Knitty Nails: A2Z Series - C is for Copy Cat

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

A2Z Series - C is for Copy Cat

A2Z time again and this week it's C is for Copy Cat.
As we are free to interpret these prompts as we like, I decided to copy ... my cats! I have 2 gorgeous tabby cats and I thought it would be nice to try and capture some of the intricacies of their markings. Before I had these 2, I always thought stripes were stripes and that was it, but no - the black part is pretty straightforward, the hairs are black. The other hairs however are actually all different colours along the length and then white at the very tip. There is also some soft downy fur, if you separate the fur and look, and most intriguing of all, Malty had to have an operation when he was little and when they shaved his leg, his skin is striped too!
Anyway, I painted my nails with a base of Above the Curve Mother Earth, a pale nude holo, and then I did a bit of a cheaty gradient using saran wrap at the tips with Colors By Llarowe Human Nature, which is also a nude but darker and more of a chocolatey tone.
Finally I stamped with this cool zig-zaggy pattern from Moyou London (Pro XL 01), using A England Camelot, a pure black, just like the cat's stripes.
The intention was for the holos to reflect the lighter fur, but I felt that stamping plain stripes would be a bit harsh, my stripey cats are actually quite spotty in places, and I think the ziz-zags echo the texture well.
You can't really see the nude gradient, I think it's just a bit too subtle but I am rather pleased with the overall look. The cats were less impressed and Malty wasn't quite sure why I kept holding his arm to get a picture!