Self Evaluation

It is very out of character for me to say this, but I did not hate this project! For the most part.  Of course I hated presenting because presenting is scary and I'm not good at it and it gives me anxiety and its horrible.  But actually doing the project was enjoyable!! For one thing, my mom bought me a bunch of nail supplies, because it was "for school".  I also really do love nails, and before I knew about this project, I was thinking about starting a "career" in nails.  I even found a nail school in Hawaii, which is where I want to live after high  school.  This was good because it felt like I was actually doing something that mattered, versus the waste of time I usually view school work as.  Overall, it was just general fun.  It wasn't always exactly relaxing to paint my nails, because I did mess up a lot and would get pretty angry when it kept happening. But when I started getting better, it was pretty fun to go into my room, open the window, turn on some music and start painting.

In relation to my TED Talk, I would say no.  It wasn't really four to five minutes, I'm estimate it was about two.  My visual component was alright, and it included two (2) pictures of John Lennon, so that made it 500% better! My content was a solid part in my opinion.  Even though it was short, I expressed what I wanted to say and I think the message I was going for was a good one.  The organization was a little weird.  My delivery was basically as it always is, pretty bad.  I definitely read because I can't memorize things. I might have had a little bit of passion, I don't know it was really scary! I can barely handle presenting in class let alone on the flipping stage.  

But besides the TED Talk, this project was pretty okay! It was definitely good to get a break from boring school work, and be able to tell my parents I was doing homework when I was painting my nails! I would give myself 25/30 for the presentation. 

Final comments!

Jessica S. http://allraveledup.blogspot.com
Caroline Carolinelearns2sign.blogspot.com
Jenny d. designsbyjennyd.blogspot.com

6

For my final post, I will be showing you the culmination of my project.  This is what it has all been leading up to, my ability to give someone a full manicure.  This includes; cuticles, filing, buffing, and painting.  I gave two full manicures to two different people and it was a lot of work, but it turned out pretty well!! I was actually really surprised at the fact that I could do these things! Here are some photographs:

For the first girl, I gave her an ombre nail using the same technique as I used in the first complicated manicure I ever tried during this project.  I also had to push back her cuticles, and file and buff her nails.  I think I painted her nails really evenly and it looked really good when I was finished.  Also, her cuticles were unbelievably long, but I think I pushed them back well and only hurt her a little! For the second girl, I did one hand with the flower design I used previously and one hand with the water marble design (that's what she asked for).  I think I was tired at this point because I was messing up more, but they still turned out really well.  In the end, however, I really do enjoy painting nails and I think that this project helped me shape the skills  that I am going to need in my future nail endeavors! 

Comments

Julia K- http://juliaguitar.blogspot.com/
Sun Min- 20watercolorproject.blogspot.com
Abby M.- http://pressforpaint.blogspot.com

5

I've pretty much just been continuing on trying out different nail designs.  The interesting thing about this project is that there isn't one particular set of skills you can have or master for EVERY different type of nail designs.  Its just like other sorts of arts.  Just because you can draw a horse doesn't mean you can also draw a building.  However, I suppose you could use some of the skills you have from drawing horses, and tune them and build on them to be able to draw the building.  That is sort of what I do with different designs. Here are the different nails I attempted to do this week.

Inspired by this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4TWNDqoEM4, are nails with little Hawaiian looking flowers:                                                    

 I think that this one came out very well.  It wasn't necessarily the hardest design but I had to use a dotting tool, and since I didn't have one I had to make my own out of sticking a pin into a pencil, and it worked well.  I think it is in great likeness to the original.

The above design was inspired by this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw2bqnsBzcY.  This one was pretty successful as well.  Instead of using a nail striper to paint the trees and birds, I used a nail\pen.  You would think that this would be a lot easier, but it came with its own set of struggles.  It was hard to make a solid line, and you could only use downward swipes, like you were using a paintbrush.  This design is another example of having to use previous skills in different situations.  The background for these nails was the gradient technique I used in a previous week.

 These nails were inspired by this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTskoTf1SY.  They were supposed to be roses but they ended up just being embarrassing.  I think the reason that I did so badly on these was that I didn't use much patience.  I was supposed to be making small and precise lines but they just ended up as blobs.  The only good thing about this was that the base color was applied well, which is actually becoming more of a standard for me.
Finally, I tried a water marble technique, which I learned from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziUBMEzshgo.  I attempted it twice:

The first time, only two of the nails really turned out well, but I liked the results of the second attempt better.  These nails were different because they weren't as much about brush control or painting, it was a very unique technique.  It was interesting.
My next post will showcase my final product: a full manicure on another person's hands.

Some Pretty Interesting Blogs

That I commented on
Kylie Mountain http://teamcaine.blogspot.com/
Ben Chaiken http://www.the-bluegrass.blogspot.com/
Remi Ginsberg http://remisgeniusprojectblog.blogspot.com/

4

I achieved some positive and negative results with nails this week. 
Here are the manicures I tried out on myself, incorporating designs.

This one was supposed to be a sort of ombre design whose technique i learned from pearlsandpolish.com and I had to use a makeup sponge and sponge the colors on to make a gradient even though it wasn't actually a gradient because the colors were really different but they did blend together.  It was a nice effect not to sound to full of myself but I have to admit this one looked beautiful, the picture doesn't really do it justice though.

This one was a mixture of a design I got from my baby pearlsandpolish.com with a bit of my own twist it was whatever.

For this one, I painted my nails a nude color then did different sorts of tribal designs over it with a nail pen.  I thought this design up myself.  It turned out okay but I didn't wait long enough on some nails so they weren't completely dry and the pen sort of dug into it and looked nauseating.  But I did okay in the end.

These white nails were the base for the city skyline nails below, I just wanted photograph them to show the progress I've been making if you compare these nails to even my best manicure in my previous post, you can tell I've made a lot of progress which is pretty gnarly.  My brush control is improving so much.

And here is the City Skyline nail design which I got from this tutorial on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7tE6kwq8vM
Haha
I had to start with the sponge gradient I did in the first design which was okay but then making the cities I am so sorry I just ruined it.  I think I will come back to this design later.

What it was supposed to look like

 These last few pictures are of my sisters nails that I did, which was basically a disaster.  I actually started crying during this. My sister is really bossy and wouldn't even let me do her cuticles like that doesn't even make sense how am I supposed to do her nails if her cuticles are in the way.  She kept telling me what to do and yelling at me when she thinks I am doing something wrong.  It was really stressful and awful, and not a good experience for the first time painting someone's nails.  They turned out pretty bad.  Next week I hope to paint someone's nails who is a little more cooperative. 

One problem I have encountered is how I haven't really been able to practice shaping as much as I want to. Each time I file a nail, I shape it of course but I don't have nails long enough to practice almonds or points which is sad.  Next week I am going to start on other people's hands more and start with maybe some more advanced techniques??