FingerNailFixer

Watercolor Nails

by Holly Schippers | October 9, 2013 | Bookmark +


Day two of the "Nail Those Profits" cruise was taught by Tammy Schmidt, an educator for INM. She went through some very awesome and informative information on doing nails with watercolors. It was outside my box, but I absolutely loved giving it a try. As with Jess' class, I will try to highlight some of the information without dumping so much on you that you couldn't thoroughly enjoy the class if you take it! The first bit of information that Tammy imparted on us was that there are four ways to use watercolors on nails:

  • Wet on wet
  • Wet on dry
  • Dry on wet
  • Dry on dry

Believe me, those statements had us all scrambling madly to write it down because we were so confused as to how that could possibly make sense! She had us repeat it several times until everyone was satisfied they had heard and recorded the info correctly.

Her suggestion for paints was to find a Russian high pigment that would make a good translucent. She provided the class with paints, brushes, and tips to work on, among other things. If you can't draw, as I'm hopeless at it, all is not lost! She shows us how to use tracing paper and a black and white image to create a transfer that gives you penciled outlines to work with on the nail itself. This was mind-bending and inspiring for someone like me that can't even draw cute stick people! She placed tracing paper over the image, traced the outlines, and flipped the tracing paper over to trace what she had drawn, then flipped the paper again and could trace the design, which transferred it to the nail. A light box can be helpful with tracing if you struggle to see the design through the tracing paper and a pencil is a must have. Tammy's suggestion for the ideal pencil was an HB pencil, which would be available at any art store. 


Before you begin working on a nail or tip, the surface must be buffed to remove the shine. In the case of the natural nail, my personal suggestion would be to apply a clear polish or something similar to buff so the nail plate itself is not thinned. With working wet on wet, you actually wet the nail surface as well as using the paints in a thin, wet consistency. To work wet on dry, the nail itself should be dry and the brush picking up the paints fairly wet. You can make lines and dots, and they will appear to have almost a bleeding look.

*If you struggle with choosing colors that look good together, the iPhone has an app called the Color Pair App. It's really cool. Sorry non-iPhone users, we're not special enough for someone to make us an app. Boo, right?!


After attempting those techniques, we learned about dry on wet in which the nail plate is wetted down, but the brush that picks up the paint is only slightly wet leaning toward dry. This gave us the ability to add lines or drops by dropping the pigment from the brush tip onto the wet nail. Finally, she showed us the dry on dry technique in which the nail is dry and the brush is nearly dry. You only get enough water on the brush to be able to pick up the paint. This gave us the ability to make very precise lines and quite small details if we chose. 

Once we had an idea of how to use the four techniques, Tammy covered embellishing the background by using the dry on dry to make very thin lines. Also, by using a slightly damp brush, we could pull color to form the lines to create a softer filled-in look for sections of lines or flowers.

All being said and done, I would take this class again in a heartbeat and hope the next time I do have the chance to take it that it lasts even longer so I can absorb even more!


— Holly

 

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