You’ve seen the
Union Jack a.k.a. the flag of the United Kingdom here many times before. It comes in handy on patriotic occasions such as the
Queen’s Jubilee and now the
Olympics are finally here. I’ve been thinking about doing a tutorial for while and I figured now would be the perfect time!
It’s actually way easier to do than it looks because it’s completely made up of straight lines. I’m sure there are lots of other ways to do this but this is the way I’ve always done it! Enjoy!
Before you start, make sure you have everything you’re gonna need already in front of you. You’ll need:
Red Nail Polish
White Nail Polish
Blue Nail Polish
A Nail Art Brush which you can buy
here and
here
If you want to add some sparkle, you can also grab a glitter polish.
Acetone will work much more effectively than nail polish remover for cleaning the brush and also when it comes to cleaning up at the end.
Acrylic paint is more opaque than nail polish and some people prefer to use it in their nail art. In this tutorial, I just used a tiny bit of white paint towards the end.
Ready? Here we go!
Step 1
Paint on a base of white. Try to keep the surface as smooth as possible with steady brush strokes.
Step 2
When your base colour is completely dry, use the red nail polish and your nail art brush to paint on a thick cross. Start with a vertical line straight down the middle and then go across.
Step 3
Add some smaller line going from the centre outwards. Try not to touch the thick cross if you can avoid it.
Step 4
Fill in the 8 blank triangles you are left with. Again, try not to touch any of the details that are already there but don’t worry if you do, it can be tidied up later.
Step 5
There are a lot of steps rounded up in to this one. Let me give you a run down.
If you are going to add glitter, this would be the time to do so! Just apply it carefully on top of the existing colours with the nail art brush.
When everything is dry, take some white acrylic paint or nail polish on a nail art brush and go over the white lines to tidy up any mishaps and get crisper lines.
Using a small paintbrush dipped in acetone, run it around your cuticles to clean up the bits of polish that have been left there and leave you with a perfectly round edge.
Finally, add a few coats of your favourite top coat to make it shiny, make it last and smooth out the surface which will probably be a bit bumpy at this point.
All done!
