New World Notes

Virtual Town & Country Style Tips from Across the Second Universe

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

Nuria Nevin’s recent post “In the Country” is a cheery, fun picture of a woman with her puppies. She’s holding a bouquet of wheat and is sitting on hay bales. This tells me that she was not from farm country because they are scratchy as all get out. She should take that neatly folded blanket and avoid feeling itchy the rest of the day. She used Black Dragon viewer to fine tune the pose. 

• Blueberry - Ivy Overalls/ No Control Bodysuit (by BlueberryStore Resident)
• [BREATHE]-Shizuka Flats-FATPACK (by daisa Admiral) [New @ Collabor88]
  Amitie In the Country POSE #2 + Wheat Bouquet/Single (by BELEN Ackland) [
• SEmotion Libellune English Beagle Animesh - Premium 1, 2 and 3 (by Libellune Starlight) [New @ Anthem Event]

For a must-have dress tip, click here:

Three Spectacular Shots of Second Life Avatars in Silhouette

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

Fabrizio Gigamon, also Known as Mr. G., seems to explore the nature of man in the universe. His “Jekyll and Mr. G., Mr. G., Mr. G.” shows us a visual representation of the multiplicity within all of us. It makes me think of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself, 51” with one of my favorite quotes. “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” Bob Dylan was inspired by that poem to create “I Contain Multitudes.” However, Mr. G. was inspired by Pink Floyd’s “Set the Course for the Heart of the Sun” which refers to watching the watcher. I think this is a good example of how artwork can mean different things to different people.

Two more dramatic SL silhouettes below:

I Love These Second Life Homages to The Splashing Scene from Flashdance

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

When I saw Cascabel Czarny’s Flashdance homage, I immediately wondered if anyone else had done the same. I love how the backdrop makes it seem so much more part of a show. The hair is realistically wet, the water is gorgeous, but those lightbulbs in the back make the picture stand out. 

For more Flashdance water pics, click here:

SL Style & Houseware Shopping Ideas from Thais Akerman

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

Thais Akerman’s “Kitchen” post for her blog appeals just because it is the opposite of all the usual kitchens that are almost always too neat. This one reminds me of the summer kitchen my aunt and uncle had down by their two-acre garden. The counters were scavenged and had no doors. Instead, my aunt made a bright, colorful curtain uncannily similar to this one. When they harvested, everything was cleaned, peeled, and canned down in the summer kitchen. The compost piles were down by the garden as was the root cellar so everything was to hand. And of course, my aunt and uncle ‘borrowed’ me during the harvest. All the remaining items are listed in her blog credits, but my mind is fixated on the counters. 

• PITAYA - DIY kitchen Countertop  @Kustom9

For an eggcellent fashion piece, click here:

This Artist Blurs Lines Between Real & Second Life Photos

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

DeFoe has an extraordinary collection of pictures in his photostream. “Isle of Scotland” is dreamy and fantastical with ruins on top of what we might call a mesa if it were in the West, a free-standing tablelike rock. The ruins almost completely fill the top of the rock. It must have quite the stairway. I love the smoky fog as though they have been burning their field to clear for seeding, the smoke blending almost seamlessly into the fog. He also provides a link to corresponding music here. 

To see how DeFoe makes art of the most mundane, click here:

Cajsa's Choices: Wildelands is Today's SL Flickr Pick

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

Wildelands [Auttumn986] has an intriguing and beautiful photostream with pictures of two people who seem to have ensorcelled each other. They are shot together and apart and every picture is well done. I love this untitled picture with a recently harvested field in the background. The sunlight turns the remaining stalks into bright gold. She is in the foreground. Sunset is approaching and her skin has a blue cast from the shadow on her. Her makeup is smeared so there is a story there. 

For a great black and white picture, click here:

Creator Advertises His 1930s-Era Second Life Fashion With Satirical Norman Rockwell Cosplay Pics

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

Nicholas Huntsman is the creator for a couple of stores, Lux Aeterna that is a home and garden and L & Co. Clothiers that feature vintage clothing from the 1920s and 30s. He has pretty standard vendor pictures, but he also has a series of delightful sendups of The Saturday Evening Post in the style of J. C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell;s mentor. Of course, Leyendecker and Rockwell never had such a model as Nicholas. He included a short story, a small excerpt will explain the picture. 

...Five times a year Jo and I make the pilgrimage to a sequestered cemetery by a lonely creek; his birthday, Father's day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the day it happened. We leave the city behind, the shop, our friends, our adulthood, forget our lives ever existed there, and head back to our childhood, when it was just us and the Manor. The only five days of the year when the mask isn't put on, because she needs to know I'm there...

For more delightful covers, click here:

Amazing SL Cyberpunk Avatar Style Ideas from Morningbeasty

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

Just in time for the new Matrix trailer, Morningbeasty’s blog features cyberpunk fashion and accessories in Second Life. This image above from “Fly With Me” features a surprise twist on the old “Come Fly With Me” slogan because who ever thought they would be flying with a cyber greyhound? I love several elements of this futuristic outfit, but in particular, the mask and the dog. You should click through to the blog post to see all the credits, but for those two highlights, you can look right here. 

• Phase Mask & Glasses (unisex) by: Wicca's Originals - Wicca’s Flickr - & - Wicca’s Releases - Available @ Access Cyber Fair
• Cyber Greyhound (Animesh - Companion & Static) by: Rezz Room - More Info / - Video

For one of the creepiest avatars ever, click here:

Seriously Stylish & Dramatic Avatar Portraits by Fredizzle Brown

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

Fredizzle Brown’s “Black Licorice” is a wry title for a guy with a cigar though the way he’s smoking it and the long ash, perhaps we should call it a cee-gar. The avatar looks a bit rough around the edges, but then that is the point. Fredizzle is not interested in cookie cutter avatars with conventional beauty. He’s looking for folks on the downside of power, folks who struggle and whose struggles show on their faces. His photostream is a gallery of what Hank Williams once called “Pictures from Life’s Other Side.” 

For more pictures from life’s other side, click here:

Fantastic Avatar Images Created With Roleplay Stories & Behind-the-Scenes Post-Processing GIFs

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

Jorgia Prynce’s “The Breakthrough” captures the excited euphoria of discovery so perfectly. I love how her expression and pose communicate the emotions. Her outfit makes me think she has discovered a new spell at some magic academy rather than a new polymer. Also, science labs tend to be well-lit. I love the excellent story-telling! This is a link to the picture before and after editing.

For more fun roleplay pics, click here: