Monday, January 9, 2012

Kermit the Frog

When OPI was hosting their Muppets Mani Madness contest, I was prepared to take on every week of the challenge until I won the dang thing! Luckily, I won during the second week of the contest with my Fozzie the Bear manicure. But I had this design up my sleeve in case I needed it. And I really wanted to do it, so I finally did the design this past weekend. I think it ROCKS!

It's Kermit the Frog with Jim Henson below him, operating the puppet. You can see Jim's arm extends up on my nail, so it looks like he is operating Kermit. Waaaaaaahhhh! (That's my Kermit impression, waving my arms in the air and yelling!)

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lickety-Split Lime. This color nearly matches Kermit perfectly. Then I added the little neck collar in acrylic paint to a few of the nails. It's kind of a half moon manicure, and this design would be super fun on its own. Then I started in on Kermit himself. I thought about starting with black acrylic paint for the shape of Kermit, but I decided to outline him afterwards.

Here is Kermit finished, but not topcoated. As you can see, I changed the size of his mouth a bit and added shading around his collar. The eyeballs were pretty hard to do as they were TINY!!

Then I started in on Jim Henson. I used a picture of him I found on the internet with him operating Kermit. He has a great smile in this picture and I really liked it. The puppeteers all wore headbands to hold their microphones near their mouths. Operating a puppet is very physical work, which I found out after doing a puppet version of Hansel and Gretel in high school. Your arms get REALLY TIRED. I think this ended up being one of my better portraits!

Here's Jim and Jim. You can see I did not spend a lot of time on his shirt detail, but his arm is extended up with the sleeve of Kermit's puppet on his upper arm. The little greenish blob next to his chin is the microphone. 

On my right hand I repeated the Kermit collar theme. This was fairly easy to do with my non dominant hand, so I figured it was a good design to go with. 

Here are my hands together, so you can see how fun the hands look together. I really love this design and have gotten lots of comments on it so far. 

RIP Jim, we miss you!!!

37 comments:

  1. omg! this is so cute!!! ^_^

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  2. wow! you are gifted...very cute

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  3. Wow Michelle! You've done it again- great detail! You would have won with this one for sure if you hadn't already won! lol!

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  4. Thanks so much Jackie, that is really sweet!

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  5. Thank you Jamie! Yeah, this was my heavy artillery waiting in case I didn't win with Fozzie. It's probably better that I waited to do this design because I have had more practice with portraits and this actually is recognizable as Jim Henson.

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  6. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this mani means to me. It's so amazing.

    xoxox

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  8. Shut the front door! You're freakin me out, this is sooooo good! Did you see my Shrek fail? Yeah, not all of us can do perfect shading. Lol

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  9. Wow! Those look amazing!!!

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  10. No. Way.
    I'm not sure words can even describe how amazing this is, but it's definitely going down on my all-time favourites list. Wow!

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  11. Whoa!!! That is so cool. And so creative!

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  12. I did it for me, too Alexis!! I loved Jim and a part of me died when he did. ;( Hugs!

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  13. Thank you Leslie!! I just checked out your Shrek mani and it is NOT a fail. Just keep practicing.

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  14. Thank you Rach, that is so nice of you to say. I really love this one too.

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  15. Thank you Alyssa! I wanted to do something really different.

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  16. Ahh!! <3 This might be one of my favorite manicures EVER!

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  17. Thanks so much CupK8! That is a huge compliment!

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  18. This is amazing!! Beautiful work and tribute to a great man. It is such a shame that he left the world so early.

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  19. Such an amazing manicure! Your details never cease to floor me but you balance the designs with simple elements so well too! Well done!

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  20. It rocks? Are you kidding? It KILLS! Did I mention that I wanted to be a puppeteer when I was younger? Henson was my idol.

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  21. It rocks? Are you kidding? It KILLS! Did I mention that I wanted to be a puppeteer when I was younger? Henson was my idol.

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  22. Thanks Ashesela, I agree. What a terrible loss. To think of what might be happening in the world of the Muppets and beyond if he hadn't died...

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  23. Thank you Kayleigh! It is not always easy to create a balanced design. More often then not I think I get too caught up in details and don't see the whole picture. :)

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  24. Thank you so much Melissa!! I wanted to be a Muppeteer too. But seriously, your arms get tired! When I did Hansel and Gretel in high school (I was the wicked witch), we would all let our puppets droop in between scenes during rehearsals. It was really funny to look at actually!

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    1. Last year I did puppet therapy in the cancer ward of our Children's Hospital. I know what you mean about your arms getting tired! Our coordinator used to tell us to hold up a big can of soup while we watched tv at home! It did NOT help. :\

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  25. I saw that you are using acrilic colors for nails design..so how long will stay the polish on the nails because of the acrilic color? I try on mine nails and after 2 days i had only half design and half polish... any help?

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    1. Hi Elena! I start by painting my nails with a base color in nail polish. After that has dried, I use acrylic paints thinned with water to make my nail art. When that has dried (which happens quickly) I use Seche Vite topcoat or another quick drying topcoat to seal the nail art in.

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  26. WOw! You are SO talented!

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  27. wow! super manicure. i love Kermit ♥

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    1. Thank you ojeli! I was really proud of how this one turned out.

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  28. I'm not really into nail art at all, but I saw this on a Muppet blog and had to come over and read your post about it. It's really cute, and really well done! I love it!

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  29. This is awesome! Your portrait work is un-be-lievable. More than that, I love that you had him holding Kermit up, just as he should be. LOVE it!

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