Bewitching Hour: Sponsored by Swarovski
For this challenge we were asked to create Halloween nail art inspired by our favorite witch, combining handpainting, 3D elements, and Swarovski crystals!
I chose my all time favorite witch, Bellatrix Lastrange from the Harry Potter series. She is definitely one of the bad guys, but her humor and loyalty are admirable.
To push myself outside of my comfort zone I decided to hand-paint her portrait across two of the nail tips and used Swarovskis for her necklace. I felt that Belatrix was a perfect choice for the Swarovski challenge because she comes from a very wealthy family so I designated one nail tip to represent the piles of riches inside her bank vault in Gringgotts Wizarding Bank. I also arranged the crystals into a snakeskin formation giving a slight reference to the Slytherin House. Using acrylic, I sculpted the bank vault plaque. Then I choose to sculpt the Dark Mark tattoo, the skull and snake symbol which all the Death Eaters bear. I also chose to sculpt acrylic into Voldimort's family gravestone which is an angel of death.
While I prefer painting with gels, I decided to use acrylic paint for all the hand-painting because it gives the overall tone a more coarse appearance. I painted all my 3D pieces to look like aged stone to be cohesive with her pale complextion. For my pop of color I chose various shades of green for the backgrounds to again reference the Slytherin House.
Overall I felt she was the perfect witch for me to capture this Halloween season!
Step-by-Step Nail Art Tutorial
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Before beginning I compiled inspiration photos.
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Bellatrix Lastrange: Using acrylic paint and detail art brushes I layed a rough outline of her tzone. I started by painting her eyes, brows and nose to ensure the dimensions of her face were correct. I then filled in the rest of her face making sure to accentuate her sharp cheekbones. Before painting her hair, I painted the background by blending together various shades of green (Slitherin colors!) I blended this background more than the other nail tips so that her hair wouldn't get lost in the details. After the background, I added highlights and final details to her face. I then finished her portrait by painting her hair, and adding Swarovski crystals.
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Dark Mark: Before I started sculpting, I traced the nail tip onto a piece of paper. I then drew the "dark mark" in the desired size. Once I had it sketched out I placed the paper in a plastic bag, and sculpted acrylic over my sketch onto the plastic. Once it was fully dry I painted the design using acrylic paint. I started painting with black adding the lines which separate the belly and the back of the snake and filling in the eyes and nose of the skull. Then using black, white, and various shades of grey I painted in the details.
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Riddle Family Heastone: For the angel of death statue I traced the nail tip and sketched the design. Again I built the acrylic onto a plastic bag. I first sculpted the wings. Then I sculpted the outline of his body building up the cloak and used acrylic to sculpt the creases in the fabric. And finally I sculpted his hand and scythe. Once all the pieces were dry I attached them together and painted it with watered down acrylic paints so that the colors would melt together. For the headstone I sculpted a rectangle with acrylic and detailed it with acrylic paint. Lastly I attached it under the right wing and embellished it with Swarovski crystals.
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Lastrange Bank Vault: I traced the nail tip on a piece of paper and arranged the Swarovski crystals into the desired design leaving room for the stone plaque at the base. I painted the tip with a black glitter gel polish to add extra sparkle, and then I applied the crystals. The plaque was sculpted with odorless acrylic so that it was easier to bend it into the desired curve. I detailed it using acrylic paint and various marbling techniques.
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