Saturday, July 20, 2013

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 3: Yellow Nails, Wheat Field!

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that it is Friday? Well, now early Saturday, but the feeling of peace and contentment that comes with knowing it is Friday night is still lingering in my soul. 

I had originally had an idea of what I wanted to do for today's challenge, but when I tried it out, I wasn't able to create what was in my mind's eye. Instead, I turned to nature for inspiration! This time of year, all of the hills around my home are yellow and golden with dried grasses and I thought that would be the perfect interpretation of yellow for me. I enjoy painting florals and as it's really only a slight step over to painting wheat, I knew I'd enjoy it. 

These were fairly simple to create. I used Zoya's Robyn as my base blue, then with a makeup sponge and OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I blotted in the clouds in a really rough shape. If I wasn't happy with the cloud shape, I just went back over it with some Robyn until I had a look I liked. 

Then I used 4 different shades of yellows and browns to create the wheat. China Glaze's Kalahari Kiss is a perfect yellow for this, muted but still warm. The other yellows/browns are Basics acrylic paints in Raw Sienna, Yellow Oxide, and Burnt Sienna. I used my new small number 10/0 paint brush to create a bunch of strokes for the field in the background, and longer strokes for the wheat stalks in the foreground. I added strokes of different yellows where I thought it looked best and ended up with something I'm pretty happy with! 
What do you think of these? I may be taking too many liberties with following the "yellow" theme, but say, if there is mostly yellow then it's all good! Right?? ;)

I have to say, I really find wheat fields beautiful...but that may be due to the fact that growing up, our summers were always incredibly dry and I was always surrounded by rolling hills of golden yellow grasses and wheats. It's very nostalgic for me :) 

Happy Polishing! :)