Atelier Alizarin Digital Art Studio
Jade Lily sent me to an invite for a tour of the Atelier Alizarin Digital Art Gallery by Alizarin Goldflake today as part of her Metaverse Explorers group. Being too lazy to read the notecard I didn’t know what to expect, but seeing as the build was on the Mainland I wanted to check it out. While there is the requisite architecture and painting, the real excitement is the interactive art which includes animates textures, particles and more. Some of the pieces have sit spots, others you can just fly or walk into. Mouselook allows you to really be enveloped by the scene. I picked up a couple of pieces, most of the things you see are for sale, one of them will be great under water in Bella. Alizarin was nice enough to pass along her notes from the walking tour so feel free to follow in our group’s footsteps by tracing the route described below.
Printed below are Alizarin Goldflake’s notes describing the various levels of the Studio as part of the walking tour.
(West Piazza)
OK, to start, there is an immersive art sculpture over the fountain called “Whispering.” It is made of a number of linked sculpties with animated textures, and it has a rotation script in it as well.
On the walls of the building there are a couple of digital drawing landscapes from RL. They were drawin in a program called Corel Painter using a Wacom digitzing tablet and stylus. I use Painter for making 95% of my SL textures.
Also be sure to notice the digital banners flying from the corners of the garden trellis. With the exception of the Linden plants, all of the textures throughout the atelier - art, furniture, and buillding - were digitally drawn by me (more about that at the end).
Let’s walk east into the ground floor gallery. And feel free to stop me anytime with questions. Please ask your questions in chat, not IM, because as you can see I am in Busy Mode so that I can give your group my full attention.
This is a display of 2-D digital collages made in RL based on a creative approach I discovered making art in Second life. The approach is called process art, and the main characteristic of it is the fact that the end result is not envisioned at the beginning but arises from combining and composing visual elements spontaneously. The textures were drawn in Painter, but a lot of the collaging took place in Photoshop.
In the central atrium is another piece of 3-D immersive art “Neriad.” It is made of sculpties, spheres, textures, scripts, and particles.
(East piazza)
Here I have a skating rink with vendors offering freebie ice skates. This is a seasonal installation. You are welcome to come back and skate later on. There is a winter-themed immersive art globe and some more banners, too. And some Tokoroten sculpty evergreens.
My TPs are brightly colored boxes located on the walls on every floor. Let’s continue the tour over here by taking the bottom red TP to the second floor.
This is a meditation alcove and along the walls are a selection of black and white digital drawing imported from RL. One from this series won first prize at the Butler Midyear in RL this summer!
Maybe this would be a good time to describe digital drawing, also known as digital painting, in a little more detail.
Digital drawing is done just like traditional drawings except that I use digital tools, including the software program called Corel Painter 10 and a pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet and stylus. As I draw, the tablet and stylus electronically translate the motions of my hand into strokes that look as though they were made with the drawing tool I have selected (charcoal pencil or pastel, for example). I see these strokes occurring real-time on my monitor. I work with reference photographs but none of the photograph pixels end up in the drawing - it is 100% drawn by me by hand. In RL I print these drawings out as limited editions of ink jet prints on fine art paper.
Up here you will find 3-D art made from sculpty line drawings embellished with particles and animated textures. You can pick up a LM to The Particle Laboratory near the TPs. I got interested in particles thanks to classes run by Rezago Kokurin of the Virtual Artists Alliance. It is a great group!
Particles are a lot of fun to play with. And guess what - lots of effect and no extra prim count!
Here the main display of immersive art begins. It is called immersive art because the viewer is meant to enter the work either with one’s avatar or camera.
The art is made of nested prims, digital textures, and scripts. Many of the builds have sit poses in them and many have sounds as well.
The point of the art is the kaleidoscopic interaction of the textures, as well as the different moods expressed in the pieces.
This piece is called “Night Light” and has a floating avatar pose in it than many find very relaxing.
Be sure to notice the great white fish! He is scripted to move with the SL wind, as is the seaweed.
From the red and white box you can pick up a freebie fish lapel pin made from the same texture.
The newest piece is this pink cube over this way. It is called Sunrise Sunset. If you take one of the seats inside and wait, eventually you will see the sun rising or setting. There is also a dance pose ball in the middle.
If you zoom way out, you can see everything in this gallery from the outside because the walls are transparent. It’s a neat view - sort of like looking at a dollhouse.
Last and perhaps best of all is the Sky Studio: Night - the dark blue TP at the top.
Again this is all immersive art. I have chosen the pieces here because they glow in a dark environment, and I find the effect magical. You will notice that some of the sculptures emit extra large particles, which are actually highly detailed digital drawings.
Over here is a piece called The Maze. (A prize was given to the first one who makes it through to the back.)
OK! Let’s go relax on the balcony. And besure to touch the sign to the right of the door if you want to be added to my mailing list to receive invitations to my shows
Out here there is fruit and some more champagne.
Please help yourselves.
There are seats to the left.
About Atelier Alizarin
Located in a wooded park in Huntsman, Atelier Alizarin is the Second Life studio of digital artist Alizarin Goldflake. There are three floors on the land and two in the sky. On the land, the first floor features a piazza with a pool, sculpture, digital dawings from RL, and digital banners. With the exception of the Linden plants, all of the textures throughout the atelier - art, furniture, and buillding - were drawn by Alizarin (more about that at the end).
In the ground floor gallery, there is a display of 2-D digital collages made in RL. In the east piazza, there is a skating rink with vendors offering freebie ice skates. On the second floor, there is a meditation alcove and a selection of black and white digital drawing imported from RL. On the third floor in The Particularium you will find 3-D art made from sculpty line drawings embellished with particles and animated textures.
Next stop is the Sky Studio: Day. Here the main display of immersive art begins. It is called immersive art because the viewer is meant to enter the work either with one’s avatar or camera. The art is made of nested prims, digital textures, and scripts. Many of the builds have sit poses in them and many have sounds as well. The point of the art is the kaleidoscopic interaction of the textures, as well as the different moods expressed in the pieces. Last and perhaps best of all is the Sky Studio: Night. Again this is all immersive art. Ali has chosen the pieces here because they glow in a dark environment, and she finds the effect magical.
All of the art at Atelier Alizarin depends heavily on the artist’s RL digital drawing skills. Digital drawing (or painting) is done just like traditional drawing except that Ali uses digital tools, including a software program called Corel Painter 10 and a pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet and stylus. As she draws, the tablet and stylus electronically translate the motions of her hand into strokes that look as though they were made with the drawing tool she has selected (charcoal pencil or pastel, for example). She sees these strokes occurring real-time on her monitor.
Alizarin has been a professional visual artist in Real Life for a long time. She shows in several prominent galleries, and her work is included in many museum, corporate, and private collections.
About Metaverse Explorers
Metaverse Explorers is a group in Second Life held by the Orange team that regularly experiences guided tours of various new and interesting places in Second Life. The group is free to join and open to everyone. Ask Jade Lily for details.