Face Painting Tips

How to Enjoy Face Painting at Home

When planning an event that needs a costume, such as a Halloween or theme party for your child, disguises for kids are top of mind - and face. As parents know, Halloween costumes can be expensive, especially considering that the costume may not fit the following year. As a fun and inexpensive alternative, consider face painting for kids. With practice, you will have the confidence to paint up the kids for Halloween or any other occasion.

Supplies

Kids Face Painting is fun and easy, best achieved by starting off with simple face painting designs. Visit our online store and choose from single colours in various sizes or palettes of 12 or 24 colours. Start with 3 to 12 colours depending on the size of the paints and your face painting budget.

Be sure to use quality water based face paints for best results. The ingredients in our paints are meant for human skin and meet rigorous ECARF standards. Various sizes are available in many colours through our online store at the best prices. There are many brands out there, including Snazaroo (available at art stores). Kryolan is one of the brands that is safe for all skin types and the only product used by faceART. Apply it on clean skin and a little goes a long way. The colours are vibrant and do not dry out the skin. Beauty supply stores can be of help, but they may have limited stock depending on the season. We sell Kryolan face paints, sponges and specialty face painting items in our store at affordable prices.

As your skill improves, you will want to upgrade from adequate brushes to great brushes. Art stores often carry various brands on sale. The tips below describe brush care in more detail. For best results, buy short handled watercolour brushes in the following sizes:

Round tip #2, #4, #6 and #8
Straight flat tip 1/2"
Angled flat tip 1/2"

Non-latex makeup sponges cut in half are very useful for blotting on background colours. Purchase them here starting at $1 each. Sponges are a versatile, reusable face painting tool for creating soft or hard edges. Use both ends of the sponge for applying and blending multiple colours. different colours. Reuse all your face painting tools after washing in plain soap and water and leaving to air dry. To protect and extend the life of your brushes, use a brush cleaner and preserver.

Tips & Techniques

1 - Paint, sponge or brush the main colours first. Sponges are best for lightly covering the face.

2- Thin black outlines applied with your #4 brush are most effective for defining a design, like a colouring book. A suggestive outline is best.

3 - Loading the brush: Load just enough paint on your brush without overflowing.

4 - Double-loading: To apply a line onto the child’s face, load two colours onto your brush to create pleasing highlights and save time. Avoid mixing the two colours on the brush. Load one colour onto the brush, then less of a second colour onto the tip. Highlight colours can be black or white. Other good colours to load sit close to each other on the colour wheel, like Red/Yellow, Blue/Purple, and Green/Blue. Experiment with light/dark shades and shades of similar value. When you feel the tip colour running out, load a bit on again and continue where you left off.

5 - Children often like to talk about their favorite designs. Having a conversation with them will give you ideas and encourage them to stay involved and enjoy the experience.

6 - Study and practice designs on your own time, including popular characters. Taking digital pictures is an excellent way to build a face painting reference file.

7 - Give yourself a time limit. If you think a particular design will take 10 minutes to complete, give yourself 5 minutes to complete it. The result will be a fresher, more spontaneous design that will be easier to reproduce.

8 - Use a small spray bottle with water to keep your paint creamy and useable. Or, use a clean sponge to squeeze a few drops of water across your paints when needed.

9 - Eye makeup applicators, the ones with little handles on them, are inexpensive solutions for dotting flower centres and leopard spots onto a dry background colour.

10 - Rinse or wipe brushes before each use. Never leave brushes in water. Use an empty container to rest brushes upright. To further extend brush life, dip brushes in par-boiled water as soon as the bristles start to stay separate, even when dry. Synthetic fibres have memory and this action restores the bristles to their original position. Avoid pulling stray fibres out. For that occasional run away bristle, bend the bristle right down to the heel of the ferrule (the part of the brush that holds the bristles in place), press a penny against the heel and shave the stray bristle away. This keeps the heel full with the original bristles and prevents excess water from getting into the ferrule.

11 - Remember you're creating memories for you and your guest. Uphold your intention to make them happy and positive memories. A pleasant face painting experience can last a lifetime. 12 - Now that you know what to do with your brushes, sponges and paints, what do you do with your hands? Avoid holding the top of children's heads. It's harsh and interferes with alignment. Let children maintain access to the world around them by positioning your non-painting hand under their chin. Subtle handling showcases the child in pictures and makes you look more respectful towards your guest.

Areas of Service: Barrie, Wasaga Beach, Staynor, Collingwood, Blue Mountains, Creemore.