For the next two days of the 31DC, I decided to try some finer line painting. As you can see from Day 1, I was inadvertently following a nature theme of sorts – fruit, feathers, grains? – so for the blue and green days I tried not to go for the obvious.

Characters in color

For the green theme I thought of the adorably ineffectual leaf umbrella worn by Totoro in the 1988 Miyazaki film. I accented him with a few larger leaves and a handful of cute little dust sprites. This was one of my most detailed paintings yet and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Even if Totoro does look a little dazed.

To emphasize the green theme, I used Cirque Colors’ Mint Chip as my base.

Next was something completely different! Well, not stylistically, but certainly in content. As I ran through a mental roster of blue characters, I felt uninspired by such overdone faces as Stitch and Squirtle. So I dug a little deeper and settled on Mr. Meeseeks of Rick and Morty fame.

Unlike Totoro, this is one cartoon not meant for kids. Only former kids who were raised on vintage Adult Swim and Ren and Stimpy.

He has a big blue face that just begs to be looked at. And, actually, if you’ve ever seen the show, you know the man-thing himself begs to be looked at too. I can only think to describe him as some weird service humanoid who will set his mind to a task and literally not be able to quit until he’s done it. Even if it kills him, or you, in the process. Poor Mr. Meeseeks. He means well.

I got the idea for the quote nail from Varnished Valkyrie.

The base for this was another Cirque shade, Acid Wash. Both polishes have beautiful formulas shot with subtle metallic flakies. They’re perfect for spring, but I see myself wearing them a lot more than that. Aesthetically, Cirque is one of my favorite indie brands. Their bottles are sleek and classy with dainty glass caps, and has anyone else noticed that all of their polishes smell really nice? Sort of perfumey? No? Okay, nevermind…

Anyway, I was lucky enough that these days of the challenge fell on a weekend, so I could really dig into some involved designs. Let’s see what the future holds for my 31DC. 5 days down, 26 to go!