Friday, September 13, 2013

Ponyo Nails

I am a HUGE Hayao Miyazaki fan. Whenever I am feeling down or uninspired, I watch one of his movies and feel instantly rejuvenated.

I am also hugely (weirdly?) infatuated with mermaids -- I have been since I was 4 years old and saw 'The Little Mermaid' in theaters. Seeing that movie is also what seriously started me wanting to become an animator.

'Ponyo' is the culmination of these interests for me. Ponyo doesn't have a 'traditional' mermaid form with a scaly tail and fins, but the difference between her human and mermaid form is still very apparent. Ponyo is not my favorite Studio Ghibli movie (that is reserved for Princess Mononoke!), but it is so incredibly sweet and endearing. The energy of the animation and the vibrancy of the colors is breathtaking to watch!!

But enough of my spiel -- On to the nails!

I had a lot of fun doing these. I did a lot of prepping and deciding on what would go on each and every nail -- the result hopefully maintains a little of the movie's energy!  This was also the second manicure where I used a pen to make detailed outlines (see my Astronaut nails). I figured out that putting a matte coat on the nail before I use the pen helps to prevent the ink from bleeding into other parts of the design -- kind of like watercolor. Very interesting phenomenon, but incredibly annoying for precision line work!

Right hand: Each nail features some of my favorite moments from the movie.
The pointer finger turned out a little derpy, but the rest came out exactly how I'd hoped! You can't tell from this angle, but I put matte top coat on each Ponyo where she is out of water -- even on the pinky to show Ponyo's head sticking out of the water! Oh well.

Left Hand: Ponyo's school of sisters!
I am left-handed; I am in no way ambidextrous (though I can write my name with my right hand without it looking horrid). So how did I do my non-dominant hand with so few mistakes? Homemade nail decals.

I took one of those plastic sheet protectors and put a layer of clear nail polish on it and waited for it to dry. I did my design from there; I painted the sisters, waiting for each layer of color to dry, before going on to the next color detail. To do the line work, I painted on a fast drying top coat (Seche Vite) so I had a hard surface to work from. When that was dry, I put on a layer of matte top coat. I used my pen to make the lines, using little strokes, in case the ink still wanted to bleed. When the ink dried, I put on another layer of clear, and let that dry completely. When they are done drying, I peeled them from the plastic sheet protector and trimmed the excess clear polish from the edges.

I told you it was a long process! Hopefully that explanation was clear.

This manicure took forever to do, and had a lot of prep, but the results were sooooo worth it!. The left hand glittered so beautifully, and I couldn't stop staring at the details in the right hand!

After I completed these, I decided that I am going to do a Studio Ghibli / Hayao Miyazaki themed manicure series. This was first of that series. Next up: Princess Mononoke!!

Astronaut / Space Nails

This was my submission for Sally Hansen's 'I Heart Nail Art' contest for May 2013 (which I didn't win, dang it!). That month's theme had been 'street art'.

I was inspired by the street artist Bansky when I did this. Previous to starting this mani, I had looked up 'street art' to get a better idea of the art style, and fell in love with his style and the humor in his art pieces.

This mani doesn't outwardly come off as 'humorous', but looking at it made me smile :) My boyfriend thought that it was one of my best designs! That made me smile even wider.

'Dead Astronaut' May 2013 
How I did this:

To start, I applied a light gray polish as a base, then layered a thin coat of white crackle polish.

With a dotting tool, I applied black in a cloud shape across all the nails. Then I created a galaxy/nebula design over the black by sponging on white, bright pink, yellow and dark blue around it's border. Then I applied a coat of glitter polish for 'stars'.

Next, I blocked out the astronaut in white. I went around the edges of this with black, then added in his head. I decided to add a little United State flag on his sleeve and used some black crackle for more feathery strokes. To get the fine lines around his hand and fingers, I used my secret detail weapon: a gel pen!

The profile of the girl was thrown on at the very end to make it more 'street art-like'. The mole above her lip is an homage to me, since I have one in that same spot on my face. Silly details, I know ;)

Because of the angle, you can barely see his legs and feet -- it's hard posing for these pictures!!

I was really proud of this; I would thrust my hands into the faces of everyone that looked even slightly interested in my hands, haha!

I wish I had taken more pictures of this!!

Sunday, September 1, 2013

New beginnings, long over due

Today is the official kick-off of my nail art blog!

I have been meaning to get a blog started for forever -- years even! I didn't want to put anything up until I had everything perfect. Well, if I try to make everything perfect, I'll never post anything... So I'm going to make do with my crappy camera phone pictures until all my old stuff gets posted (maybe I should just do a gallery??). I have a ton of old art to show!

And (baring with me as I fumble through figuring out formatting, etc.) the coming months will (hopefully!) be chalk full of new stuff and awesome pictures!

On to the nails!

Since today is Sunday, and the final season of Breaking Bad is airing (and because I freaking love this show!!), I thought I'd share the nails I did for the season premiere:

Right hand: Jesse Pinkman's favorite expletive (pinky), 'blood money' (ring), Gus Fring with half a face (middle), Heisenberg sketch (pointer), and Walter White in his hazmat suit (thumb).
Left hand: Bromine element (thumb), Barium element (pointer), burned bear floating in a swimming pool (middle), 'Blue Sky' (ring), D.E.A. badge (pinky).

Both hands took an exceptionally long time -- I'm too embarrassed to even say it! Let's just say...more than an hour and less than a day. Yup, just about there ;p

I am really happy with these. I got most of the ideas I had down, and down well  (I think). Though Fring's face and the D.E.A. badge did have some unfortunate smooshing accidents when I applied some lotion after I finished...sigh. The others still look good though!

These pictures don't capture all of the details...You can barely see the gold stamping on my right ring finger! Oi. Next time!!

Hopefully this is a good enough beginning!

Here's to more posts soon to come!