31 Day Challenge: Day Fourteen, Flowers: Inspired by Nail Cake and Jan Weiss

Hi everyone! My challenge design was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I had one of those nail art sessions where things just don't work out. I set out to do my flower mani, and I got about 75% of the way though it, then decided I hated it and removed all the polish. Since it was so late, I decided to give up for the evening and start over again today. I guess it kind of defeats the purpose of a challenge, but I was very much looking forward to flower day that I wanted to put my best work forward.

My original plan was to do a more realistic/artistic lily design. I've been enjoying Brittney's recent nail art over at Precious Polish, especially this end-of-summer floral design. I love the watercolour look of it, as well as the light colours. Even though I didn't like my attempt, I'd like to give it another try in the future.

About this design: After my failed attempt, I went online looking for inspiration, and I came across this yellow flower design over at Nail Cake. I've really been enjoying Kirstie's nail art, especially her freehand designs. That led me to look at the work of Jan Weiss, a California artist/designer. So I recreated some of her flower designs, only using my own colour palette. The vase of flowers came from this little image, while examples of her larger flowers can be seen in this online gallery.

How to get this look: The base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and the black is Orly Liquid Vinyl. The colours are OPI Anti-Bleak, My Very First Knockwurst, Can't Find My Czechbook, and You're Such a BudaPest.

First I sketched everything very lightly with My Very First Knockwurst. The vase-with-flowers design was painted with my detail brush. For the larger flowers I painted them in first with Anti-Bleak, using the brush in the bottle. Then I splotched (technical term here) some colours on top using a detail brush. Finally, the black lines were done with a fine liner brush. I thinned the black with a bit of thinner to make it more fluid and easy to use. I finished with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top and Essie Matte About You.

In the end, I love how this turned out and I'm glad I started over again. When I did the final black lines, everything just came together - I thought the lines would be difficult, but since they are meant to be sketchy and imprecise, the black lines were surprisingly easy.

What do you think of this design? Do you like floral designs, and if so what kind?

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