CNTCWC D5: Christmas Toys

Hey y'all!

I made a few changes yesterday to my blog content, including the new banner up top (whee!) and I've changed my watermarking system for future pics.  Please do leave me some feedback, if you have any, because I'm curious to know what y'all think.  For today's theme, I did some experimenting with watercolor paints.  Granted, it probably wasn't the best idea to experiment during a nail art challenge, but there you have it.  The theme is Toys, and the scenario that played out in my head was that Santa got disoriented in a blizzard and crashed his sleigh, spilling his sack and all the toys and presents inside.

I began with a base of Rimmel Ethereal, a pale shimmery pink, and layered Models Own Indian Ocean over top, to give a semi-sheer but very frosty and snowy kind of background.  All's good, yeah?  Yeah.  Then it all went horribly wrong, when I realized I have the painting skills of a 3 yr old monkey, and that's probably an insult to monkeys.

Santa's sack on my index finger came out okay, but the curvature of my nails makes it very hard to see that there are presents spilling out on the inside edge.  On the middle finger, my teddy bear looks a bit mangled in the faceparts - maybe the high winds in the snow storm have given him disfiguring frostbite.  Is there such a thing?  I'm gonna go with yes.  The ring finger shows a doll who possibly got rejected from South Park, being crushed by a ginormous present box (I'm gonna blame that ugly on a bit of smearing from topcoat, though) and a bicycle wheel poking out behind her that might've gotten busted when the load hit ground.  On my pinky, obviously a shiny red ball has been partially deflated from the whole horrifying incident.

All said, it was still kind of fun to paint this grotesque scene, though I can't claim that I intended it to look quite so horrifying as it eventually turned out.  Things I've learned:  1) I need to invest in some acrylic paints, because watercolors are finicky, 2) I need to invest in some better detail brushes, because my current ones aren't apparently that great at fine detail work, and 3) most importantly, I need to invest in some painting lessons, because I have issues with perspective, and also not a whole lot of natural skill.  I'll stack those three things on my mountain of other things to do and we'll call this a day, shall we?

I'm very curious to see what the other ladies from CNT have come up with for this challenge, because I know there are some fantastic artists in the group and I'm almost embarrassed to be linked in with them, but with every new manicure, I learn something and I get a little better at other things.  Please do make sure to take a look at their interpretations, below.

Hope you're all staying warm and safe.

Much love,
Ali