Garden-themed face painting

Last Saturday my neighbours asked me to do face painting at their allotment open day.

They suggested I didn't do full faces, as they can take a long time (although mine don't usually!) so this was a good chance to develop new designs.

I decided to go with a garden theme:

 

• The rainbow is done by painting a sponge in stripes - or you could use one of those fancy striped paints. The stars and dots cover up the rough ends.
• The fairy was an old design, but seemed appropriate.
• No-one asked for the weather one, but I like it.

 

• This is a new butterfly which I like much better than my old one - and is deceptively easy. It's based on a real butterfly (monarch), but I let them choose the colour.
• Spiders and bees were both very popular, with both boys and girls.
• The worms were difficult to get the pink paint opaque enough - fortunately only had to do one.

 

• The background of the small flowers is done with a sponge rubbed on two colours of paint - I let them choose any colour.
• I must have lost the leaves picture, because I didn't have it with me! I quite like it, though.
• No-one asked for the big flower or apples.

Definitely easier not doing full faces, especially as you don't have to paint round their awkwardly screwed up eyes.

Several of these will be worth adding to my repertoire - maybe not the worms!


©2018 Kirsty McAllister. You may use these designs for both amateur and professional face painting. BUT you may not sell or publish these design sheets. If you share them, you must leave thecopyright notice on them.

New face paint design

I never did like the fairy design on my face painting sheet, and it was quite difficult, especially the eyes. And the mouth. And the cheeks...

There was also the problem that using white as a base would look really wierd on dark skin, as it would be greyish unless pancaked on very thick (and on really black skin, it would still look grey). But I wasn't really aiming at white at all - I just wanted to give the child's natural skin colour an unearthly ethereal look. So I realised the way to do this was use gold on dark skin. Plain white could still be used on fair skin, but a pearlescent white or silver would be best.

So here's a new design. Disclaimer: I have not actually tried this on a face yet!

More face painting designs on Free Downloads page

Face Painting

This week I had three apprentices. I was teaching three young teenagers how to face paint, as they have been asked to do it for a children's party. So we spent a fun evening painting each other's faces. They chose three designs and we concentrated on them - better be able to do a few designs well, than have a huge selection on offer, and no idea where to start. I think they'll do OK.

Here are the instructions I printed out for them. One day they may be part of a book - in which case I would put a photo in the blank bit. They're deliberately simple - no complicated shading or anything. So often you need to be a skilled artist (and have a lot of time) to do the designs in facepainting books. I've gone for quick and relatively foolproof. Though painting on a non-flat surface that moves is never easy!

Butterflies are very popular with wee girls. Pink, preferably. Is this a natural tendency, or because they have been indoctrinated?

Now, one of my favourites! It's a good one to do, because it doesn't matter if it's a bit rough. And it looks like a real tiger.

And a couple of really simple ones:

 

Feel free to use these designs for personal use, or for a charity event. Please do not publish.

Face Painting

I was face painting on Saturday. Did a new version of my design sheets, which I'm very pleased with. 

All the animals are zoologically correct - which is unusual, but why not? It's just as easy to do, and looks just as effective. The one exception is the butterfly - when a wee girl wants to be a butterfly, pink and glitter is usually what she's after! Although one girl asked for yellow and green - she had beautiful red hair, and it looked great.

What I'd really like to do is make instruction sheets (I saved the intermediate stages in my colouring) to help the younger ones learn. I could maybe even make it into a book. When I have time...

It was a good day. We raised lots of money for kids' camps in Tanzania, and also got to play on the bouncy castle. I was by far the oldest on it.