Nail Art Challenge, Inspired by an Artist - Picasso

So after a mad swatchathon last week we're back to the usual schedule, and I have last weeks nail art challenge mani that as usual I'm posting right at the last minute! This time it's Picasso and I was excited about this challenge as his art is colorful, bold and unusual with lots of pattern, which is exactly how I like it!

I did a great mani for this challenge, was super pleased with it, and then everything went wrong when I applied my last layer of top coat and smudged all the detail. DEVASTATED. I'm very anal when it comes to stuff like that, a raging perfectionist, and I really just wanted to take it all off and start again despite the fact that it took me hours to do the first time round, because I knew it would bug me eternally. And it will, but I figured as a blogger it's only fair to show my nail fails too, that way maybe someone else can learn from my mistakes! So, perhaps against my better judgement and that raging perfectionst inside me thats screaming ''DON'T YOU DARE POST IT JUST DO IT AGAIN!'' here is my smudged Picasso mani!

To be fair, the smudging is not that bad and you can still see the original design quite well, but I know it's there and it bugs the hell outta me! My husband argued that I should just leave it as it gives it a bit more of a bush strokey feel, but I think he was just trying to do some damage control as he knows how freaky I can get over these little things!

I didn't take inspiration from a specific painting this time, with Picasso everyone knows that it's colour, patterns, abstract, misplaced eyes and features and what not, so I just decided to adopt his style and go for it, see what I could come up with my self. 

 

To do this mani I started with a plain white base (Sinful Colours 'Snow Me White' and with the 3 main colours I had chosen ( Duri 'Voodoo', Sinful Colours 'Hazard' LA Girls 'Mermaids Lagoon') I painted a different shaped area with each colour on every nail. Then I used a dotting tool and striping brush to add patterns, and  finished by adding all the black lined detail, and this was my mistake. 

Those of you following my blog may have seen my previous posts about using marker pens for nail art (HERE) and a follow up post I did about smudging (HERE). I used a black fine tipped marker pen for the details in this mani, and was most surprised when I realised it was smudging as I had not experienced any smudging at all when I had previously used marker pens, it was completely unexpected. Then I realised that the black marker pen which is a new purchase, is actually a different brand from the marker pens I had used before, (before I was using Bic coloured markers and this was a black Sharpie) and I had also used a different brand top coat from before, in my older mani's I used Revlon, and this time it was Loreal. So like and idiot I had gone and used untried brands of products on my painfully time consuming Picasso masterpiece! GAH!

Obviously the worst of the smudging was on the one nail that gave the real clue as to who this mani was inspired by, and made a real mess of it! I can't tell you how sad I was when it happened, and how sad I still am just looking at this picture. Boooooo.

But I am trying to take away something positive from this mani, a lesson that is, and the lesson is that I now need to do further experiments into my use of marker pens before I go and ruin my mani's with them.

So I'm going to turn this mani tragedy into a future post about the use of different brand marker pens and top coats, and post the results of my mad scientist like experiements so that no girl shall have to suffer as I have done!! Onwards to the stationary shop Jeeves!