"Not sure I've seen the term "painterly avatars" in common currency, but it captures a real category worth highlighting. Thanks to excessively detailed mesh bodies, most Second Life avatars tend to creep way too far into ultra-realistic territory for my taste, and paradoxically, feels less believable. (It's like trying to get emotionally engaged by a high-end fashion model in a Vogue or GQ spread.) Whereas painterly avatar stylization evokes more uniqueness, personality, and the implications of a backstory." Read more on the blog.