Monday, November 18, 2013

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 31: Recreate your Favorite Challenge

Well, after more than a 2 week hiatus, I'm back to finish up the 31 Day Challenge! I am so proud of Meghan and I for completing this and I feel like we've both seen ourselves improve throughout this challenge. I can't believe we started it back in July! Time flies - all too soon we'll be doing this all over again! 

While I considered other options, I don't think there was ever a doubt in my mind that I would be recreating my Inspired by a Song look for this theme. I loved everything about this look. The song I chose was the Florence and the Machine song, Shake it Out, and the chorus "It's always darkest before the dawn" was my major source of inspiration. However, this time around I decided to glom onto the "dawn" portion. My reasoning was that it was paying homage to the new dawn that this challenge has brought for our nail art! Yeah, I went there. Welcome to chees
e-ball city, I'll be your guide.
Anyway! I decided to recreate a sunrise image that I found online and was immediately drawn to. While this is by no means a perfect rendition (and maybe you'll have to squint a bit for this to look good), I am so proud of myself for painting this. I typically recreate things that another artist has already created and then I will come in and interpret that again (like impressionistic artwork, patterns, etc) and I almost never do any painting based on a "real" photograph/place. I'd like to think it shows growth as an artist that I've somewhat rendered an actual image in paint and tried to interpret the shadows and colors in my own way. It's not easy and there is still a lot of room to grow, but I know I can do it now and will work on improving that skill. 
I used quite a few colors for this look. I started off with a (useless) gradient that I basically painted over completely of China Glaze's White on White, Kalahari Kiss, Desert Sun and Zoya's Louise. It reminded me of a toasted marshmallow! Yummy ;) 
I then used White and blues to create the sky and clouds (Zoya's Kelly and Kristen) and some random spots of red/orange where the sun was shining through the clouds (China Glaze Life Preserver). I finished off the look by adding in the black/brown mountain range and some brush and orange poppies in the foreground (American Apparel Manilla for the brush and Julep's Brielle for the poppies). The toughest part of this look was the sun flare in the center. I by no means got it right but I hope in the future I'll be able to get better at painting these.
What did you think of this challenge? Which was your favorite look in this 4 month saga of art? Be sure to check out Meghan's 31 posts as well as mine here
Happy Polishing and thank you so much for all your support and kind comments through out this whole process!! :) 

15 comments:

  1. That is a perfect manicure!

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  2. Wow! Seriously, WOW! I just can't take my eyes off them! They're sooo purr-fect!!

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  3. Ohhh! This is just perfect!! I LOOOOVE this mani!!))

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  4. I had to comment again, this time on your blog - your nail design is totally worth me repeating myself :)
    Insane work on this one, Lindsey - and don't worry about the intro to cheese-ball city, because you truly have outdone yourself and shown us some amazing and out of the ordinary work! Congratulations on completing the challenge and on working your way through it with evermore amazing designs <3
    (totally a fan)

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  5. Wow you're blowing me away with this one! Truly stunning!

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous! And I really love your inspiration song and your interpretation!

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  7. I've really enjoyed seeing your work throughout this challenge! Incredibly jaw dropping at times! Keep it up lady!

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  8. I LOOOVE this!! It is gorgeous. I love how there's so much to look at. I also really love your toasted marshmallow gradient! I have to do that!

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  9. Absolutely amazing! The red flowers really add to them too! Seriously- you must be related to Monet! I'm so often reminded of his paintings when I visit your blog!

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  10. Amazing! :)

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  11. You have totally rocked out! this is a real piece od art- this could be a real painting to hang on the wall in a frame <3

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