February Challenge Day Four!

Today is Day Four of the nail art challenge.  The theme?  Inspired By A Pattern.  I almost did zebra stripes and leopard print, but figured I shouldn't because it's kind of a cop-out for me.  I love both prints, especially with a rainbow background.  This time, however, I was inspired by something else.

I spent Saturday at a friend's house, painting my half-moon nails while he was painting a HUGE canvas.  It started out looking like a puzzle, but as he filled in the areas he sketched, it began to look more like camouflage.  I had done rainbow eye makeup before coming over, and it apparently inspired him to really get going on his painting.  It turned out SO awesome, I'm really tempted to steal it.  So as I sat here, pondering what pattern to use, it hit me: why not use the painting as inspiration?  It's got a base of camouflage print, and it's rainbow-y, so why not?

He let all the paint dry completely, then did something we nail art addicts are familiar with: he put painter's tape over top of the pattern, went over it with black paint, then took the tape off.  Here's the gorgeous result:

I LOVE THAT PAINTING.  I swear I'm going to commission him to do one for me one of these days.  His other two paintings are just as awesome, both are black and green, my main colors of choice. 

I used a dotting tool to place the polish on my nails in a camouflage-ish pattern...and accidentally deleted the "before" photo!  I let my nails dry completely and then put on a coat of fast-drying top coat for protection, then let that dry.  I took some striping tape and placed it on the nails in a random pattern, then put two coats of Orly "Goth" over.  One coat was not opaque enough, but two really did the trick.  I pulled the tape off right after applying the second coat, which is REALLY important.  If you leave the tape on and allow the polish to dry, then remove the tape, it will result in one hot mess.  I let the polish dry and followed up with a coat of Gelous. 

Enough about that, I bet you want pictures!  Here they are :)

And here's a nice closeup for you:

And Hatsune Miku decided to drop in to say hello ;-)

I hope you have enjoyed this manicure!  Don't forget to stop by the pages from the other participants!  I'm excited to see what they all have for today's manicure.  I'm certain that they will all have some really gorgeous nail art.  I love how creative they all are!