New World Notes

Cajsa’s Second Life Flickr Pick: Whimsy Winx, Whimsical Storyteller

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

I love Second Life Flickr’s storytellers. One of my favorites is Whimsy Winx. She happens to be among my favorite people, too, for full disclosure. She chronicled her recent move to a Linden home at Belliseria and I got such a kick out of the story. “When Life Gives You Lemons” memorializes when her mailbox deleted her house. She just pulled in a trailer to wait for its return.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Uniquely Delightful Photos of Virtual Romance

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

Once again, I have to thank MangroveJane for highlighting someone on Flickr. In this case, she pointed the way to an album of photos from Angeleyes Roxley, or Angel. She kindly organizes a lot of her photos in albums and this one features two of her friends, June and Jonathan whose romance in chronicled with delightful humor in picture after picture.

I love “You’re the only fish in the sea for me” for its gentle humor and beautiful composition. I love how they form a W that intersects the page upper left to bottom right with sea life in the spaces they divide. The waiting shark, their oblivious kiss, it’s all a delight.

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pick: Dido Haas Turns SL Screenshots Into Stylish Black & White and Duotone Imagery

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

I enjoy the particular fascination Dido Haas has for color. That may sound curious since at first glance her photostream is full of black and white photos or subdued duotones in sepia or blue. But, “Long Sleeves” is not just black and white. It is, forgive me, black and white and red all over. It’s perhaps more obvious than others in her stream, but she likes to insert one pop of a bold, rich, color in her work. In this case, it highlights the particular shirt she is blogging, but it also highlights how color can be manipulated to bring drama.  

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: The Second Life-Based Artistry of Nevereux

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

Nevereux is an artist whose work traverses back and forth from first to Second Life so seamlessly I can only be certain it is SL by the groups she uses to share her work. “Pompom Couture” is one that is more clearly Second Life. It is also bold and vibrant. I love that she crops her subject so only half her face is shown. In a way, it makes it more lifelike since in life we are not so symmetrical as we are in Second Life.

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Jo Molinaro's Masterfully Composed Virtual Photos

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

MangroveJane, who I profiled last year, shared “Nocturne” on Plurk, so I rushed to check it out, discovering Jo Molinaro, whose photostream is a delight. Jane said, “This person does the most incredible simple and poignant SL photography. This latest one is just...lovely.” What she said.

Avatar Cosplayer Creates Tracer of Overwatch By Recycling Second Life Parts

Tracer SL cosplay by Alexandria Brangwin - see high res version here 

Avatar-based cosplay has been popular in Second Life since the world started, but the introduction of mesh into SL has somewhat spoiled the fun, since it's not uncommon to find unauthorized 3D models that have been ripped and plopped right into the world. Where's the challenge in that? Longtime gamer and SLer Alexandria Brangwin, however, created this truly impressive Second Life cosplay of Tracer from Overwatch the old-fashioned way:

"There are a lot of pre-made full avatars on the Marketplace but they often suck really bad," as she tells me. "They're scanned or lifted from other game files so they miss a lot of fine detail and end up looking very low quality -- even have no animations, no bento hands, not even eye movement... death to the project if you're trying to achieve specific poses." 

So instead, she went virtual world dumpster diving through Second Life's massive library of content looking for parts to recycle:

Send Cajsa Lilliehook More Great Virtual World/Gaming Flickr PhotoStreams!

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

I love Bailey Haiku’s fabulous ‘Stop Blaming Me!” a terrific sendup of the Bad Panda page Flickr explorers are all too familiar with. (See below.)

I am always looking for people with fun, creative, or beautiful photostreams from Second Life or other games. If you want to suggest someone or even suggest yourself, you can contact me through FlickrMail.

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: Stunning Second Life Photos Shot At Different Times of the Virtual World Day

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

I love it when people provide SLurls for their photos because it helps me with the is it Life or is it Second Life quandaries. Who “One Light-Second Per Day” is may be a mystery, but there is no doubt that this person has a great talent revealed in their small, emergent photostream. I love this photo that has a light leak overlay added to give it the feeling of sun damage. Without the light leak, it is a memento of seeing a penny farthing bicycle while club-crawling at 1 a.m. With the damage, it incorporates the idea of a quick Polaroid snap tossed on the dash as you drive home the next day. It incorporates not only the memory of the bike, but the heat of the sun on your car as you drive home from sightseeing.  

The photographer seems to set the WindLight to a time of day, inspired perhaps by Monet's Rouen Cathedral paintings. Perhaps someday One Second may come back and shoot the same picture at another time, perhaps not. However, giving us the time and place can allow us to go there and see what they saw when they saw it for ourselves. In its “9 a.m.”, the sunrise is so bright these two men are in silhouette and the sea disappears into the sunshine.

The land meets the sea at a third from the bottom. The man on the left is just a hair left of a third from the left and the other man is dead center. Even though it’s early morning, for some reason this picture makes me think of a book cover, perhaps for one of those sad stories of love thwarted by feuding families or even a mystery. Despite the brightness of the sun we cannot see, there is something melancholic and even eerie about this photo.

Cajsa’s Daily Flickr Pic: Bridget G. Tells Charming Stories With SL Screenshots

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

Bridget G. is a storyteller. Her photos are full of the little details that shift it from a static set to a dynamic scenario. Take this untitled photo on a motorcycle. There’s the bit of windswept hair and the dirty feet that add authenticity and make it felt, not just observed. She’s going against the stream of traffic, too. There’s a story here and though we don’t know the details, we know it is a good one.  

“This is Wednesday” is a humorous wink at taking care of children. She looks exhausted, her pose is slumped, the kids are being kids. There’s an interesting transhumanist element with her hand and slightly demonic glare that little girl is directing at it.

 

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.