While free hand painting is one of the more difficult methods for creating nail art, it is also one of the most rewarding for both artist and client. It may take some time to perfect, but being proficient at this technique is essential if you want to make a real career out of your passion for nail art.

I've found that the best way to approach this task (other than taking a professionally instructed free hand painting course) is to learn slowly by beginning with easy designs and then working your way towards more difficult ones. So, in this article we will start with a very simple design entitled “Poppy Flowers”

Since this design doesn't use any straight lines or jagged movements, it's a great place to start. Just make sure that you don't make your brush strokes too rigid!

Equipment: 3 x Liners (black, white, red), top coat
Technique: Hand Painting
Skill Level: Beginner


Step 1 – Okay, the first step is to paint an asymmetrical five leaf flower head. The trick is to make the flower look as organic as possible. To some extent, if you take a more haphazard approach, this can lead to a more natural look.


Step 2 – Having created the flower head, try to give it some depth by going over the surface with additional polish in short strokes so that the paint rises off the nail just slightly.


Step 3 – Switch to a black liner and paint two small lines on each leaf, ten in total.


Step 4 – Take this same black liner and etch in a stem for the flower in a small fragile looking line. If you prefer, you can use a green liner for this step instead of black.


Step 5 – Now, use the white polish with a dotting tool to create four to six small dots at the centre of the flower.


Step 6 – Sometimes, I like to add a second flower to the nail to give it a more varied look. Instead of depicting the second flower in bloom, you can paint it as a mere bud. First paint a black stem in the shape of a candy cane.


Step 7 – Then, paint a small red bud at its tip.


Step 8 – Finally protect your work with a generous layer of top coat.

That's it! You're all done.


I've found that its best to leave around half of the nails blank to give the design some contrast. These can be filled in with a simple white French manicure.