chronicled & illustrated

Last post I was speaking of being immersed in SL so I thought I’d post this photo of Aplomb inappropriately dressed in a pool owned by one of my neighbours. The outfit is one of my early designs. It needs work but I still like it.

I was totally caught off guard by how many things there were to learn about designing clothes in SL. I’ve been slogging my way up the steep learning curve for the last two months. Now I feel I’ve definitely crested and am enjoying the ride (though I have no doubt there are many other hills in front of me.)

Designing in SL is mainly done off-world on my computer. I use both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements. Not because I recommend that but because that’s what I have. In fact, my Photoshop Elements is an old version and that’s probably why I need both. It’s working but I have to flip the images back and forth, so a new PS version will have to come my way at some point.

Most of the blouses, pants, regular skirt and jackets are drawn in a graphics program. For that reason, even though I’m spending a lot of time on this SL activity, I’m not logged into SL that much. I’ve learned an amazing amount about using the graphics programs in two months. Many of the formerly mysterious terms (alpha channels, for example) have now become tools of my trade. This has given me an almost daily need for the digital tablet I got last summer. I’m still in the process of learning the trompe l’oeil techniques that make the clothes look *real*—but I’ve come a long way.

There are two other ways of designing SL clothes. The first one is done in-world. In SL, residents build things—the houses they live in, the trees, roads, airplanes, pets—by using basic shapes called “prims” (short for primitives.)

Basic 3-D shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones etc are manipulated and linked to other shapes and texturized to make up what you see in the world. Some clothes are made with prims.
The “flexi skirts” that move with your avatar and react to the physics of the world are constructed in-world. This was another learning curve.

Thirdly, there’s a type of construct that is a combination of a graphics program and in-world build and that’s the sculpted prim. In these, you design a three-dimensional object on your computer, upload it to SL, rez a prim, put the uploaded bit-map into the prim and *voila!* your design appears in SL. I’m still a real beginner at this but it’s good for making accessories to outfits such as belts, scarves, hats and so on. I had great fun making a martini and a top hat to go with a design I call Tuxedo FUNction.

Aplomb having her first martini; the chair she’s sitting in is one of my sculpted prims.

So those are the basics of fashion design in SL. So good-bye for now and I’ll leave you with Aplomb in one of her outfits—looking pretty darned sassy.

I joined a weekly photo group called For the Love of Flickr on NaBloPoMo. Groups within groups—whew! Makes my self-referential head spin.

Each Sunday we post [some of] the photos we’ve taken this week.

Here’s the link:

Here are the photos I took this week:

SUMMER SPIRITS


WINDS OF CHANGE

WIND. FALL.

CHANGE

In addition to that fancy camera, I got a computer drawing tablet and pen for my birthday.

I KNOW it’s going to be extremely useful
—especially once I get the hang of it—but so far, all I can think to do is play with it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

This is one of the things I’ve done. It’s a doodle. An experiment with letters and other marks that could be letters. It was fun to do and as such, it feels as if I’m using my new tool (”For the serious photographer, designer and artist” the package states) as a toy. At what point do I begin to feel serious about it? My husband often asks when inquiring about what I did on a certain day, “Were you working or playing?”

Whew. That’s a tough one to answer. If I enjoy my work, does that mean it’s always play? If I usually enjoy my work but am dealing with a challenging problem, then is it work? Or if I am doing art for no one and no reason, but am frustrated by it, does that mean it’s work? Is doing art for no reason ever anything but play? Where’s the line between a “serious tool” for serious creative types and a toy for someone who’s “just playing?”

Ahh, I don’t care. It’s just my brain playing with words, isn’t it? And some days, that’s what art and work is all about.

attention span,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Summer isn’t good for concentrating. Maybe it’s the leaves rustling or the birds singing or the clouds rolling by. I’d say it’s the heat, but here in Nova Scotia, we haven’t had any yet. It’s summer’s long days of sunlight that can both seem to last forever and pass by in a flash. The on again/ off again activity level. Hurry up and relax.

This is a piece I did the other night after having put a big push on to get several end of the month articles published in the zine followed by the subscriber’s email update. I needed a creative activity that was involving without being involved. For several hours I immersed myself in my photos and photoshop. (I don’t really use Photoshop. For this kind of photo manipulation I use a super simple product called ArcSoft Photostudio. Easy and quick.)

I keep way too many of my digital photos. That’s because I use many of them in these layered art pieces and it’s hard to predict which will be useful later on. I’ve always enjoyed the idea that there are no failures—only the raw material for other kinds of art. I used to tear up paintings I didn’t feel were successful. Then I’d use the wonderfully torn fragments as collage material for others. This is the same.

For the next week all my attention will be with my childhood friends who’ll be visiting from Texas. We’ll laugh.

Tra la~~~

relic,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

For a person who’s always kept a journal of one sort or another, I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to maintain interest in personal blogging. However, my written journals have, in the last five years or so, fallen out of favor as well so I’m back online again with a new website, new format and new ideas about how this kind of journaling can be useful and fun for me.

This photo is an old train depot in Beaumont, Texas. The photograph was taken in 2005 with a LOMO LC-A. I then did quite a bit of digital doctoring to get the effect I wanted.

• Reading: Tales of Protection by Eric Fosnes Hansen
• Writing: Words of Paradise - a novel set in Canada, the US and the island of Tobago in the 60’s
• Working on: EPIC’s website — and this one
• Need to: learn how to tear myself away from the computer
• Want to: plan the construction of our front porch, plant a vegetable garden, paint, use our waste water to reheat our home
• Upcoming: a trip to Maine for Cadi’s 2nd birthday and to see Ty and Carson
• Mood: pensive, self-reproaching