Sonic The Hedgehog Nails

After painting Pokémon on my nails for Valentine's Day I wanted to come up with another game themed nail design. I decided on Sonic The Hedgehog as I used to love playing this game when I was younger. Also you may have noticed my nails are suddenly a lot shorter this week - yesterday I learned you should never go bowling with pointed nails! I was left with broken jagged claws so I have filed them all down and I will have to patiently grow them back again.  The blue base colour I used for this design was OPI's No Room For The Blues and all of the detail was drawn using very fine nail art brushes.

How to get this look:

Apply a base coat and then two coats of a blue polish.

Using a thin nail art brush draw lots of tiny squares in a light brown colour to create a check pattern. Fill in the squares between the light brown with a darker brown colour. Start with two rows of squares or add more rows where you want to create a hill so it is like the landscape of a sonic game.

Using two shades of green draw short vertical lines in alternate colours just on top of the brown squares. Follow the shape of the brown squares and curve the green where you have drawn the hill.

You now have your sonic game landscape so now you need to use a nail art brush to draw Sonic himself. Start by drawing the white circle for the eye and then draw the dark blue shape of the head around the white. Use a light brown or sandy colour for detailing on the body and then draw the blue arms and legs in a running position. Finish off Sonic by drawing a white hand on the end of the arm, put bright red shoes on his feet and add a black dot to his eye.

On the other nails you can use gold nail polish to draw gold rings which Sonic collects in the game or you can draw silver spikes or other obstacles from the game.

Finish by applying a top coat to your nails.

OSU! Nails

This is a design I painted a few months ago when I was introduced to the game Osu. For people who are not familiar with Osu it is a rhythm computer game. You use your mouse to hit beats in time with the music, it is a really fun and addictive game. It is free to download so worth checking out if you have never played it before.

How to get this look: I started with a base coat and then two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow for a nice white base. I drew the logo and the beats with nail art pens in different colours. Wait for the dots to dry before drawing numbers on them and try to draw the circles around he beats as carefully as possible. If your circular line is slightly off use a wooden cuticle stick to push the line back into place while it is still wet to create a neat circle. Finish by applying a top coat.

Pokemon Nails (Sandshrew and Sandslash)

This is my second post for Pokemon themed nails and probably not the last! There are so many different Pokemon characters to choose from so you can go crazy when designing for this theme. For my design I chose two of my favourite pokemon Sandshrew and Sandslash. I decided to write the PokeDex information on the nails next to my Pokemon drawings as I spent a lot of time and detail working on the faces. 

How to get this look: apply a base coat and then your base colour. I used OPI's Alpine Snow, I think white is the best base colour for this design so the lettering and Pokemon colours stand out. For the Pokemon and Pokeball I worked from the inside out - so start with your yellow/red base and add the other face detailing and then come back and do the black outline last. For the lettering you will need a good nail art pen. I used a Models Own nail art pen, this is my favourite black nail art pen to use as you can achieve fairly fine lines compared to some cheaper nail pens I have which draw very thick lines which wouldn't be suitable for small lettering and details. When complete, let your nails dry for a few minutes and then apply a top coat.

Hearthstone Nails

I recently started playing the game Hearthstone and I love it! For those who aren't familiar it is a card game on PC and now also on iPad. My favourite class to play as is Mage so I chose this as the theme for my hearthstone nails by painting the Mage character Jaina Proudmoore and the card Arcane Missiles.

To get this look: As always apply a base coat and then 2 coats of your coloured base polish. For the design on these nails I used nail art pens in various different colours. When drawing a complex design such as the Mage character start with the base colours like the skin colour and then add the clothing around this and leave the hair and face detailing until last. When layering lots of different colours like this wait a few minutes before starting with your next colour so you're not drawing over wet polish. While you are waiting for it to dry you can work on your other nails. Once complete apply a top coat to make your polish shiny and chip resistant.

Pokemon Nails

Who doesn't love Pokemon? I painted this design on my friends nails with a different Pokemon on each nail and a pokeball design for the thumb. The base colour I used was OPI 'bubble bath' which is a natural looking pink colour, I chose this so the Pokemon colours would stand out better. I think a white or other pale colour would also work well with this design if you want something slightly bolder for the base.

How to get this look: Apply a base coat and your base colour to each nail. Choose your favourite Pokemon and have a photo of them ready to look at. Paint the colour of each pokemons face on the tip of each nail with a fine brush or nail art pen making sure the head shape and ears are accurate to the Pokemon you have chosen. To draw the detailing on the faces you will need a nail art pen and maybe a dotting tool for the eyes and other small details. If you don't have a dotting tool I find using a cocktail stick works well if you need a very fine dot or line as sometimes it is hard to achieve a very thin line with a nail art pen. Allow your nails to dry for a few minutes before applying your top cost to avoid smudging your detailing.