YODA YODA YODA

Warning: this one's gonna be a bit picture heavy! And I just bought a light box, and I have no idea how to use it, so some of these are overexposed like it's going out of style (which it is; it is out of style).

A friend of mine posted a photo to my wall of Zoidberg nail art, suggesting in a way that I do nail art that uses all 5 fingers together instead of treating them as 5 little separate canvases. He then jokingly said, "Do Yoda!"

So I did Yoda.

HIYAH!

This took forever and a year, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. Not sure that it looks like Yoda (and Younger Yoda's hair is creepy and I wish I'd just left him bald), but it took a lot of patience and layers and so I love it on the principle of effort paid.

This is my source image:

I butchered him ;___;

This is another image that popped up while I was searching:

I may need this in my life.

I began with a base of Jaded (two coats; it's a beautiful, subtle scattered holo polish in a nice crelly finish but mine was mysteriously sort of... sticky? So I may thin it just a bit in future) and one coat of Street Magic. The combination was super-pretty, so here is an shot of it. Excuse the dry cuticles; that's what prepping with acetone will do to ya.

I'd get into the actual painting method, but it was long and complicated (and sort of not really a method); it involved sketching the source image at a 1.5" x 1" size, transferring it to my nails (this was a pain), outlining with black acrylic, and then doing a sort of riff on Paint by Numbers to get the colours down.

MOAR HIYAH!

If you zoom this, you can see micro-cracks in the acrylic paint, and that's WEIRD.

 Putting the pose together requires a very awkward hand position. Ouch.

Last one, I promise. I wish I could do straight lines better with my detail brush. Poor lightsaber.

BONUS: the lightsaber glows in the dark! I couldn't get the neon green colour out of my acrylics (working only with sap green), so I made up for it by making it glow. :)

I love that the lightsaber is the only thing you can see. You get the idea!!

Polishes used:
Tryst Lacquers - Jaded (base colour)
Girly Bits - Street Magic (on top of base colour)
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Poshé (top coat)
GOLDEN Open acrylic paints (highly recommended; do not dry out as fast)
0/10 brush of pure detail looooove <3

Not sure what I'll do next, but it probably won't be so involved. Heh.


J.