The PANZ challenge last week was a mani inspired by a game, book or movie. My favourite game of all time (really the only one I played) is the Monkey Island series, so here is my three headed monkey!
"Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!"
Does anyone else recognise that quote?
Did anyone else play the Monkey Island games in the early 1990s?
I spend a good part of my intermediate schooling playing the Monkey Island games on my old Amiga 500 computer. There was no internet so there were no cheats available, and the game required some 15+ floppy disks to be inserted and removed regularly. I had a pirated copy of the game which you could not save so I had to leave my parent computer on for weeks on end, which back then was a terrible idea!
The games follow the misadventures of the hapless Guybrush Threepwood as he struggles to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, defeat the plans of the evil undead pirate LeChuck and win the heart of governess Elaine Marley. Each game's plot usually involves the mysterious Monkey Island and its impenetrable secrets. (Wikipedia)
The line "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!" is used by Guybrush to attempt to distract people. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and occasionally a three headed monkey appears! Behold the stunning graphics of 1991
After posting my mani on my facebook page I had a request to show how I painted it. I didn't take more photos of that monkey as I wasnt terribly pleased with it but apparently it wasnt all that bad so I have recreated it this evening and taken photos as I went!
These are the tools I used for my three headed monkey. My base colour was China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and the monkey itself was done with a brown acrylic paint as I don't have a brown polish (shock!). I used a size one paint brush for the heads and body and a dotting tool for the details. The body and head highlights were done with Sally Hansen Insta dri Snappy Sorbet. The face detail was dotted on using Orly Liquid Vinyl and China Glaze Salsa. I added Happy Hands Art Is Hard for some flair and topped it off with Seche Vite
After painting my nails with my CG Turquoise and sealing with Seche Vite I painted rough circles of the heads on my first three fingers. I held my fingers together as shown so I could work out where on my nails the heads would be best positioned to sit with my thumb nail which would become the body. Once I was happy with the positioning I coloured the heads in. The body I mapped out on my thumb like a stick figure first, body arms and legs and then filled out the body shape.
The ears were dotted onto the sides of the heads with a dotting tool. To use the dotting tool I put some paint (and later polish) on my little palette and dipped one end of the dotting tool into the paint, and then gently dotted it onto my nails where I wanted it. These tools are great as each one has two different sized ball ends for different sized dots.
Using my paint brush again I painted the faces on each head with SH Snappy Sorbet. To paint the face I first outlined a heart shape which I made wider at the bottom but kept the heart shape at the top. I filled each face in and painted an oval shape on the belly of the monkey body. I used the smaller end of my dotting tool to make the detail on the ears.
I used my Liquid Vinyl with a dotting tool for the eyes and CG Salsa for the noses and my three headed monkey was complete!
To flair it up a little I have added some glitter - this time it was Happy Hands Art Is Hard, last time it was Happy Hands Flowers On The Highway. Finally I sealed it all with a coat of Seche Vite.
And here we have my three headed monkey mani!
I am always looking for ideas and inspiration so please leave me a comment or ping me on facebook or twitter (@serraclark) with ideas or requests!
