NTNA Week 2: Sunset Strip by Orly

I started by base coating some of the nails in white gel polish. I sponged a few of them with Wildflowers Art-Paint for an ombre look.  

Here, I am just laying out my design.  

I knew I would need to paint my Marilyn portrait first. The colors I would use on her needed to set the theme for the piece. My daughter has the above Marilyn hanging at her station in the salon where she works. That was my inspiration... to do her in multiple colors. I, of course, chose a different pose to paint her in. She is painted with Wildflowers art-paints, watered down, and the Wildflowers watercolor brush. She frequented the Sunset Strip often for extended stay amounts. One of her favorite places was the Rainbow Grill & "Furs".  

I wanted to include Clark Gable because he was one of Marilyn's favorite actors...imagine that! His favorite place to eat on the strip was the Brown Derby. Ive used the above photo for inspiration and painted him in black and white art-paint, leaving the negative space to do the work.  

Now, every good set of nails deserves a portrait of Johnny Depp, right?!?! And boy...did he give me some trouble. He has very chiseled & angled features. For this "softy" that was a little tricky. However, he came together beautifully. He's painted by blending black and white art-paint, thus creating some softer gray tones. One of his favorite places to frequent on the Strip (now Blvd) was the Viper. I would like to think had he and Marilyn been from the same era, they probably would've been good friends.  

Ok, so here, I'm starting to lay out my design and decide where the embellishments should go.  

The thumb-nails tell the exact message I wanted to get across for this challenge. After the ombre paint had dried, I added some glitter gel polish to the center of the nail in a blended fashion. I then finished up the lettering with black detail gel and a tiny brush. I added itsy-bitsy Swarovski's around the words "Sunset Strip" to give a lighted billboard effect.  

Here I am just pulling some color shading and embellishments into these beautiful creatures. Tee hee....  

At this point, I've placed the nails and am adding the embellishments. I've used feathers, Swarovski's, more glitter polish, some black bullion, and a few pieces from my trinket collection.  

The middle finger of this hand is embellished with genuine coral, moonstone, & opals, as well as some lovely golden Paillettes. I would like to think that the look I've created could be one that Marilyn herself would have been proud to have worn.