31DC2012: Day 16, Tribal

Tribal nails! I got to thinking about tribes and history and eventually started thinking about cave paintings. I recalled these beautiful stenciled hand paintings on cave walls and wondered if there was some way I could get them on my nails.

Here is an example of the style I am referring to, though there are many many more images of this style of cave painting. Try googling "cave painting hands" for some excellent and beautiful images if you are interested.

(source)

I started out with a base of OPI Berlin There Done That, which I also tried to texture a bit with OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. Then, I blocked off areas of my nail with hand shaped pieces of painters tape, and used a sponge to sponge on China Glaze Call of the Wild over the tape, around the edges. I then added a bit of freehand embellishment with China Glaze Velvet Bow to give the stenciling a bit more depth of color.

The tape pieces were created using the same method that I used in my stenciled star nails tutorial, except instead of using a hole punch like I did for that manicure, I just freehand cut out some hand shapes.

For having never done something like this before on my nails, I think I did a pretty good job of mimicking the cave paintings. If I were to attempt this again, and I would like to, I would probably sponge each hand on in different shades of reds and browns, and try to make the base look more like stone.

I hope you enjoy these like I do! 

Here's a combo image for pinning ease... :)

You can check out last year's tribal nails here as well as the challenge prompts here.