5 Easy Face Painting designs

Hello again!

Face painting is a fun way to entertain the kids all year round. Whether its dress up day at school and you can't find a costume, or its summer holidays and they're complaining they're bored every 5 minutes (trust me, I know how it feels). It can be a saviour at Halloween and birthday parties, and you don't need to be an artist, you just need some imagination... and some face paints.

I wrote a blog post about starting out with face painting and all of the supplies you will need, but if you are just doing it to entertain the kids, you may just want to buy 3 - 5 colours depending on what designs you want to paint, I would definitely recommend black though, as black is used in almost every design out there to outline and add detail. 

If you want to read that post, the link is here:
http://libidascreations.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/thinking-of-face-painting.html

I have put together 5 easy designs for you to try out and give you some inspiration.

Clockwise from top left: Pirate, Elsa Crown, Spider web eye, Flowers and finally, a Tiger.

I know some of them look a bit complicated but they are all done using basic techniques. Here's how I did them...

Pirate: 

• Cover the whole forehead in with red, either with a sponge or a brush, doesn't really matter which. Add two little trail bits down one side to create the knot.
• Next draw an eye patch around one eye and fill in with black.
• Outline the bottom of the head scarf with black using a thin brush and draw a circle above your two trail pieces, this will create your knot and then outline the trails.
• Don't forget to add the strings from the eye patch leading up diagonally as if they are tucking under the head scarf.

Optional:

• Draw a thin red line on the cheek and draw little black lines over to look like stitches over a scar. 
• Then draw a mustache on the top lip.
• For extra effect, you can add black or white dots randomly to the head scarf to make it stand out a bit more.

Elsa Crown: (Frozen)

Try to keep this design as symmetrical as you can.

• First draw a blue diamond in the middle of the forehead.
• Using a yellow or a gold, paint a line curving down each side making sure to meet at top and bottom.
• Then from the bottom point, draw an arch over each eyebrow. 
• Add a curved point shape to each side of the center bit and triangles on both sides.

Optional:

• Using white paint, add some flicks with your brush, down from the center of the crown and from each eye.
• You could also try adding dots of different sizes randomly to the design to create some interest and make it look more detailed.

Spider Web Eye:

• Sponge on whatever background colour you would like, covering one eye completely. Extend the colour out towards the hairline, going up diagonally and out along the cheek.
• Let the base colour dry. Then add black lines down the outer edge of the face, all aiming towards the nose. Make sure to bring the top line down onto the top of the nose and the bottom line almost meeting the nose, and both ending in a thin point.
• Now just add curved lines between these to make it look like a spiderweb.

Optional:

• You could add a little spider to your design by doing two dots and flick 8 little legs out from them.

I know my spider in the picture looks rubbish, but my cat rubbed against my arm as I was doing it and I couldn't be bothered wiping it off and starting it again.

Flowers:

• First you need to paint the flowers. You do this by loading up your brush with whatever colour you want and placing the point on the skin. Now keeping the point of the brush in the center, push down outwards 5 times going round in a circle to create the petals. Should look like this...

• Don't forget about the dot in the middle to finish off each flower. You can do as many flowers as you like in as many different colours.
• Next, load your brush with green and add lines between the flowers to look like they are on a vine. try to make it curve a little to look more natural.
• Then with the green still, add some leaves onto the vine just like you did the flower petals but instead of doing 5 just do 1 for each leave.

Optional:

• You can add some dots in any colour randomly around flowers to create a bit more interest or try adding a bit of glitter for some sparkle.

Tiger:

• Sponge white onto both eyes, making sure to take the colour up above the eyebrow at an angle and end in points at either side of the forehead.
• Now sponge Orange between the white on the forehead, taking it down the nose and across under each eye going about half way down the cheek.
• Outline the white areas with thin black lines.
• Add a heart shape to the end of the nose in black.
• Then just add some lines from the outer edges aiming into the middle of the design to create the tiger stripes.

Optional:

• Add three little dots at each side of the top lip and three lines to represent the tigers whiskers.

So, I hope you have fun trying out these designs and feel free to experiment and change them to suit your style. 

Stay Inspired

Amy

xxx