Recently, special popularity in the field of nail art has won a manicure in the technique of Chinese painting. Wonderful buds bloom on the nails of beautiful women and women of all ages, roses and poppies bloom, and the drawings themselves are pleasing to the eye with gentle transitions of shades, elegant chiaroscuro, giving the images volume and realism.
Learning the technique of Chinese painting on nails
The technique of Chinese painting is not limited to the area of manicure, this type of design has incorporated features of different artistic cultures, rooted in deep antiquity. China gave the world a lot of great discoveries, including in the field of applied craftsmanship. The famous painting on silk comes from the Middle Kingdom; it is also performed in the technique of wide continuous brush strokes with a flat brush, as in the example in the photo.
Similar techniques have long been used by Russian masters owning Gzhel painting. As in Gzhel, in the Chinese technique floral motifs prevail, but the latter is characterized by a mixture of many colors and delicate play of colors. In the 70s of the last century, an enterprising American artist even patented the “one-stroke technique” method.
Learning the technique of Chinese manicure is not so easy even for an experienced master, so you should start by learning the basics of the theory, and then with mastering the simplest drawings, colors, and backgrounds.
Key features
Chinese painting looks equally good on nails of any length, and the final result depends only on the skill of the artist. Any shades are used for the background, although beginners are recommended to start with neutral and pastel colors. The drawing itself is created in bright and cheerful colors, is notable for tenderness, naturalness, realism. Chinese-style nail design is perfectly combined with watercolor technique (in the course of drawing, parts of it are gradually covered with transparent varnish), a gradient background, fashionable wine colors, and rubbers that give the nail plate gloss and metallic luster.
Brush Technology
To create a manicure using the Chinese painting technique, several types of brush strokes are used:
- A smooth surface – smooth, continuous line without separation;
- Feather strokes – short, tactile strokes are made with a brush-liner, with a separation from the surface of the nail plate, up and down;
- Half-hole – the strokes resemble loops, the movement of the brush without separation occurs along the trajectory downwards, sideways, upwards, downwards again;
- Openwork – strokes with an uneven trajectory up and down, resembling a wavy pattern in the shape of the letter “Z”;
- Wave – smooth, inseparable strokes with the brush turning.
Popular Plots
Chinese painting on nails to floristic scenes and images: the manicure of this type is dominated by buds and blooming flowers of all varieties and colors, green plants. Sometimes beautiful butterflies and exotic birds swaying on the leaves, animals appear under plants (dragons, pandas, carps), hieroglyphs are less common.
The most in demand in the design of nails the following flowers:
- roses;
- peonies;
- poppies;
- orchids;
- lotuses
- lilac;
- Sakura;
Manicure Supplies
To create Chinese-style nail art, you will need varnishes (regular, shellac or gels): colorless to create a base, neutral for the background and transparent for the finishing coating. We also need napkins, water for paints in a jar, a palette, brushes and acrylic paints.
Brushes for Chinese painting, you must purchase several types:
- flat – to create the main picture;
- fan – for the background and grass;
- skewed – for drawing branches, stems, chaotic patterns;
- liner – for small parts;
- Brush – for shading, giving the naturalness of plant elements.
To create a nail design in the style of Chinese painting using high-quality acrylic paints. For starters, you can take the usual good quality artistic paint without spending on professional consumables. Acryl is absolutely non-toxic, easily diluted with water, mixes well and dries for about 10-15 minutes, because this paint is water-based. If silicone is present in the composition of acrylic paints, this will facilitate the creation of natural wood and plant patterns.
The palette or foil is needed to mix the shades and create a very unique brushstroke without a break, giving a stunning play of colors and tones. Selected paints are applied to the palette side by side, parallel to each other. A brush is dipped by one side into a light one, with the other into a dark shade, and a line is drawn so that at its center these colors are mixed, as in the photo below.
Nuances of nail design in the Chinese technique
For decorating manicure, made in the technique of Chinese painting, you can use additional materials: crystals, sequins, foil. The main thing is not to overdo it with bright and shiny elements, otherwise gentle and natural design will be lost on their background, and the design itself will become vulgar. The same applies to the black outline of the drawings, clear contours, as if in children’s coloring, for Chinese painting, they are absolutely inappropriate.
Where to begin?
Even experienced craftsmen begin by creating sketches on paper. Beginners should also first practice well, honing the technique of different strokes to automatism. There is a special paper for sketching nail art in the Chinese style, but if necessary it can be replaced with thick glossy cardboard, which is sold in the “creative” departments of stationery stores. Choose dark cardboard to better see the borders of the picture and minor flaws. In addition to paper and cardboard, you can purchase training cards (pictured below), they will help you to “fill your hand” on various patterns and hone your skills.
Start with simple patterns, moving gradually to more complex patterns: from individual elements (strokes and strokes) to creating branches, petals, buds, and then whole flowers and wood patterns. Do not put a lot of paint on the brush, otherwise, the picture will turn out too convex, and you should also work over a smooth background without bubbles. To work with the nail plate is to proceed only after you have completed all the strokes and created several full sketches.
Step Master Class
Nail design using the Chinese painting technique requires precise and confident movements from the master. To begin with, a base coat is applied to the treated nail, then a selected background. Beginners are recommended to start with light and pastel shades. The following steps are performed step by step:
- The central element is drawn with the help of a flat brush without interruption.
- On the dried basis of the flower patterns are applied according to the sketch, of two shades with an intermediate transition.
- Draw leaves, shoots, stems.
- On the dried drawing put a finishing transparent covering.
The master class on creating the simplest picture with rosebuds on the nails includes the following steps:
- A background color (contrasting dark blue, blue-gray or blue) is applied to the treated nail with ordinary lacquer.
- A flat brush is dipped in different directions into white and pink acrylic paints on a palette.
- Using a flat brush, draw the upper part of the rose, and then turn the brush 180 degrees without detachment and finish the lower part of the bud.
- For leaves, use the green color of light and dark tones, palette and beveled brush (it also dipped in two different colors).
- A thin brush-liner draw stalks floral patterns.
- After 15 minutes, after complete drying, the resulting pattern is covered with a finishing colorless varnish.
You should not seek the identity of all the drawings on different nails. The Chinese-style manicure design welcomes variable images of plants in the same theme, colors, but different sizes. Thus, the overall picture will be as natural as nature itself, which does not tolerate repetition. Be inspired by our photos, bouquets of field and garden flowers, summer landscapes and create your own unique nail art in the popular Chinese painting technique!
