Tag: #FantasyFaire

While in 2019 I was able to follow the annual Roleplay, it wasn’t til last year that I was able to explore much more of the Faire. What is tricky though is trying to find one particular highlight, almost impossible given the size and marvelous works of creativity we were presented with!

I thought it would be more realistic to go through my snapshots and pick out a number of them instead. One region that’s missing here is Kurak where the 2020 Roleplay took place, well that’s still to come in another post, because there so many they deserve a post of their own.

Each year Fantasy Faire presents a number of Blogger Challenges. This is my attempt at “My New Shiny”, finding a new shop/creator you love.

This one isn’t *entirely* new to me, it’s more a revelation of discovering how much more they create and its amazing!

I liked the look of the eyes and skins that were generously left in the blogger room so I thought I’d have to check out their store. There was a couple of things I didn’t realise however: 1. I’d been to the store on my marathon lap of the Faire on Blogger day and said I’d come back. 2. I already had some of their creations in my inventory.

The prefix of all their items “:[P] :” nagged at me seeming familiar so I searched my inventory and came up with this outfit. I was very surprised since I’d acquired it at Cyber Fair 2020 and hadn’t realised they did other fantasy genre stuff. These “Angelic” bracers also showed up, again another surprise.

So off to their Faire store I went and found some more lovely items this staff, spell book and beautiful skin.

I’d already decided I was going to go with a light look for this when I’d put on the armour and found it was set to white. This skin was just perfect match, since the outfit can be made sheer, I could show it off wonderfully.

This hair is also available at their Faire store, in association with TRAP (who I confess I don’t know of, so something else to check out!). It comes as a single rigged piece or multiple parts you can position yourself. It comes with multiple huds for colouring differed parts and metals.

Location: Scrimshaw Warrens

Credits:

Main Store Items:  

• Breatplate: Novianna Tops by :[Petrichor]: (Cyberpunk 2020)
• Boots: Novianna Pantboots by :[Petrichor]:
• Bracers: :[P]:- Tehgrius Unisex Bracers:// Angelic

Faire Store Items:

• Eyes: :[P]:- Eyes – Pauian
• Skin::[P]: & []TRAP[] – Amatheia Skin (Femme):// Aleatrice (WHITE)
• Hair::[P]: & Trap:// Kalari Hair [Rigged-Unisex]
• Book: :[P]:- Sumoni Books [Blogpack FF 2021]
• Horns: :[P]:- Verosh RFL
• Staff: :[P]:- Yaize Staff

I attended the interview with Fiona Fei, creator of the Faire Region Ling Xaio Long, being interviewed by Zander Greene and what a fascinating story it was.

Fiona was born in China, but moved to the USA when very young. One lasting memory of her childhood in China was of lotus blossoms and this love of the flower stayed with her through school.

Comment from Fiona: My thesis was on charcoal shaders in graduate school, which inspired the art currently in Second Life. The lotus blossom imagery stayed with me till now, being featured in my ShuiMo art in SL.

Trained as a painter, she starts with sketches and translates them into the 3D environment. Many of the textures that make up the region she physically painted and scanned for use in the build.

Comment from Fiona: I sometimes use photography of my 3D art installations to play with the illusion of 2D paintings. I try to present them on traditional Chinese scrolls to add to that effect.

She likes to play with the transiton between 2D and 3D, not just making environments such as this one, but also then photographing them making 2D art of something that’s actualy 3D.

The idea of the region is based on a Chinese proverb:

“Painting a dragon and dotting it’s eyes”

The Chinese version of the proverb is Hua Long Dian Jing (画龙点腈)

This is the story of an artist that was so skilled at painting dragons he didn’t finish pictures, he always left the last brush-stroke unmade, for fear that the dragons would come to life.

She used the limited pallette of white, black and red partly because in this form of physical painting, dyes were originally scarce, but also because it focusses on the form. There are large areas of white because it’s how chinese artists show distance or space. The choice of red was deliberate because of being important in China. Red represents luck, good fortune and overall positivity.

She saw an advert for Second Life years ago that said it was a place where she could create or be anything. The draw was the ability to create in real-time, spending a lot of time in sandboxes, challenging herself and later others in building competitions.

In my pictures I took inspiration from the white background of the region and made my avatars body the canvas. I created a plain white skin on which to apply inks, in the form of tattoos.

Location: Líng xiāo lóng 灵霄龙

Credits:

• Face Tattoo:[n.a.p] Prophet’s Vision – Red – Not a peep
• Eyes::[P]:- Eyes – Pauian -Petrichor
• Feet Tattoo: GERMINAL – LAMIA FEET – Germinal
• Hand Tattoos: GERMINAL – ROWENA GLOVES – Germinal
• Leg Tattoo: ArtToo’s Ryoko – Artoos Art
• Necklace: [+Oblivis+] Gehenna Key – Oblivis
• Wings:!Lyrical B!zarre Templates! – Paradisaea Wings
• Pose: PM – Gypsy soul 3 – Pink Moon
• Hair: Raven Bell – Celeste Hair -Raven Bell
• Body: Maitreya Lara
• Head: Genus Project– Strong Face

2019 was the first year I was able to attend any of the organised events at the Faire.

I decided that year that I’d like to try and follow the years organised Roleplay story. I thought today on the eve of the 2021 Roleplay starting would be a good day to rememberit.

That year told the story of The Bubbo Owls and their adventures around the Fairelands. I did write a blog post at the time, but remembering is such fun!