31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day #23 - Inspired by a Movie

The movie I decided to use as inspiration for this mani is "Spirited Away". It is a very popular animated film from a well-known Japanese film maker and animator, Hayao Miyazaki. If you haven't seen one of his movies, I very highly recommend checking them out! Spirited Away is about a young girl who ends up getting trapped in the spirit world and must help out her new friend and her parents before she is able to leave. It's a cute, but sometimes frightening, coming of age story with an eccentric cast of characters. I decided to paint a few of these characters onto my nails.



Supplies:
Base Coat: Seche Clear
Polishes: Sinful Colors - Slate
               N.Y.C. - French White Tip
               Sephora - Cherry Popsicle
               Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out
               Essie - Tour de Finance
               Orly - Live Wire
               E.L.F. - Mint Cream
               Butter London - Bumster
Tools; Large Dotting Tool
            Small Dotting Tool
            Extra-Small Dotting Tool
            Small Angled Brush
Top Coat: Seche Vite

For all of the nails, I started out with two coats of the gray Sinful Colors polish and a layer of Seche Vite to seal it off. For the thumb, I chose to paint the radish spirit. I used the white N.Y.C. polish to draw his general shape, the red Sephora polish to make his hat, and the black Sally Hansen polish to outline his cheeks (?) and make his eyes. The radish spirit is not a major character, but I just really like how he looks!

On my index finger, I painted a couple of Sootballs. These tiny little dust balls make appearances in a couple of Miyazaki films and in Spirited Away, they work in the boiler room carrying coal. They also eat little colorful stars so I included a couple of those too. I made the bodies of the Sootballs with a large dotting tool in black, then used the small and extra-small dotting tools to make their eyes. I used the small dotting tool to make the edges of the balls fluffy as well. Then I used the Orly and Essie colors to make the stars with a small brush.

Next comes the character "No Face". He starts out as a bad guy, eating a bunch of people, but in the end he is redeemed and becomes friends with the main character, Chihiro. For No Face, I made his body shape in black and his mask in white using small brushes. I also used a small brush to make the eyes and mouth in his mask. The triangular details were done using an extra-small dotting tool with the Sinful Colors - Slate.

The final character I chose to draw was the dragon form of Chihiro's spirit friend, Haku. He is a very long sinewy dragon, and I did not trust myself to make his face, so I just painted his back half stretching across my ring and pinkie fingers. I made his general body shape in white and used a small brush to make his mint colored mane using the E.L.F. polish. For his belly, I mixed a drop of the gray Sinful Colors with a bit of the white N.Y.C. polish. Finally, I gave him his rear leg using the Butter London color.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out! Now, I want to go back and watch Spirited Away again!