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.