A Snowy Country Landscape + Tutorial

Hi everyone! I created this design for the Nail Polish Canada 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge. Each week there is a new challenge, with the challenge for this first week being snow! I'm very excited to be participating in this year's challenge, because last year I heard about it too late and wasn't able to participate. There's some stiff competition but I'm hoping that will just up my A-game! ;)

Snowy country landscape nail art

Last year around this time I did a snowy landscape with coniferous trees. At the time I was very new to nail art and my finished design looked more like a landscape painting than what I thought nail art should look like. I remember thinking that no one would really like it but me, so I was surprised that I got a lot of positive comments on it. The fact that it looks like a painting was exactly what appealed to people.

Snowy country landscape nail art

Snowy country landscape nail art

So I took my design from last year as a starting point. But I wanted to paint a landscape that had more colour and more details. I wanted it to look even more like an impressionist painting. The finished landscape looks like your quintessential country landscape with the red/brown barn, sunset, and rustic fence. Yet, I really love how it turned out. Especially when compared to my design from last year, I see the improvement in my nail art skills.

Snowy country landscape nail art

I prepared a short tutorial to show you step-by-step how I did this design. I hope you find it helpful. In case you just want to know the polishes I used, here's a complete list:

• OPI My Vampire is Buff (off-white/cream)
• Sally Hansen Blue-Away (light blue)
• OPI You Don't Know Jacques! (brown)
• OPI You're Such a BudaPest (lavender)
• Sally Hansen Breezy Blue (very, very light blue)
• Sally Hansen Firey Island (orange)
• Sally Hansen White On (white)
• Sally Hansen Black Out (black)
• Sally Hansen Lightening (yellow)

If you like this design, I would really appreciate it if you voted for me. The voting page can be found here. 

Tutorial

For this design you will need:

• A mid-length detail brush. If you have a very fine brush you can do the entire design with just the one brush.
• Nail polish thinner. I always add a bit of thinner when painting freehand designs. It makes the polish more fluid and easier to work with.
• Polishes. For this design you will need white, black, light blue, off-white/cream, brown, lavender, yellow, orange, and green.

Step #1. Sketch the scene. Starting with a light base colour, sketch out your design in a brown colour. Use nail polish thinner to make the polish lighter and easier to sketch with.

Step #1

Step #2. Paint the sky. Use your blue, orange, and yellow to paint in the sky. You will also need a white or a lighter colour to lighten up the colours in certain areas. It's good to start from one end of the sky and work your way towards the other end - I started with the blue and worked my way towards the orange on each nail. Use dabs to keep the colours loose and painterly. A touch of brown mixed with light blue was used to add the dark streaks to the sky.

Tip: If your paint is building up too much and you find your surface is getting mucky - where the polish is starting to pull off - dip your brush in acetone and smooth it out. Let it sit 30 seconds then continue working.

Step #2

Step #3. Paint your snow. Painting the snow is very similar to painting the sky - dab on the colours and keep it loose. I used light blue and lavender for the cool areas, and cream/off-white for the lighter areas. At this point the design looks like a bit of a mess, but that's only because it's lacking in details and definition. 

Tip: It helps when painting in this style to think about things in terms of warm and cool colours, highlights and shadows, not "I need to paint snow".

Step #3

Step #4. Paint your trees. Add the trees to the horizon line, and other areas. Most of the trees were painted in brown, but a few pine trees were painted in a deep evergreen. Use a very light touch so that they look like they are far away. 

Step #4

Step #5. Paint your barn. It's starting to look like a landscape now! Paint in the barn using a red or red-brown for the building, and white for the roof. If you mess up, you can always do touch ups around it. Add a very, very thin line of black on the edges for definition. 

Step #5

Step #6 (not shown - sorry! - see final design) Add the fence and snow on the trees. I painted in the fence with brown, first sketching it out (my initial sketch was covered up when I painted the snow). Then I went over it in brown again to define it. To give it more emphasis, I lightly dragged black on the bottom of the lines, and white on the top. It gives the impression of a fence with snow on it. The pine trees have snow on them, so I added touches of white. 

I finished with a thick layer of clear coat. I decided not to use matte top coat this time, but that would be another good choice for this design. 

Snowy country landscape nail art

What do you think of this design? Do you like landscapes-as-nail-art? Don't forget to vote for your favourite design!