a Degas painting of dancers. Her photostream is also a testament to personal resilience and the creative drive. She has been ill for some time and is no longer able to work directly in SL to take her photos. She is using her iPhone and iPad to edit old photos from years ago. Each reimagined photo links to its original so you can see how she took those pictures and cast them anew in a more impressionistic and surreal framework.