ClaireStelle8March Challenge: Blue

So I finally got myself into gear and prepared to embark on doing another challenge. I always feel apprehensive about doing these as they often have more than one prompt to do each week and for me that is often very hectic, but this month see's in the holiday and so as my university work begins to slow I may be able to squeeze in a design or two more than I would normally. Hence why this is the second design this week already!

Haha, so here it is the first theme is blue and so I created some lovely little Smurfs.

Read on for more information about the challenge I'm doing and how I created this design. 

So let's start with the challenge, this is a challenge I have never done before it is ClaireStelle8's challenge. I am so excited to start it. Here's what the challenge involves, so feel free to join in, you don't have to do all the prompts, I will try to but will probably do a few late.

Today is a very special day! Not only is it the day I finally get my derrière in gear 😁 and post the March challenge, but far more importantly, it's February 29th. The day I have waited FOUR LONG YEARS for as traditionally women can propose marriage to men today! 😍👰💍 I'm going for subtle and understated. I am currently outside Harry Styles house wearing full bridal attire 🙈👰 with 10 bridesmaids and a tribute Pussycat Dolls to accompany me as I serenade him with my undying love 🎤 Wish me luck and hope that the police don't get called this time.....👮🏻 Honestly you'd think Harry thought I was a mad stalker or something 😉 😳😅 Anyhoo, usual rules apply for this month's challenge aka there are no rules except it's just for fun, no worries if you're a bit late or early, interpret each theme as you wish, just use the hashtag #clairestelle8mar (please don't tag me) and others will be able to find your work and you may see it posted on my feature account @clairestelle8challenge. Sorry if I've not got round to looking at your work for the last prompt for this month but there's been an IG glitch and the hashtag hasn't been working properly! 😡 Hopefully this new one will work better! 😅😁

A photo posted by Claire (@clairestelle8) on Feb 29, 2016 at 9:30am PST

Now onto the design. I first started by painting my nails blue, I used two coats to make it slightly more opaque. 

I then used a white polish to create the hats creating a semicircle shape that mimics the line of my cuticle. I also used the white polish to create Smurfette's fringe and long hair. 

Next step was to fill in a few extra features on their faces. I first coloured Smurfette's hair with a yellow polish and also Papa Smurf's hat (On my thumb nail) red and drew on Brainy Smurfs' glasses. Before adding  the noses and mouths to each character. 

I then filled in their eyes using a dotting tool for the whites of their eyes and a paintbrush for the pupils. Jokey Smurf's eyes were created earlier with a simple black line as he was pictured laughing. Here I also painted on Papa Smurfs beard, painting below the nose and joining it up to the sides of his face. 

At this next stage I outlined the hats and added the part of the hat that flops over by adding a little semi-circle. I was undecided whether to add in little stress marks in the hat material, so as you will see later one hand has them and the other doesn't. I think my fear was that I couldn't get the lines as fine when painting my dominant hand than when painting with my dominant hand, and so didn't want to ruin it with a massive blob. Papa Smurf's beard also got a bit more detail as I outlined it and added a bit more depth by creating some small wobbly black lines. Vanity smurf also saw the addition of a little flower, created with a dotting tool. 

This was then coated with a topcoat once completely dry.