Wednesday, October 5, 2011

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Blue Nails

Today's design is inspired by one of my favorite artists (I have lots of favorite artists, which is fun): Kipling West. Kipling is so in love with Halloween. She is more in love with Halloween than you and I will ever be. I think the only person on the planet who may love Halloween more than Kipling West, is maybe Tim Burton. Maybe. Kipling made the most amazing Tarot Deck on the planet: The Halloween Tarot. Trust me, it is quite an undertaking to do a complete Tarot Deck. I tried one year to do my own, and only made it through the major arcana (22 cards). To do an entire deck of 78 cards is incredible, and to do them around the Halloween theme is even awesomer. And yes, I know that awesomer is not a word, but it is totally appropriate in this case. So without further ado, today's design is based on The Devil card from The Halloween Tarot by Kipling West... tadaaaa!

Yup, it's a Devil in a Blue Dress (blue dress, blue dress, Devil with the blue dress on!)

The base color for this manicure is Big Smoke by butter LONDON. This is one of the colors I picked up at Ulta's Buy One Get One sale last month. I really love it! This photo was the best at capturing the shade correctly, even though my hands look a bit pink in the shot.

I started by using red acrylic paint for her body and tail. I mixed the red paint with some white paint to add highlights to her features. I learned this technique from Robin Moses, who you should totally check out on YouTube. 

Next came more shading as well as her lovely hairdo. I tried to be careful about not getting too close to her face, as Kipling's drawings have a black outline around all of the characters.

I added her arm (gloved in a lovely blue shade) holding her pitchfork, and also her blue dress and highlights to her hair. She's starting to come together in this pic.

Nearly finished! I outlined with black to make most features stand out, and also added facial features and eyes. I really like how she turned out!

Here is the design with topcoat applied. She's just so sexy and fierce. I love it! A very fun mani for blue nails. 

On my right hand I decided to give the Devil with the Blue dress a little sidekick, so I made this Blue Devil Duckie. I love devil rubber duckies. This one turned out really well. And I placed him on my middle finger on purpose. Why would I do that, you ask?

So I can flip you the bird, of course!!!!! Ha ha ha! Get it? It's a duck, which is a bird, and it's on my middle finger... ha ha! Ok, maybe that is really silly, but I loved showing this manicure off at work, and then flipping all of my coworkers off. I even gave my boss the bird! LOL

You can see the model of Kipling West's Devil Card from The Halloween Tarot in the background of this shot. If you want to see more of The Halloween Tarot, check it out on Amazon here: The Halloween Tarot Deck & Book Set: 78-Card Deck [With Book]. If you want to see more of Kipling's work (which I recommend), follow her blog: Four Eyed Bat.

Polishes I used in this mani: butter LONDON Big Smoke, Essie All in One Basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat.

Tomorrow will be violet nails. I'll bet you are wondering what I will do for violet Halloween nails, huh? Come back tomorrow to find out!

12 comments:

  1. THE BLUE DUCK! Oh my god, I'm dying. These are fantastic. I should start trying out nail art with real acrylic paint. Feeling inspired. ;D

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  2. You should definitely try it, Sarah! My nail art made an epic step forward when I tried using acrylic paint. Of course, you need to use regular polish as a base, but the acrylic can go right on top of that. And it is WAY cheaper than polish. Check out Robin Moses and her FAQ videos before you start to get an idea of what she uses.

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  3. Another fantastic job! Again, love your shading work. I'm really going to have to (wo)man up! And venture into more realistic characters in my nail art. I too watch robin Moses faithfully, but I just have kept telling myself it's out of my skill range. Now I need to suck it up and actually TRY it before I limit myself like that! Lol

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  4. Thanks Leslie! You should give it a try! No one is good the first time they try something. I am sure you would be great at it after a little practice. Stop that negative self talk and do it. :) I am not very good at realistic portraits (yet). I will be, though!

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  5. This is great, you are so talented!

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  6. WOW! You are so Good at free hand!

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  7. Thanks Amy! I found a real difference when I started using acrylic paint on top of my nail polish for the nail art. It gives me a lot more control than trying to make designs with gloopy nail polish.

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  8. Very cute, the shading is awesome! The rubber ducky is too perfect!

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  9. Haha! Thanks Tera. I love the duckie too. I will have to do another mani with lots of devil duckies.

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  10. omg, this is soo amazing, i really am going to have to try some of these designs, but it'll prob turn into a huge fail loll, your really talented : ) and it's so nice to see you put your own twist on this challenge : )

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  11. Thanks nail loopy! It always helps me to print out some reference art when I paint so I can stay close to what I am trying to create. Good luck!

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