But this time, when I say nail art, I mean NAIL ART. I've done some cute and easy designs lately (which I obviously think are great), but this time I really wanted to do a complex freehand design that would challenge me. I wanted to sit down and spend HOURS on a design!
Here's what I ended up with...
Overall, I'm super happy with it. I especially love the scenery part on the two nails on the right. My only regret was not sketching this out first -- I think the two big fish on the left got a little crowded. Oh well! Let's just pretend that they're besties and want to cuddle together. Cool? Cool.
As you can see there is a little clownfish on my pointer finger. If you want to pretend that it's Nemo or Nemo's dad, I'm okay with that!
The black and white fish is apparently called a long fin bannerfish. I liked the long arcing top fin (you can see it continue on to my pointer finger).
Then we've got a small school of silver fishies, some seaweed, a sandy bank, and some coral. This is all probably scientifically inaccurate, and none of these things would ever end up together naturally. To all you smarties, just play along! ;)
There are a lot of colors in this. I don't want to shortchange you guys though so I'm gonna try to go through them!
- Base - Gradient of OPI What's With the Cattitude and OPI Ogre the Top Blue
- Any white or black in this manicure uses Konad Special Polish White or Black (but is freehanded on)
- Orange in clownfish - Zoya Arizona
- Fishy bubbles - OPI WWTC mixed with white
- Yellow on bannerfish - China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
- School of silver fish - butter LONDON Lillibet's Jubilee
- Sand - OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh (darker/lighter spots were made by mixing DYEAVG with white or black)
- Seaweed - China Glaze Tree Hugger (darker/lighter shades were made by mixing with China Glaze Westside Warrior or white)
- Coral - Zoya Myrta and Zoya Sarah
I hope that list makes you realize how much I love you!
I did this nail art primarily with a medium length striper brush and a needle for some of the finer details. I did use a dotting tool, but just for the bubbles by the clownfish.
I really love freehanding and I hope to make a more conscious effort in the future to do labor-intensive and skillbuilding designs like this one.
Hope you enjoyed!