Windmill Nails

Here are some springtime nails painted with windmills over a backdrop of flowers. They are inspired by a Robin Moses nail art design of a clouded blue sky with orange flowers. I have similar flowers and added some windmills (obviously). I think the windmills bring these nails from a generic springtime scene to more of a fairy tale or dreamlike scene.

1. Base coat and pearly blue solid background.
2. Everything else was done with acrylic paints. First I diluted white paint with lots of water and painted very rough watery clouds. I went back over them in different sections to build up random portions to give the clouds more dimension. 
3. I painted the grass from the end of my nail up towards the middle in flicking strokes. I partially overlapped dark blades with lighter green to give the look of a real meadow of grass and steams. 
4. Next I painted the flowers. The darkest orange gave an outline to the petals and a base for the lighter colors. I used progressively lighter shades of orange towards the centers, and finished them off with dots of bright yellow in the centers. The flowers on the ring fingers were much smaller to leave room for the windmills and show a more realistic scale.
5. I made a rough shape of a tower in brown and expanded the sides until I was happy with it. The roof is a darker brown and the sails are much lighter and have a black outline to define their iconic shape. I added windows and doors to make the windmill more realistic and recognizable.
6. Clear top coat of nail polish to protect the acrylic paints. 

One thing I disliked about this design was that they didn’t have a big appeal from far away. There is so much “going on” that they look like a blur. I like how they were clearly a scene or a painting from up close, but my favorite nail art designs look great from any distance.