31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired by Artwork

Today's post is inspired by the artwork of Charles Batte, also known as Chas Batte. Chas worked for the San Francisco Opera for many years. Now he focuses on his art dolls and figures. These things are AMAZING! I have been lucky enough to meet Chas and I also bought one of his gorgeous little figures at an event called Halloween and Vine, a juried Halloween art show in Sonoma County. Here are the nails I painted inspired by Chas Batte:

It's a little devil dude! And my friend Nev pointed out that the swirls on the other nails are inspired by Robin Moses, another great artist. They sure are! Robin is the guru of nail art. Check her out on YouTube.

Here is the piece that inspired this manicure. It is a magic potion bottle with a removable head! 

I started with a base coat of butter LONDON Knees Up. I lurve this color! This is one coat, and I could have done two coats, but I was too tired to do two. 

I did the outline of the devil first with black acrylic paint. I was worried that this would be harder to do since my model for the art was a sculpture, not a print. I really had to think about shape and shading more than usual. 

Then I added the red and white with more acrylic paint. Letting the paint kind of dry out on my brush made it easier to do the textured finish on his cloak/jacket. 

Here is a closeup of the face. Those eyeballs were a bitch to do. I had to do the left eye about 4 times to get it right. The acrylic paint lets you do that kind of thing. Polish is way less forgiving of mistakes. 

Here is the full mani topcoated. It is pretty cute! I mean EVIL. 

Here is me holding my magic potion bottle. I love this little guy. It is so cool to own a piece of Chas Batte's artwork! Support artists! Buy their work!

Here is the little devil without his head. You put the magic potion inside his little body and his neck fits nicely back into his collar. (Of course, this is too precious to me to fill with ACTUAL magic potion, so I just pretend.)

Polishes used in this manicure: Cult Nails Get It On basecoat, butter LONDON Knees Up, and Seche Vite topcoat. 

Check out Chas Batte! He's incredible! Check out Robin Moses, she is incredible too! 

Tomorrow: Nails inspired by a Flag. :-)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Orange Nails

Day 2! Nope, it's not Evil Carrots, although that would be an epic mani. I recently attended a great Halloween Art Show called Halloween and Vine. One of the art pieces I purchased was from the great papier mache artist, Jack Roads. I like to call him Jack the Pumpkin King! He's super famous when it comes to folk art and papier mache. I am so excited that I was able to get a piece of his. And I based today's nails on this piece of artwork.

A spooky halloween kitty with fun cobwebs!

The base polish is Minger from butter LONDON. This was my first butter LONDON polish and I about cried when I paid $14 for 1 bottle of nail polish. But I love it so! It's a gorgeous shade and is easy to apply. This was two coats.

I started by using black acrylic paint to make the cat face.

Next I added the cobweb on my middle finger and started to add facial features on the cat, again using acrylic paints. I also use a very small nail art brush that I picked up at Sally's.

Finally I added the other cobweb and finished up the rest of the facial features. The whiskers were tough as were the tiny pupils. I had to touch up both of them with more acrylic paint to get them the way I wanted.

I was tired by the time I finished these, so I did not make a lot of effort on my right hand. I just added a little "Meow" to my ring finger.

Polished used in this manicure: butter LONDON Minger, Essie All in one Basecoat, and Seche Vite Topcoat.

Here is the Jack Roads piece I got. I love it so much! The orange background is fairly muted, making the piece seem much older and folksie than it is. Jack has such talent!

Here's the man himself. Find out more about Jack Roads by clicking here. He lives in California and doesn't really do any shows besides Halloween and Vine. Another reason for you to visit Sonoma County in late September!

Tomorrow's nail challenge is Yellow Nails! I can't wait!

Witch Stockings at Halloween and Vine

We have an amazing Halloween art show here in Sonoma County every year. It is called "Halloween and Vine" and it is celebrating its 16th year in 2011. I went to it this past Saturday, and of course I had to dress up for the occasion. And dressing up includes an awesome manicure, right?!? :-)

I actually modeled these after a set of purple nails I came across while surfing other awesome nail blogs. Sadly, I really can't remember where I saw this idea. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know in the comments. I would love to credit the person who did them.

I used Fantasy Makers "Voodoo" Halloween polish for the base on most of my fingers (except the ring fingers), then topped them with Sally Hansen Crackle polish in "Ink Splatter". I'm not a huge fan of crackle finishes, but it is really fun in this mani. The ring finger is a white polish base with acrylic paint details of striped witchy stockings and a black and silver buckle.

Look! It matches my witchy red and white stockings and my witchy shoes. I love wearing these stockings and shoes. It's hard to wait until October every year. :-)

And I also wore my Bite Me t-shirt. I like this photo, you can see my eyes are two different colors in this shot. Freaky!

Polishes I used in this manicure: Fright Night Voodoo, Sally Hansen Crackle Topcoat in Ink Splatter, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White, Essie All in One Basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat.

Here's a short video of some of the great art I saw at Halloween and Vine this past weekend. If you get a chance next year, make a trip to Sonoma County so that you too can join in the Halloween-y fun. The calibre of artists at this show is really amazing. And Halloween fans can't find a better place for great themed artwork. I will show you the pieces I got in another post. Happy Halloween!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.