I've been wanting to update Elena's hands for a while, and just finished reading Carmilla, which put me in the mood for some Gothic, Evil-Regal-style nails.
Now, I am by no means an expert at nail art or manicures, so I started by doing an image search for inspiration. Once that was done, I made a couple of rough sketches to test out my idea for a gothic manicure.
I decided to go with the red, black, and silver version because Elena has quite a few red clothes.
This is what her nails looked like before I started. These are the Dollmore Model F Vampire hands, so they come with long talon-like nails. :-D Dollmore painted her nails dark purple as part of her fullset-- and I liked the colour very much, but as I said, her wardrobe tends toward red and black, and the old manicure was starting to chip from three and half years of use.
First, I cleaned off the old Dollmore manicure, prepped the hands with several base coats of MSC, and then started with a dark red acrylic.
This was probably the most stressful part. I decided to paint the front and back of the resin nail, and had to be careful about making a clean line where the nail meets the finger on both sides.
When that layer was done, and all the nails were red, I thought the look was already quite nice. I worried that adding more would be too much. While I pondered whether to go on with my plans for the Decadent Gothic BJD Manicure, I sealed the hands with more MSC.
An excellent friend of mine advised simplicity and elegance. I considered the matter thoroughly.
When the MSC coats were dry, I decided to go ahead with the silver cuticles. At least I could wipe them off if they looked bad.
So I went at the cuticles with my tiny brush and silver acrylic.
And wowww! I love how cold, shiny silver looks against the dark red. More is more, sometimes. Next, I painted the black tips.
Now, the plan was to add some silver beads. Even though I was already pleased at the red, black, and silver, I had especially purchased some micro beads. Most nail art decals and crystals are over-sized on BJD hands (yes, even on SD hands with long vampire nails), and that was not the look I was after.
Once I started trying to attach the beads, I quickly gave up my notions of more than one micro bead per hand. The micro beads were very exasperating to pick up and place on the nails. I imagine that a more practiced person would not have too much trouble, but alas, that person was not me.
This is what the hands looked like when they were more or less finished, and at my favourite stage.
After this, I applied a very thick layer of gloss medium to secure the micro beads. I prefer the matte look in the picture above, but that would not at all be practical for a doll whose hands will be going in and out of tight sleeves. I'll be posting more pictures of Elena with her new manicure soon.
Until then, that is the story of my first gothic-inspired BJD manicure.
Thanks very much for reading! :0)
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