I find myself looking for inspiration again. The Sacramento show is the final competition of the year and the art competition at that event is hand-painted nail art, with a “tattoo” theme. I feel like this should be an easy one — especially because I have about three and a half months to get it done. (*hmph* I hope I can get it done!)

I actually already did a tattoo design at Premiere last year. Only it was a design sculptured competition with a purple and gold theme. I searched Google for tribal dragon designs, and of course all I could find were tattoos. So I went with it.

It was a fun design and anyone who follows my blogging has probably already seen it. So I won’t bore you with it. But instead I’ll give you all (whoever you are) some advice about this competition that I had to learn the hard way.

Practice finishing the nails before you start. You don’t want to spend hours and hours painting a design only to muck it up putting on a top coat or UV sealant. Paint a sample nail with the paints you plan to use and then finish however you plan to finish. That way you have an idea of what will happen to the design in the finishing process. (I always use UV. I like the smooth finish.)

I have yet to find the perfect tip-holding apparatus. Nail glue is a pain but I’ve glued tips to orangewood sticks, stick pens, stir sticks and directly on a board so that I was able to paint the nail unencumbered. None of them are really great, but this is my advice: practice gluing on a sample nail. I actually tore a hole in one of the nails I did trying to remove the stick that I had glued to the back. You can image how I felt about that. And I wouldn’t recommend using a board. I haven’t had good experience with that.

As for the painting — well, my friends, go forth and paint.

— Lynn