Tuesday 25 October 2011

Once upon a nail...



Sorry it's taken me so long to get back on here! I'm back at uni now so I've been super busy with presentations and all sorts. Making prosthetics this term and I'm so excited, although it's a lot of work so I need to keep my head down. I am however still making time for my nails.

This week's theme is Disney! Yay! Been a big fan of Disney since I can remember, especially the classic Disney princesses. We've got an offer on at hmv for buy one get one free on selected Disney DVD's and Blu Rays at the mo so that gave me inspiration to do a bit of promoting.
I've only selected Disney films that are actually in the offer so there are some awesome classics which are missing for that reason, like Sleeping Beauty (my personal favourite) and The Little Mermaid. I have however chosen some pretty good classics which most people recognised.
I wanted to put small symbols or items on my nails that are obvious references to their films, as opposed to whole characters or scenes as thats a bit too much detail.
Most people have been able to recognise which films all the nails are from and its been quite fun seeing if people can get them all. A lot seem to get stuck on the 'Wall E' one. Here is the list of all them; Up, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story, Wall E, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aristocats and Aladdin. I wanted to do the symbol for the Disney castle and the Walt Disney signature (like on the beginning of all the films) on my thumb nail but I just never gave myself enough time to do it.
I also got a mention on Twitter for these nails as well which I'm quite proud of. This is how it went:
I tweeted "Promoting the Disney buy one get one free at work this week! " with a pic of one hand.
hmvtweets then replied " those are amazing!!!" and they retweeted as well.
I then wrote "Here's the other hand. Do I get a bonus for going the extra mile ? :D" with a pic of my other hand.
To which they replied " haha you'll have to ask your manager about that! ::)". Which I am still yet to do, however I have actually sold DVD's in the promotion because of these nails so here's hoping.

Friday 7 October 2011

RiP Steve Jobs

Sad to hear about the loss of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs yesterday. He was certainly a leader in the world's latest technology. Since my first ipod about 6 years ago, I have been converted to the world of Apple products and I am hooked. I can only hope the company remains as strong without him.

President Obama made a very nice tribute:

"Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. The world has lost a visionary."

This blog is a tribute of my own to show my appreciation in my own creative way.

 
















I decided to dedicate one hand to the ipod as it was the first Apple product I ever owned. Plus it was also one of his most innovative designs because although many take it for granted, a lot of people would be lost without their mp3 player and the ipod certainly paved the way for them.
The other hand is a bit more general. Mostly dedicated to the mac and the iphone (the other two Apple products I own).
I wanted to be colourful with these nails because apple products are known for their wide colour range, especially with ipods. Plus I'd rather celebrate his life not his death.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Nobody f***s with the Jesus!


















Created 30th September.
Went bowling this week with a few of my closest friends. It's something we've been doing a fair bit over the summer, mainly on a Tuesday as it's half price bowling and half price drinks, nothing like bowling after a couple of shots and a beer! I'm not that great at bowling but my game has gradually been improving. Got some pretty good scores this week and I actually got a spare at one point, which is rare for me.
I wanted to do some simple bowling nails this week as I have a bit less time on my hands now I'm officially back at uni. However I can't do anything simple, plus I've been a bit ill recently so I had some spare time to do something different, so I decided on 'The Big Lebowski' nails. This meant I could still do the bowling theme but have a bit more variety with what to paint on each nail.
If you've seen the film hopefully you'll get the references. If not then go see it immediately! It's a hilarious cult classic, one of Jeff Bridges' finest roles.
So for the bowling pin nails I decided on the bright green background, you only need to see the DVD cover to get that reference. For the rest I did the Dude's sunglasses with the rug reflection and the catchphrase of the film 'The Dude Abides', a bowling shoe and the Dude's jumper on my left hand. On my right hand I did a little White Russian, the Dude's favourite cocktail (and mine), the Dude's bowling shirt and for the thumb I wanted to write the quote "Nobody f***s with the Jesus!" over the purple colour of his outfit but it didn't look so good as it's very tough to write teeny words using your left hand when you're right-handed. Instead I opted for a plain purple, my first plain nail in a very long time. I also went the extra mile and painted my toe nails green, hopefully I'll be keeping all my toes though.


I'm gonna go watch that film again now because it's awesome. Next time I go bowling it'll be White Russians all round!

Back to School


















Created on 21st September.
As I was soon to be enrolling on the second and final year of my university course I decided to create some school themed nails this week.
I already knew that I wanted to try the notebook style background on most of my nails but I couldn't think of what to put on them so I went to Facebook to find some help and inspiration.
This was my status: 
"Decided this weeks nail art theme is 'back to school' so I need a little help... What did you used to write/doodle on your pencil cases and homework diaries?".
Thankfully I got a few replies and that's how the designs on my left hand were created. These include the stars, the Pacman ghost, the name tag and the teeny penis (which got lots of attention). The other hand were things that I used to doodle in my own school books. (Although I never actually got an A+, that's just wishful thinking.) Unfortunately this hand got a little smudged when I applied the clear top coat.
Finally I decided to do the apple and the school uniform because I don't like all my nails looking the same, plus I wanted to add some colour in there. The colours in the tie were the same ones I used to wear in my upper school.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...


















Created on 16th September.
This week was the blu ray release of the Star Wars box sets at work so obviously I had to get me some Star Wars themed nails to celebrate and promote.
Took me a little while to figure out what to put on each nail but once I'd decided it wasn't difficult to design. It did take a long time to get all the detail in some of them though.
I made a conscious decision not to involve any of the three prequels as we don't talk about those. Instead I decided to use characters good and bad, ships and lightsabers (and of course I had to write 'Star Wars' in the proper title style on my thumb nails). I also put a bit of glitter on all the nails with a black background to make it starry, although you can't see it very well in the pics I have.
My favourite is definitely Boba Fett as I really wanted to get the detail in the battered helmet (plus I had to draw his little antenna on my finger to get the full effect). R2D2 comes a close second, if only I could've made him project a mini Princess Leia.

Better pics with the glittery star detail:
(Note how I put a bit less on the Death Star nail as it had already destroyed a few. RIP Alderaan.)

Land Ahoy!


















Created on September 9th.
I was finding it difficult to come with a theme this week so I did a bit of internet exploring and decided to create some nautical nails. This has been done a lot by many people so I wanted to make sure I did my own spin on them but still using only a few basic colours.
The important things to get in there were the symbols, like the anchor and the ships wheel, and the nautical stripes. The rest of them I just thought up as I went along.
My favourite is definitely the compass rose because I really wanted the detail to be nice and sharp and it came out better than I thought it would.
(Thanks to my friend Marta who came up with the lighthouse idea when I couldn't decide what to do with the final nail.)

Seasons change...


















Created on 1st September.
This week I noticed that leaves had begun to fall off trees, the weather was getting cooler and signs of Autumn's arrival were everywhere. As I didn't want to believe that summer had ended just yet, I decided to create Summer to Autumn nails, Summer on one hand and Autumn on the other.
I did a bit of research into classic seasonal plants, food, drink, weather etc. and came up with some ideas for each nail. Unfortunately, as you can see below, the Autumn ones didn't work out so well so I gave up on the idea and realised we had a while left of Summer fun to enjoy. Originally I was going to do blackberries, an acorn, an umbrella, a hot coffee and a hedgehog for the Autumn nails but I decided to stick with my summer nails; a strawberry, sunflowers, a sunset, a cocktail and a ladybird and repeat them on both hands.
The sunflowers came out a bit different on both hands because I was experimenting with styles and colours. Also decided to do different colours for the cocktails.

Fright Fest


















Every year on August Bank Holiday weekend they hold 'Fright Fest' at Leicester Square's Empire cinema. As I'm a huge horror fan I always try and go to at least one screening. This year I could only afford one so I went with my friend Nyssa to see 'Urban Explorers', set in underground Berlin a small group of tourists go down to explore old Nazi warfare rooms and shit gets real basically.
So to celebrate the fun of Fright Fest I decided to go for some blood nails by stippling on different shades of red, gradually getting darker towards the tips to create a blood dipped look. As my favourite film of all time is George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead it though I'd write the tagline and the best quote of the film 'when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth', to make my nails a bit more original. I then decided to write 'Fright Fest 2011' on the thumbs just to promote the awesome festival.
I actually tweeted a pic of these nails and tagged @film4frightfest and got a retweet and comment from them which made my day!
(Just to let you know I'm @FilthWizard on Twitter of anyone fancies following my day to day explorations/ moaning.)

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Off to see the Wizard...


















Created on 20th August.
These are my favourites so far as I love the little details I put into them.
I was watching this movie and thought it would be a great idea to do my own nail interpretations. I had to start by making a list of things I wanted to include in the designs, like the rainbow and the ruby slippers, then decide what nails to put them on.
I was originally going to write 'No Place Like Home' on the gingham nails but they took me so long to paint I didn't want to clutter them up with words and ruin the patterns.
In case you're having difficulties telling what they are, there's the rainbow, the yellow brick road, the poppies that make them fall asleep (my favourite line in the film "Poppies will put them to sleeeeep" because of her wicked voice), the emerald city which I added glitter to make it shimmer, the witches broomstick, the pattern of Dorothy's blue gingham dress and her ruby slippers which I also added glitter to.


I later added clouds and a bird to the rainbow nail as I was originally going to write 'Over the Rainbow' but decided to keep all my nails text free.

Fruity friend


I did these nails on my friend/wifey. She likes my creations and wanted something funky on her nails to show off at work. She wanted some melons so she showed a few ideas she had for them and I set to work choosing the right colours and creating the designs from links she'd seen online.
By the way in terms of nail varnishes I use, it's mostly cheap ones like Barry M, Rimmel, 17 and Collection 2000 as they all have nice bright colours, even if it does take a few coats to apply. I also use Professional Nail Art pens to get the small details.

Pop art


















Created on 13th August.
At the time I did these nails I was reading all of the Walking Dead graphic novels as I'm a big fan of horror and zombies. This made me want to do something cartoon like. Therefore I used pop art as the inspiration to create something fun and colourful.
I also regularly go on http://fuckyeahnailart.tumblr.com to search for nail art inspirations as there's tons on there.

First nail art!

These were created on the 6th August 2011. I have a few creations back catalogued, once they are up I will be posting new ones on a weekly basis.
This is my first venture into the wonders of nail art. I decided just to create a few random shapes and designs to begin with to test my capabilities. I have done simple things like hearts and flowers before but this was the first time I had done anything as detailed as the eyes.