Tuesday, November 27, 2012

FMA: BH - Barry the Chopper!

Ooooooh dear. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'm absolutely in love with it! While I was watching it, inspiration struck me, and I created this design!


I really tried to get a sharp picture...



In the beginning of the anime (can't find the exact episode), they meet a little character called Barry the Chopper, who's had his soul attached to an armor just like Al. The difference being that Barry was convicted to death, but instead of getting hung, he was used in human experiments. When Barry tells this story, this picture is shown: 




I started with a red polish. Then I took a darker red, it was like a red burgundy, and it's very thin. I created a line along the cuticle with a toothpick, to make sure I got full color there. Then I sponged over that to made it gradiate into the other red. After it was dry, I went over it again, this time moving into the nail to create the gradient. While it was wet I applied a little bit of deep red glitter, which really gives depth to the colors. Then I top coated, to smooth out the surface.
I painted a very tiny french, way out on my nail, in black. From it I made little crosses. As you might see from the picture, Barry was convicted for murdering 23 victims, so I made sure to paint 23 crosses on each hand! Barry himself got the ring finger all for himself, and on the other nails I added little birds.

I'm absolutely in love with this. I dislike wearing red, but for this design it's worth it! 
Tialiq

Fish Scales!

Continuing my obsession with blue! I got an idea of sponging on a french, and letting it reach the cuticle on one side. It all escalated from there...




I started by sponging on a bit of white, to mark out my french, and to make the color pop a bit more. Then I added a tiny bit of blue on the edge of my sponge, and went around the edge to gradiate it. Then I took my polish brush and applied it over the tip of my nail, and again with the edge of the sponge I touched up the line where the layers overlapped, this time removing polish with the sponge and gradiating the layers together. 





Now it was time for glitter! I applied my fantastic blue glitter, that shimmers rainbow, and then I applied many large, green hexagons. They shimmer green/blue/purple. I applied a top coat, and then made a messy outline of the gradient, and added little C shapes to add more of a scale pattern. I also added tiny little white dots to represent air bubbles! 
These were so shimmery! I ended up disliking the shape of the french though, it's a bit too thick in my opinion. 
Tialiq

Cute Argyle!

So I hadn't given argyle a shot yet, even though I've been wanting to do it for ages. Now was the time!




I started with a light, mint blue. Then I added white hearts, which on its own is an adorable design! 


In retrospect I should've gone through the effort of making these light blue, but oh well. 
To make the argyle pattern, many videos on youtube suggest making an X with a striper and filling two halves in. That doesn't give sharp points, though, and the color you fill in with kind of takes over in my opinion. So I made an X with a clear polish, and then filled it in. I used a nice chocolate brown for this, since light blue and brown is such a cute combo!
I mixed a golden glitter with a bronze glitter, and applied it over the brown polish while it was still wet, just to give a bit of dimension and sparkle. 
I finished off with my white striper, to complete the argyle pattern! 
Tialiq

Blue Sailor!

Blue is one of my favorite colors, so I was really excited when I found this perfect blue shade!





I ended up making a white V, with black lines. I added a beautiful blue glitter, that himmers in rainbow colors, and a little black rhinestone. It kind of looks like a cute sailor- or schoolgirl costume! Absolutely love this blue, definitely going to use it again!
Tialiq

Gold and Green Filigree!

I really like filigrees, and I wanted to make something really subtle that looked more complex the closer you got. So I made these!


I started with a golden polish, and before it dried I added some extra golden glitter as well. Then I mixed the perfect green, using different green shades, mustard yellow, white and orange. 
To make the pattern I started at a random spot on my nail, and just drew out from that point. On my thumb its at the cuticle, on my ring finger its in the middle of the nail. 
It did take a while, but it was worth it! It ended up very subtle, and my nails looked like a light, shimmery emerald green color from afar. 
Tialiq

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Update Post!

So lately I haven't made very geeky designs. Therefore I'm not giving them their own posts! Wall of nail-nerdiness approaching.



First up is a green water marble! I added blue glitter polish as my accent color, and I thought it looked pretty fail at the time, but now I kind of like them. They are very messy, but unique!





Second is my Halloween design! I had many ideas, but it came down to the fact that I don't like wearing orange, so I went with spiderwebs over a green. I faded in a bit of yellowy lime green, and some green glitter, to make it look extra slimey. I painted the web with my stripers, first silver glitter and then black. It needed a bit of color so I added a spider with a red rhinestone on its back.
I also used my microbeads for the first time! I put them in as trapped flies. I didn't really like the beads though. They got stuck in hair and fabrics, and they fell off easily. Mine also turned opaque when I top coated, so I'm not sure if it's the beads or Seche Vite. I'll definitely use them again though!






This one was created as I went along. I saw my purple and blue metallic polishes standing next to eachother, and I could just see the beautiful gradient they'd make. So I started off with the gradient, and then I added a viny sort of pattern on my ring finger and thumb. On the rest of my fingers I made little teardrops at the cuticle, and put rhinestones in them. I also put them in the teardrop shape of the pattern. Then I added glitter, hexagons and using my silver striper, and it ended up reminding me of the Night Elves in World of Warcraft. So I guess these are kind of nerdy, but since that wasn't the plan I'll let it slide. I definitely want to do another design for World of Warcraft though!





And my last design is a really simple V French. I painted all my nails, except my ring finger, white. Then I took two small pieces of tape and put it on the white nails to make a V at the tip of my nail. I took a sponge and made a black gradient coming from the edges. I quickly applied a glitter polish and took the tape off. 
For my ring finger I painted the nail with my silver glitter striper, it's very thick. Then I applied two coats of the same glitter polish as on the other nails, and waited for it to dry. Then I took a square piece of tape and put it over the nail, to make a big V. Then I sponged down over the tip, and remove the tape. I applied rhinestones on all my nails, and top coated.
As you can see this is a very big rhinestone, and all of the bottom surface isn't touching my nails. Therefore I apply top coat only on the sides of the rhinestone first, to glue it in from below. Then, when it's dry, I apply top coat over the rest of my nail. Doing this, my rhinestones never fall off!

That's the end of my huge update!
Tialiq