Challenge Day #27: Inspired by ARTWORK

Good evening, my lovelies :D Today's post is making up for the one I missed the other day... the artwork challenge! There are of course SO many great choices out there for artwork inspiration. I had another idea in mind, but then my best-work-friend Jennifer came in the office with a new piece she had painted, and I immediately decided to take my manicure inspiration from that! She's an awesome chick and a talented artist, and didn't mind me stealing her idea for my nails for a day. Thanks, Jenn! Here's the manicure...

I used to doodle this kind of thing a lot. I think the technique might have a name, but I'll be damned if I can remember it now.

...and here is her painting that inspired it :D

With my Linksys switch in the background. In case you were wondering what the glowy dots were.

Just as Jenn did with acrylic paints on the artists' board, I started with a rich dark red colour--China Glaze Adventure Red-y, to be precise. I waited until that was fully dry, and then applied a fairly thick coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, an awesome slightly off-white polish I've mentioned before. I think it pretty closely matches the colour she used. When it was still wet, I very gently used a sponge to remove some of it, so the red could peek through--and to add texture.

I then waited until the white was in the tacky stage of dryness, and used a toothpick to draw the meandering lines across the nails, scratching through to reveal the layers underneath. I varied the pressure used so that in some places the red showed, and in others, the bare nail. I then let that dry completely, and filled in alternating areas with a yellow frankenpolish and my small detail brush. The polish is a complete mix--a sort of goldenrod yellow I made a long time ago, plus a tiny bit of red and green added to make it closer to the mustard colour used in the original painting.

I skipped adding topcoat, so I could retain the rough texture and more matte finish. In retrospect, I should have added a matte topcoat for more authenticity, but I'm only just thinking of this right now as I'm writing this post, and it's too late. DANGIT.

Better pic, I think. I thought the rough texture would bother me, but I actually loved it. I kept touching my nails all day. Ha. That makes me sound a wee bit crazy... >.>

And last, posing with the painting. Don't worry, Jenn, I didn't actually touch it with my fingers!

Perfect. You can hardly tell where the painting stops and my nails begin, amirite? LOL

And thus concludes today's artwork-inspired post. Next time is "inspired by the supernatural", and while that's such a weird prompt, what cool timing that it fell on Halloween! I didn't even plan that, I SWEAR. But I'll post it tomorrow as well as the manicure that I'm wearing with my costume--so it will be another double! xoxo