Valentines Day Nail Art Challenge Day 2 - Roses

Today is Day 2 of my little challenge - Roses!!!

I was nervous about putting this one in there, because roses can be hard.

I figured I could always stamp them with one of my many plates with rose motifs, but then I was like..."no, this is supposed to be a 'challenge'."

I have always wanted to try "one stroke" roses with acrylic paints, so I did what I always do and trolled through videos on YouTube to learn how.  I have been painting my entire life and have done commission artwork for many years so I thought this would be a piece of cake.  I wish I could say it was, but it was definitely a challenge.  If I had better quality acrylic paints then I think this would have been much easier.  FYI the Michael's brand craft acrylic paint is worthless for this type of art.  You really need to find an acrylic paint that is highly pigmented and has a "high viscosity."  Mine were so sheer that it took going over everything with 4 coats of paint just to make it opaque....so annoying.   Without further ado....my first try at one stroke roses.

What do you think?  I think they turned out ok.  I think my index, ring and pinkie came out great....middle finger is a little wonky.  I used Sally Hansen Spring Green as a base and used a combo of red, coral, pink and white acrylic paint.  I had to use 3 coats of topcoat to get it mostly smooth.  Something about the paint and the topcoat was weird because I got giant bubbles in my topcoat, I managed to smooth them over but it was making me mad.

Once I get some better quality paints I will definetly try this again.  Have you tried one stroke flowers?  Would you like a tutorial?

Please check out the other participants of this challenge:

1. Elena from "Ecklipsed By Color"

2. Lynette from "Pink & Purple Dots"

If you would like to play along with my Valentines Day Nail Art Challege leave me a comment with your info (blog, instagram, etc) and I'll link you in my posts so others can see!