Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Digital Dozen does Texture - Day 2: The girl in the wind


Hi, all! I'm so excited for how day 2 of Digital Dozen texture week has turned out! When I got home from work I was so stumped as to what to do, I frantically started searching the web for inspiration. After coming up empty handed, I decided to shower and wash away the sweat from the gym earlier in the evening and as I was doing so, I had an epiphany! I should think on manis in the shower more often haha 

Anyway, my epiphany was hair. Yes, normally I would cringe at the thought, but I mulled it over a bit more and the idea of painting a girl, with her hair blowing in the wind wouldn't leave my mind's eye. When I got back to my desk I browsed the web to solidify my idea in my mind and came across this beautiful drawing of a girl with hair I'd kill for and who became my inspiration. 
It might be tough to see, but to meet the "texture" requirement of this month's theme, I've added in strands of thread to give her hair texture and volume...every girl's dream, right? ;) Unfortunately, I wasn't quite able to capture the strands as well as I'd hoped, but I still just love how this came out. Mixed media like this is so outside of my norm but I really enjoyed doing this. 
I used a base of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and added a top coat so that I could "erase" any errors that I made when painting her face. I used acrylic paint in natural buff for her skin (which I painted first) and then painted her lips in bright red acrylic paint. I then (carefully...I mean CAREFULLY) outlined her features in the black acrylic paint and added in the shading on her face. Finally, I painted the hair using "moon" yellow acrylic paint, OPI's A-Piers to be Tan, and American Apparel's Manila. Once that was dry, I cut pieces of embroidery floss into teeny tiny little pieces and stuck them on with some top coat. 
I think I love this look so much because I was so intimidated by it. I'm not good with faces. At all. I was so scared she was going to look like the wicked witch of the west when I got done with her, but I gave it a go anyway and I'm so glad that I did! She came out better than I could have ever hoped for. It's given me a little more confidence to potentially try faces again in the future. It's so rewarding when Ito push yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new, success or not. 
What do you think of this look? I doubt the floss will make it through the night, but I'm enjoying this mani while it lasts! Be sure to check out the other manis from the DD ladies through the inlinkz below! 
Happy Polishing :)