2. Empress Ekko (Mia) Positive: This was a cocktail dress, and the colors were all matched exceptionally well! Negative: The judges all think you have more creativity than this look shows, as this look was just simple and cute, and bordering on a last minute French maid costume. Don’t be afraid to push yourself.
3. DAVlD DUCHOVNY (Keran) Positive: These are stunning and very flattering colors on Keran, and it was lovely to see some creativity. Negative: This was not a cocktail dress, and over all this was just a miss for the judges. There’s so much going on it’s hard for anything to really match. It’s like you had too many ideas and needed to just stick with one.
4. x_suicide_is_inevitable_x (Ebony) Positive: This was a stunning cocktail dress! You threw on a train and it still said cocktail, even in a setting that made it work a bit harder. It was nice and simple, and not in a bad way. Negative: A few colors weren’t quite the right tones for Ebony, but the biggest complaint across the board was that this came in late. Only by a minute, but this isn’t the first time things have been down to the wire. Work on submitting earlier so it doesn’t happen in the future. I want to make it clear that being late almost cost you the win.
5. rnadotsuki (Iona) Withdrawn - gonna miss ya!
6. khionna (Veronica) Positive: This was the first entry that was hands down a cocktail dress, and that excited all of the judges! The description was also a great one, and it paired well with a great concept. Negative: You’ve got to remember the little details girl! The bangs layered over the hat, the earrings were over the hair, and the reds didn’t match or balance. The little things are what really make an outfit fall apart when the judges look over them.
7. Your Local Gay (Dita) Positive: We have another cocktail dress! The judges were all ready for a kiki after this submission, it was creative and we liked that. Plus Dita looked great in these blues. Negative: Girl..what’s the deal with that headband? No bueno. The judges on the whole also didn’t care for the speech bubbles - we get what you were going for but it just didn’t quite work.
8. Pixelplays (Kate) Positive: This was a cocktail dress set in front of a background that was really gorgeous and fit the story. Negative: Take the background away and there’s nothing to celebrate about this outfit really. The description also left things to be desired - don’t tell us how long the poem took when you’ve already had an extension, because it just draws our attention to time that could have been spent polishing the outfit babe. Cigarette was also a bad choice.
9. Princess of the Raindrops (Noelle) Positive: The overall idea of this was great, we liked the cocktails after work idea you had going. Also liked that it could say cocktails without having to hold a cocktail. Negative: There are some poorly matched things, and the background isn’t necessarily the best choice for the scene, but the biggest atrocity are the glasses. We loved the idea of sunglasses at night, but these were just the wrong choice.
10. Tink_Bel (Zahara) Positive: Zahara looks great, and the colors are fabulous on her! The background also struck the perfect note and lead to a great silhouette. Negative: The ankle straps weren’t for everybody. And the fact this color scheme was done on a couple other submissions, and the arm mod was also used earlier left the judges feeling a tad impatient. Though most agreed this was one of the better uses of the arm mod.
11. METTAT0N (Trinity) Positive: This color scheme was a great choice for Trinity, and you’ve done a beautiful job matching and balancing colors across the board. Negative: This felt like a princess going out for her 21st birthday, and didn’t really feel like cocktail hour. It was just a little too extra, especially with the tiara, and if it was toned down a little it would have better fit the cocktail theme.
13. RENstrawberry (Madison) Positive: Madison looks gorgeous. These colors while already beautiful on their own were really the best choice for Madison. After editing your look to add in the table with drinks, we got more of the cocktail setting too. Negative: This isn’t a cocktail dress. It was more of a cocktail dress before you added the full sheer overskirt. This feels like a much more elegant or romantic setting than going out for cocktails.
14. Kiwi Cannoli (Brooke) Positive: You have great color taste, and it is showcased beautifully in this look. And as more entries came in it only looked better - it’s always a good thing when looks improve as more come in. You also layered together a complex cocktail dress and it pays off. Negative: The legs are nice, but they are shaded so heavily in comparison to other things it makes them look like the wrong skin tone which cost you some points. It’s also a very simple look so everything gets scrutinized, and some of the accessories just didn’t hold up to that.
15. botticellus venus (Daphne) Positive: Daphne looks great, these colors are absolutely the right choice for her, and the background was great. Description also worked out well, even though it was a touch long. Negative: Not a cocktail dress. The nose...better avoid it in the future. Also remember the little details, the arm mod in the wrong skin tone and some of the other little details don’t quite match. And again, to emphasize, this wasn’t a cocktail look.
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:33 pm
Golden Queen
Designer: Tink_Bel
Model: Zahara
Description: Ohh Leos...leos leos leos...I can tell you I've never met a boring one, a lion is a fitting symbol for this beautiful and dangerous sign. From my experience; they're the light of your life, the worst thing to ever happen to you, or both at the same time. My brother and an ex-boyfriend of mine are both Leos, and fit the profile well. I think Zahara was the perfect choice to represent this sign, with her confident and intense expression. I dressed my model in all sunshine gold as gold is a symbolic color for Leos and symbolizes their shining personalities. I dressed my model as a lioness queen, mixing the symbol and personality of Leos. I chose a pose that conveys drama and confidence, two major personality traits of this sign. The petals around Zahara looked like sparks around a fire to me, fitting as Leos are a fire sign. Overall, I attempted to show both the symbols and traits associated with Leos in every piece of my design. I love the zodiac theme, it reminds me of the crystal theme from last cycle! I don't read my daily horoscope, but I do study the zodiac frequently and find a lot of useful information can be drawn from studying a person's sign. I'm excited to see how the other designers portray their signs!
Description:"Scorpio is passionate and intense, with a magnetic personality that draws us in. Sometimes it feels like they can see right into your soul..." She walks with a venomous grace. Mystery ebbs from her as she pierces into your soul with a shining blue eye peeking out from a soft, yet malevolent purple blindfold. This woman is outstandingly beautiful, yet has an incredibly dangerous edge to her. She cautiously walks towards you, her dress flowing gently around her deadly tail. You wonder: Who is this lethal beauty? Almost as if she can read your mind, she answers with a velvety whisper, "Hello... I'm Scorpio."
Holy Hell! That was an INCREDIBLY tough challenge for me! (Sorry for the novel up ahead) Of all the zodiac signs, Scorpio is one of the ones that I am least familiar with. I'm a Virgo, and I don't think anyone I'm really close with is a Scorpio. I'm pretty glad that I got Noelle instead of Mia for this challenge. Her look fits that more "badassery" vibe than Mia's complete innocence. I knew from the get-go that I wanted a scorpion look for Noelle. From what I found, though, there are only three scorpion tail items on Gaia. I decided to go with the one that I chose because of the color: Black. Black is the color of Scorpios.
Although black is their color, I really didn't want Noelle to be wearing allllll black (after all, my entry for the last challenge was black and white!). I looked at the color of Noelle's lips and decides to go with a complementary purple: Saturn Purple. Finding solid-ish Saturn Purple items was extremely difficult! Most items had either shades of pink or orange with them, so I didn't have many options.
I originally wanted a hood for Noelle, but there weren't any good ones, and I'm kind of glad for that. Instead, I went for the blindfold. I especially love this one, because Scorpios are mysterious, and only being able to see a part of her eye completely shrouds her in mystery. Finding a suitable headpiece was also really tricky. Most things sat really funky on her pouf, until I found the headpiece she is now wearing. When I added it to her, it just clicked in my brain: PINCERS! She had the scorpion tail, but scorpions also have those gnarly pincers, and I thought that this headpiece fit that symbol to a tee, and helped create a better flow to the overall picture.
With the tail being so bold, I really wanted to keep Noelle looking feminine and sexy, and was SO excited when I saw how the dress looked. The way the ends of it flow with the tail just seemed so perfect to me.
The rest was finding legs, arms, and accessories that fit the theme I was going for. Although slightly easier than the main parts of Noelle's outfit, it still wasn't easy to find shades of Saturn Purple that didn't have pink or orange attached to the pose.
Lastly, I really wanted a background for her, especially something with stars or constellations, but nothing fit. Every background I tried seemed to hide her or take away certain aspects of her outfit that I absolutely loved. Overall, I'm really really proud of how this turned out. I actually like it so much that I'm going to be saving it as a possible avatar for me to use in the future.
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:43 pm
By Summer's Moon
Model: Keran Designer: DAVID DUCHOVNY
Feminine yet strong I defend those whom I love Guiding in summer - haiku by me
So there are basically NO good crab items to incorporate into this challenge so I found it pretty difficult. But I'm actually very happy with how this turned out. I added feet wading in water because the gown doesnt allow feet to be shown, yet you CAN see the water under her gown, showing she is a water sign! The cancer sign is also known to be a protector of family, thus showing the sword!, and is guided under the moon, thus having the moon purse. Cancer signs are also associated with femininity as the moon is as well! so I put her in a feminine gown and overskirt. I did take the red colour as it is a cardinal sign,the sign bringing in summer, thus the red pops on her skintone, as well as the white and gold.
Last but not least-- the most important piece in my opinion. The necklace. It rests right at the middle section, where the Cancer's energy is supposed to be concentrated and stored. I think that really made this stand out
Gemini (pronunciation: /ˈdʒɛmɪnaɪ/ JEM-in-eye (♊) is the third astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation of Gemini. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this sign between May 21 and June 21. Gemini is represented by the twins Castor and Pollux. The symbol of the twins is based on the Dioscuri, one mortal and one immortal, that were granted shared half-immortality after the death of the mortal brother (Castor).(source: wikipedia)
I've known a few Geminis in my life, and the symbology of Gemini keeps walking into it for whatever reason. It's no where on my personal natal chart, and yet this sign is still seeming to follow me around in my life. The fact that it came up again in this challenge for me had me shook.
The first thing I decided when I started on the design is that, since Gemini is an air sign, I wanted to use some sort of bird/feathers element. That ended up transforming into the idea of just throwing wings everywhere! I'd originally tried to use the Dilemma wings, but I felt like they were too big and crowded the design, so I went with the head wings instead. I also thought about using seabreeze, but since I already did that in my audition I figured it was better not to repeat myself. Though I may have done that in my use of antique gold here. sweatdrop
There wasn't really any way to reflect the "twins" aspect of Gemini, so I opted to focus on the duality of the sign. There's nothing that says "duality" more to me than monochrome, but offchrome seemed to feel better. I tried to draw attention to the offwhite/ivory portions of the design and use them to contrast against her dark skin. Geminus is a beautiful item, but most of the poses took over the entire avatar and were unusable.
I picture her as some kind of demigoddess offering bargains to those who give her tribute. Be sure you say the right thing to her, she might change her mind pretty quick.
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:26 pm
The Archer
Designer: khionna Model: Veronica
Description: Sagittarius: The Archer. Sagittarius is known for having a great sense of humor while also being a little frank. They are energetic and love to travel. Sagittarius also loves nature. Ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius is idealistic and generous. With the power color of the sign being Purple, it is also no wonder that Sagittarius is philosophical by nature.
The process for this entry started out slow. I wanted to do a little research into the sign. I knew that there would be way more information than can cohesively be put into and avatar so I had to figure out what would be a good way to portray it in avatar form. I knew right away that I wanted to go with the archer theme. After toying with a few other ideas I finally found my direction and knew what to do.
I started with the color purple. I wanted to be sure to incorporate the signs power color into my design somewhere. I needed a shade that would look nice and be complimentary while also having a slightly warm, earthly feel to it. After searching through various shades of purple I decided on Saturn. Knowing that the birthstone for November is Topaz/Citrine and the birthstone for December is Tanzanite/Zircon/Turquoise, I wanted to use at least one of those as well. This is where the Antique Gold bits of my design come in.
Next I moved onto my outfit design. I wanted something that would represent the archer while also being a bit flowy to represent Sagittarius' free spirit and dislike of being held down. The arms were chosen because they are holding a bow and arrow, but are holding it out in a carefree, fun position. This seemed fitting of the signs fun loving personality. I chose Hind of Avalon for the legs because Sagittarius is typically depicted as a centaur, but having the full lower body of a horse seemed to over power the look and draw too much attention to itself. I feel that these legs do well in representing this aspect without drawing too much focus from the rest of her features. When I started working on the head piece I loved how the headband ribbon flows away from the body mimicking the dress. I added the little tiny gold horse ears (which blend in very well as accents to the headband) as another allusion to her centaur form. Lastly I wanted something for the background but every full background I tried (and layered) seemed too much. Then I found the Major Arcana background. On it's own this background was still a bit too overpowering but with the right cutter it now has a nice shape and, with the help of the star on her outfit, gives a good allusion of the zodiac being the avatars central theme.
Over all I am happy with my design. I tried my best to work on item placement and color matching this round. I really feel that I did well in portraying my sign and her traits and I hope that you all feel this way as well.
To Battle! Model: Brooke Designer: Kiwi Cannoli Description: Welp, I'm just gonna start by saying that this was hard. I started over from scratch about three times. I found the horns almost right away and decided to use them( there weren't a lot that either didn't clip thru her hair or wasn't black) I choose the Ivory color because I like how it looks with her hair. I wanted to base her off this section about Aries more then anything else
Quote:
Aries is ruled by Mars -- the Red Planet, or the warrior planet. These two have been linked since ancient times, as Mars is the Roman God of War, and Ares is the Greek God of War. Mars is a planet of great action, aggression, and drive, influencing what we do, and how we do it, and enhancing the active energy of Aries. Mars is considered a pioneer and a perpetrator of new territory, just like the Aries Ram.
After that it was just the matter of finding the right items.
One of the first things that pops up about Aries is the color red, so I knew I wanted to have some red on her. After playing around abit I decided to go with Burgundy/ Ponderosa. Not only do I think it looks good on her it can also be easily matched with off white. There were no armor warrior items in this color burgundy that I could find so I used a catharsis item, which I actually really like, I think it makes her look fiercer.I added the background circle last to represent her being led by Mars. Now I do want to say that I could not decide on what to do for her middle for the life of me. It felt like no matter what I did it felt to cluttered. I decide to go with a simple dress and I choose this one for several reasons. One of them was because it has several of the colors I had already had on her and the other reason is because of the butterflies on the dress. Aries is the sign that leads into Spring so I found it really fitting.
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 11:10 pm
Daughter of Sky & Sea Designer: RENstrawberry Model: Madison Description:
Starting off this challenge I was very excited to design the aquarius zodiac. Just by chance, I received my zodiac counterpart! Fairly recently, one of my close friends shared their obsession with zodiac signs, so I learned more about them to humor her. I became rather intrigued by the “compatibilities” between signs and it appears that an aquarius is the strongest match for my sign. So it’s rather odd, yet personal, I received this assignment.
Don’t let the name fool you like it did to me for so long! An aquarius, while represented by a water bearer, is surprisingly an air sign. From this, I decided I must somehow incorporate both elements into the design.
Early on in the project, I desired to incorporate both the Uranus and Saturn color schemes into Madison’s outfit because the ruling planets of aquarius are Uranus and Saturn! Using these two color schemes was necessary to my creative process as I felt the two schemes gave life, intention, and meaning to Madison’s outfit. To incorporate both ideas of water and air, I decided to use garments that would gently flow in a cool breeze or the currents of an ocean. I began with Madison’s arm pose (the first of the Uranus color scheme) that came paired with the star, and the fabric flowing from her arms. The star she holds reinforces the idea of a zodiac, a constellation. The flowing water-like fabric is used as a personal connection to the sign, rather than to the zodiacs as a whole. Next, I decided to switch over to the Saturn color scheme.
Since I was already working with the zodiacs, I thought I would incorporate some contrapposto into Madison’s stance as a tribute to the (Hellenistic era) Greeks who developed the technique and adored the astrological signs! The leg pose came paired with black boots, which paired well with Madison’s dark features, which I did not want to leave alone/unaddressed. After Madison got her legs into pose, I adorned her with a frilly dress, reminiscent of both feathers and jellyfish. I was glad to see the Saturn color scheme included lavender which ended up bringing out the similar purple hues of Madison’s lips. To reaffirm the idea that an Aquarius is an air sign, I included wings on either side of Madison’s head.
Shifting back to the blue-green Uranus color scheme, I returned to the concept of garments that could flow in the air or sea, then added Madison’s veil and crown. From this, I added Madison’s ear cuff to compliment the space between the uranus themed crown and fabric. Finally, I added the last item to Madison’s outfit, a veil with purple hues that trailed longer than the first with frills that matched her dress. After this step, I began to believe the design was too complex and overdone. I grew frustrated and began removing useless items that I have left unmentioned in this description. Even after removing so many little items I was unsatisfied with how busy the veils looked. As a solution, I stumbled upon the oceanic backdrop. The second I added the scene, the excessive busyness of the design disappeared, as the sheer veils fell secondary to the eye and became a subtle detail atop this background. The background was perfect to calm the design and the hues matched flawlessly with the Uranus design! The darker portion of the background helped Madison’s figure come forward, drawing more attention to her.
Sorry for such a late submission, I went away on vacation to celebrate my birthday this past week. Good luck everyone!
"Steadfast In My Decision" Designer:Your Local Gay Model: Dita Description: This challenge was a little strange for me in two ways. the first being that I had completed both a description and outfit that i was somewhat satisfied with before completely scrapping it the day before it was due (as i was putting on imgur too… -_-). i realised that the outfit i had might come across as not zodiac-y. While it was inspired by libras, it could easily be confused as another sign, or even worse, would be deemed not appropriate for the challenge at all. The second way this challenge was weird for me was that i don’t know much about libras. In fact it’s one of the signs that i know the least about. So i had to do a fair bit of research to figure out what libras were all about. I’ve decided to attach my other description below because i pulled a lot inspiration from what i learned in the initial attempt at this challenge to create the piece that you see now.
At first i was going to go the super zodiac route, one that was super glittery and full of stars using mostly the painted “color” but then i kind of thought it to be a teensy bit obvious. My little creative bone wanted to try my hand at a more "fashionable" approach. I was thinking about going with a outfit fit for the runway, full of strange pink and blue trains and scarves and lots of layering but then that was a bit much (i have to remember to tone it down right!! Duhh me…) so i decided to got the more street fashion route. Something Dita could wear at the new york or paris fashion week. Somewhere between a night out on the town and avant garde-high fashion you know? So i did a little research into libra inspired street fashion, looked at photos from past fashion weeks, and did some research pertaining to libras themselves, as i'm not very familiar with them (i’m an aries myself and grew up around capricorns and leos and have seemed to, involuntarily might i add :p, surround myself with the like). I've found that a common theme among the articles i read is that libras generally dress themselves in a more simple, clean cut way with bold accents or statement pieces. There is a more casual base that is then added upon. Libras don’t sacrifice comfort over style but they still look damn good doing it!
Libras are the only sign that has an object (the scale) as its symbol, which means i had to get a little bit weird with it. I knew that i wanted to do an angel themed outfit as angels are supposed to keep balance between the heavens and the folks below. In terms of color, one site said that Libras colors are pink and green while another said pink and blue, i went with the latter because pink and green seemed a little too cutesy and i thought the pink and blue fit her eyes and lip color which was perfect. I wanted to make sure her outfit had equal parts of both colors. The item Dreaming Autumn Maiden was perfect for that because it has the blue fading into the pink in a gradient that seemed to fit perfectly with the legs (my favorite leg mod). I debated whether or not i wanted the wings to be pink or blue but went with blue because i not only wanted to continue the gradient of the shawl, but also wanted to make sure the pink didn’t overshadow the blue. I decided to leave her head bare even though Dita’s hair is rather dark in comparison to the pastels. I thought it could represent the weaknesses of the Libra. Because with good there also has to be a bad, as balance is important. I used the cloudy background because, Libra is an air sign, but also because it went well with the angel aspect and adds motion to the image.
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:52 am
Tropic of Capricorn Designer: Botticellis Venus Model: Daphne
It is my birthday on Tuesday so I thought this seemed like an appropriate challenge; even if I did get Capricorn and not Leo. I wanted to show a Capricorn that stood her ground and was determined while also being practical since they are very practical people. Capricorn is the dead of winter so I wanted her bundled up and warm as the snow fell around her. I liked this concept over my original one which relied more on a background and a little yellow and red goat. I ended up on this one because I wanted to focus more on Daphne and her silhouette.
Capricorns are associated with brown, black, and grey which were kinda frustrating for me to work with because I love a good rich color. However, I was lucky that those work well with Daphne's look. I started out this look with the pants. I loved that they looked so much like animal legs while not actually using animal legs and they just added a grounded look for me. I finished it off with the horns. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use horns but after finding these, they just worked so perfectly that I decided to use them. I decided to stick solely on Capricorn's goat attributes because I did not want to add a fish tail to her. I felt like it made her too fantastical and not grounded in reality. After researching I found that people also just use a goat instead of a goat fish to symbolize them. I added the halo behind her to signify the zodiac but also to symbolize the rings of Saturn which is Capricorn's ruling planet.
Virgin Earth Designer: x_suicide_is_inevitable_x Model: Ebony Description: I started this challenge knowing not much about the solar Zodiac other than most of the names and their constellations. When I researched Virgo specifically, I was confused by some of the contradictory information I found, like the colors associated with it. Eventually, I decided to go with the nature-based green and brown combination because every source said Virgo is connected to the Earth and the harvest season, as the sign encompasses the tail end of the summer and the beginning of Fall. I was originally going to use a breezy skirt or dress to give an impression of innocence, but then I read that those born under the sign of Virgo are detail-oriented and hard workers, with practicality in everything they do. It was for this reason I chose a pair of pants for Ebony, as they provide comfort and protection whether she's working or walking through a field of tall grass, and a loose tank top to keep her cool. I still wanted her to have something that showed Virgo's feminine side, so I added a long necklace with grass-green beads, and floral earrings that match the flowers in her hair. She's practical, pretty, and pretty practical. The Virgo image is usually a maiden with a bundle of wheat held in her arms, but after going through the few mods I could find, the closest was the Glorious Strength of the Pride. Sunflowers are a symbol of Summer, so I decided to try it, and everything started coming together. The ones she's holding here look like they're getting old and dry and, combined with the midday haze settled over the hills in the background, give off the feeling that Summer is almost at its end.
Description: (I apologise if the image is big, I'm using mobile) Pisces are known for the symbolism of two fish. I took the color muave as the focus, complimenting Mia's hair and eyes. The color is one of Pisces's color palettes, as well as blues and greens. I found this challenge rather hard to do, as Pisces looks very much like an Aquarius, and I didn't want to impede on the cusp. I believe that the symbolism of fish is portrayed well, as well as showing the creative side of the sign. Pisces are emotional, caring and creative folk, showed by the tender caress of the fishy friend and feminine pose.
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