I bought a new tarot deck last month, and have been trying to learn to read the cards.  It’s been an interesting process, working to learn the symbology of the imagery and internalize the fundamental message of each card.

I’ve always been fascinated by the visual imagery of tarot, and as I study the cards and their meanings, I get drawn into the visual possibilities — I want to design my own deck, and create tarot-based paintings and SL tableaux.  I want to make the creative process part of the learning process.

I’ve read through a couple books at this point, and have begun re-reading them, doing the learning exercises suggested this time around.  Today is exercise 1.1: What do I believe about Tarot? Am I “totally skeptical about using the tarot for anything but fun”, or am I “absolutely convinced that the tarot can give me specific, personal guidance?”

I suppose (...)
Read the rest of Gypsy (220 words)

© SarahTheRed for Red and Re-read, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fri.day, L.Fauna, Long Awkward Pose, Magic Nook, R.A.Crystal, SLink, The Loft, Tres Blah, Wishbox, Zaara

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I seriously love shoes; just ask my husband.  You may have noticed I’ve blogged one or two pair of shoes for the Footwear Expo.  It’s closed now, but all the footwear is available at the designers’ shops.

I’ve saved my favorite footwear grouping for last.  The thing is, sometimes you don’t want to wear shoes.  Sometimes it’s nice to be barefoot.  Sometimes being barefoot is the best design decision, for a particular look.  But, but, the system feet are so hideous!  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some very well-done skins, but skin creators don’t have a lot to work with, when it comes to our sad club feet.

Siddean Munro, creator behind SLink, has delivered us all from system feet.  I’ve been enamored with her bare feet since they were released; they were my first adventure in prim feet (I fought them for so long!)  For ladies, we have a choice of four foot silhouettes, from flat-footed to tiptoe, and the recently released extreme pointe foot.  (Gentlemen also have a few barefoot options, so men, you’re not left out!)

Now, I’m still not as good as tinting the feet as I’d like to be, but practice will make perfect, and the tinting HUD is very easy to work with.  The shading on the foot is incredibly detailed, with shadows between the toes, where light wouldn’t hit, and highlights indicating the underlying tendon structure.  Delicate subtle veins trace the top of the foot.  There are of course a variety of toenail options — both colored nail polish, and a range of natural nail shades to suit different skin tones.  I adore these feet, and if you’ve even once considered going bare-foot in-world, I’d suggest you give these a try.  Demos are free, after all.

Feet, left to right:
SLink- Jolie Pied Bare Feet, from left to right: Flat, Medium, Tiptoes, Extreme Pointe

En Scene Credits:
Hair: Tiny Bird – Precious Things – Stein Silver (tinted)
Skin: Imagen Skins – Irene 2.0 – Este – Natural (promotional sample)
Bubbles: Reasonable Desires Strippable Bubble Costume
Feet: SLink – Jolie Pied Bare Feet Tiptoes
Bathtub: The Loft – Oriana Bathtub

Disclaimer: Medium feet, Extreme Pointe feet, and Imagen skin are promotional samples.  I’m acquainted with some of the designers shown here.  However, I only blog things I like, regardless of affiliations or gifts.

© SarahTheRed for Red and Re-read, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Imagen Skins, Reasonable Desires, SLink, The Loft, Tiny Bird

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Another round of freckled skins for us to compare! Hooray!

Freckles are awesome, and so are these faces.  I love that these skins bring very unique personalities to the same shape, with the same brow, lighting and hair.

I wanted to talk about eyes in this post, and what characteristics to consider when comparing eyes between skins.  So I made you an annotated  animated gif. Yay!(...)
Read the rest of Freckleface: Eye see you! (135 words)

© SarahTheRed for Red and Re-read, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Atomic, Blowpop, IC Skins, Pulse, PXL, The Loft, Tiny Bird, [LAP]

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