Long-awaited Princess Mononoke nails!

Sorry for the long delay between posts -- I was determined to have my next post be Princess Mononoke nails, and I kept getting hung up on how I would layout the design on my nails. Luckily I finally figured it out!

I took inspiration from some of my favorite moments in the movie, and some inspiration came from cover art. As per usual, these took an insane amount of time to paint! But I think the time spent was worth it for these awesome pictures to be on my nails!

Left Hand: Nighttime Forest Spirit (thumb), Daytime Forest Spirit (pointer, middle, ring), and a glow in the dark Kodama (pinky)

Since the subject of the nails on my left hand are different but related to one another, I tried to create a sense of uniformity throughout the nails by having the background colors run in to each other -- The thumb's color bleeds in to the pointer, and the ring finger bleeds in to the pinky.

Side note: The Kodama on my pinky glows in the dark (if you didn't read the caption)!! I couldn't take a good picture of this effect with my camera, but trust me, he glows! I love him <3 p="">

Left Hand: Thumb close up

I was really happy with how the thumb came out on the left hand -- I've been wanting to do the Nighttime Forest Spirit for a long time, and I think this pays respect to the original design. The image was too small to do the swirls inside his body; if I had put them in, you'd lose the detail of the Spirit's body. So I chose to leave them out.

Right Hand: Ashitaka's curse (pinky), angry Ashitaka with his pulsating cursed arm (ring), 'Mononoke' hirigana (middle), 'Hime / Princess' kanji (pointer), San and her wolf brother (thumb)

For the right hand, I tried to be a bit more ambitious with the detail work. The ring finger is probably my favorite out of all the nails I did. Though Ashitaka's face is a little rudimentary looking, all the major details are there, and I think you still get a good idea of the scene this is taken from. The middle and pointer fingers, well... My hirigana and kanji are terrible, but I really like the title screen in the movie, and wanted to include it with this design. So please excuse their terrible brushstrokes! The thumb -- oh man. I tried you guys! Hahaha!

Right Hand: Thumb close up

I'm kind of embarrassed by how the thumb turned out. Granted I think fans of the film will recognize the reference photo, but man, I should have stopped a few blood spatters and line work from where I stopped! I'm still happy that I was able to get the image somewhat decently on to my nail -- What do you all think?

Overall, I am happy with the way these came out -- I got to paint everything I wanted to, and they all turned out pretty decent looking. In the future, I may revisit this theme and try some other layout. We shall see!

Thank you for reading!! :)

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!!