Christmas Face Painting Tips and Animal Painting Techniques

As Christmas is approaching faster than Santa can harness the reindeer to his sledge, many of you will be already creating and practising your very own fabulous Christmas face painting creation. There will be those among you that would love to follow suit, but have yet to apply their first brushstroke.

FIRST STEPS: Take things easy at first with simple to do designs. Cheek art is a perfect starting point with basic little patterns featuring holly, berries, snowflakes, stars, Christmas crackers, Christmas trees with a little bauble at the end of the branches, and even little faces. Remember that the theme is Christmas so red, white, green, silver and gold are essential colours. Painting animal markings on the cheeks, eyes and forehead can also look very effective, and because animal markings like tigers aren’t straight you will get away with so much whilst perfecting your creation.

TIGER MARKINGS: Use a round brush with a pointed end and black paint. Tiger stripes are best done in groups of three. Always think big to small. Lay your brush down flat (for a thicker start) and while doing your stroke give it a very light wiggle and taper it off at the end. Each stroke is going to have a curved effect to it. Do a group of three one under the other. This effect would be ideal for cheeks with the markings starting on the outside working in towards the eyes. Doing a similar stroke on the forehead, a group of three on either side and tapering downwards towards the eyes would give a great look for an animal face painting.

PAINTING WHISKERS: If you’re face painting any animal fancy dress enthusiasts this Christmas try using a small fine pointed brush, working outwards across the cheeks for a whisker effect. For any fine lines you may be painting, you will find that liquid paints will work the best.

FUR EFFECT: When trying to create a fur effect, use a medium-sized brush, working from the centre outwards. That way the edges taper off. Have a go on paper or a face painting practice pad first until you get to grips with the motion needed for your required effect.

ADVANTAGE OF SPONGES: These will play an important part in your face painting kit, being perfect for applying base coats, large areas of paint on the face and body, and great for blending colours. TIP make them go further by cutting them in half

COLOURS: Don’t make the mistake that many learners make and rush out to buy every colour under the rainbow. All you need are your primary colours which are blue, yellow, red and black and white. From these you can mix any colour and shade you want, and it will keep costs down.

GLITTER AND STICK-ON JEWELS: Depending what design you are doing, stick-on jewels, diamante and glitter can be used to stunning effect. However, as with face paint, you need to remember to use only glitter and stick-on jewels that are safe to put on a person’s skin (eg body glitter). NEVER use aluminum glitter – polyester only. Aluminum glitter can really hurt the eyes and skin.

FAMILY AFFAIR: Use your family and friends to practise on, trying out different ideas. If you begin practising now, you’ll be confident enough by Christmas to paint a whole face and there are some quite spectacular and highly popular choices to have a go at. The Ice Queen and animals will always be favourites along with the traditional Santa and Rudolph.

Design Easy Face Painting

At my daughter’s first birthday party, I was fortunate enough to have a cousin who is an artist and she whipped out her face painting kit and paint the older kid’s faces and whole upper torsos. My nephews were completely done as the Hulk and Aquaman, the girls had their faces painted up as princesses and small cute butterflies and balloons. Kids love face painting, they are fascinated by seeing others get their faces painted and wait in anticipation to see their face design. My daughter’s fifth birthday is approaching and I was desperately, wanting a crash course on how to do it myself, so that I wouldn’t have to hire a face painting artist to do my party.

The key is to start with easy face painting designs. The face designs should easy enough to be able to use small sponges cut into circles, triangles, rectangles, diamonds, dab them into the face paint and place it on the skin, leaving a base design that you can build upon or finish off with a little highlight, lowlight, or shading. Use a different sponge for each color; you will need multiple sponges in the same designs for each of the colors you are using.

A great time to practice face painting designs is at Halloween. On a night of horrors, the little odd wavering of a line will be hidden in the dark of trick or treat. If you are unsure of your ability practice on your own hand, close your hand into a fist and paint the top of it. Halloween is the most popular time of the year for face painting. The face painting design include, vampires, ghouls, witches, and ghosts.

Face painting ideas should be simple, fun, and something you have practiced. The more you practice the faster you become and the more faces you can paint.

Face painting design supplies should consist of good paintbrushes. Good paintbrushes will have the bristles securely fastened into the brush end, otherwise, the bristles will fall out and become part of the face painting design. You will spend several minutes pulling bristles out of the design. Good brushes cost between $3-10, and they will last you a long time. Invest in sponges and cut them into different designs like circles, stars, triangles, rectangles, ovals, and any other shape you can imagine. Remember to disinfect all items between faces to keep things sanitary. All face paints should state on the labels that they are face paints and they are okay to use on the skin, start out with two or three paint brushes, and a small range of colors, the basic palettes have white, black, green, red, yellow, purple, and orange. Other fun items to use with the face paints are glitter, stick on gems, stencils, and face painting stamps.

Great items for amateur face painters are stencils and face painting stamps. The face painting stamps are made of rubber and you place in on your face painting paint pad and you have an outline of the design, then you fill in the stamp design with color.

Stencils are outlines of shapes; they are picture version of the ABC’s your child might use to learn to hold their pencils in nursery school. You mix and match the designs and use a base color and dab the small areas of the stencil or the entire stencil. Next, you put on the highlights and final touches. Hint, girls love glitter and body gems after all they are princesses!

Where can you put your new talent of face painting to work? Your child’s next birthday party, the next fundraiser at your child’s school, fairs, Fourth of July, parades, festivals, or you can start your own business.

Practice your simple face painting designs, and you are ready for your first party. Start out with your child’s birthday, kids love their faces painted and will be uncaring if it’s not perfect. Use thin first layer, wait until it is fully dry before beginning final designs. Hint: to pop the designs outline your design with a thin line of black around the face designs.

Starting a face painting design business begins with volunteering your services at charity events, your child’s birthday parties, and very shortly, it will morph into a steady business with a line of kids waiting their turn to get their faces painted.

Face painting at charity events allows you to work on your face painting designs and develop your painting speed. Once your speed increases, begin by setting up a small canopy on the Fourth of July or Good Friday at the fair and paint away. The best way to advertise your new face painting design business is word of mouth. Build your face painting design portfolio with testimonials and photos of face designs of which you are especially proud.

When you are ready to graduate from charity events to paid business, you now need to research your area and find out, how much are face painters paid? Is a face painting design booth less money per face then private parties? Do not price yourself out of the market and remember it just might help to have lower prices to bring in clientele. Have your business cards ready to give out to anyone who asks if you do private parties. Business cards can be made at home with the help of Avery products.

Another avenue for face painting is at restaurants, as they might have a kid’s eat free night and have special entertainment throughout the meal. Children’s museums and creative art facilities or a community center will be a great place to begin looking for business. Another avenue for marketing could be at your significant other’s corporate picnic or event.

If your community offers summer camps, where kids are, face painting will be a hit! Your child’s school, fundraising events, and carnivals are great sources of income. Craft Shows are great place to have a booth. Bookstores sometimes want to launch a child’s book and a great way to draw children to children’s books is to hire a face painter. Theme parks and cruises ships are also great places to look for new business and the latter will give you a free exotic vacation too!

My cousin, who brought out her face painting kit on my daughter’s first birthday, is a real artist and she is sells her paintings at our local galleries, however, she uses her artistic talents to make money through face painting. Or perhaps you are a stay at home Mom who wants to make money and be available to her kids after school is out, face painting could be for you.

Whether you are looking to learn face painting design for your child’s next birthday or as a new, fun way to have some pocket money, remember, face painting is fun and you can make wonderful memory’s for your own child and someone else’s too.