How to Design Different Styles for Nails
Learning how to design different styles for nails requires familiarity with nail sizes and shapes. You need to understand whether a general design will fit on each nail and how it will look overall. You also need to understand what techniques you can use and what the results will be. After you master the basics, you can use dots, dashes and smears to come up with different, custom styles for nails. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Paper
- Pencil
- Nail polish
- Toothpick
- Nail polish remover
- Cotton swab
- Cotton ball
- Colored pencils
Instructions
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1
Trace your open hand onto a piece of paper a few times. Sketch fingernails onto the hands to create a basic nail design palette. Keep nail length in mind when sketching, and remember that design styles for long, acrylic nails need to cover more room than styles for short natural nails.
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Sketch different design styles for nails on the paper fingernails until you find a combination you like. The design can be one picture repeated on each nail, or an overall design that changes from nail to nail. Stick to sketching general styles that can be produced on nails with nail polish, not intricate styles that would require a machine to produce.
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3
Create your chosen design with nail polish on your thumb. Use the brush to create large patches of color and a toothpick dipped in polish to create small dots. Alter and fix the design as needed with nail polish remover, cotton swab and cotton ball. When you create an acceptable design on your thumb, repeat the process to style each nail on your hand. Let your nails dry. Paint your remaining fingernails if desired.
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Give your nails five minutes for the polish to truly set once they are dry. Go back to the sketches of design styles for nails and correct the corresponding hand sketch to match the resulting style on your nails.
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5
Color in the nail sketches with colored pencils to mimic the way your painted nails look. Use your colored example picture to demonstrate the style appearance to other people or as a general guide the next time you want to create the specific nail design. Repeat the process as needed to create several different styles for nails.
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Tips & Warnings
Don't limit yourself to using nail polish to create different styles for nails. Nail designs can be created with permanent markers, airbrushes, fabric-overlays, glued embellishments and even tattoo guns.
If you color in your sketch using the colored pencils before painting your nails, bthe sketch will be hard to change if you alter any aspects of the design when applying it to your fingernails.
