Face Painting Tips

Face painting is one of the cherished activities of festivals, carnivals, parades and events across the country. More and more holidays are beginning to use face painting as a great activity for kids. Schools can also incorporate it as a station on their annual field day. Halloween may boast the most face painting out of any holiday, but summer fairs and county festivals run close behind. The designs are too innumerable to count.

A face can be transformed in its entirety, into an animal, character or monster. Face painters often use stencils, which are painted and then stamped onto the face, and can be popular, too. Whatever designs the children, or even adult asks the face painter for, there are a hundred ways to go about getting a great design.

Here are tips for people just starting out in face painting:

1) If you're painting a design that needs a large area to be covered with paint, use a sponge instead of a brush. Why? Because applying the paint with a sponge means it will dry quicker. It's a good idea to have a few sponges set aside if you need to use different colors, because this means you won't have to try and clean the sponge for each color…which would take time.

2) Always let the first color dry before you start painting on a second! If you forget to wait for it to dry, they colors will most likely mix and you're going to have to start from scratch again.

3) Make sure you know what you want the finished face to look like. Don't make it up as you go along. You need to be able to paint faces rather quickly, as if you have children, you already know that kids aren't always very patient…and they may get bored or restless if you're thinking on what to paint next.

4) If you're not good at painting freehand yet, don't be afraid to use a stencil. You can get stencils of stars, hearts, flowers, and all sorts of things. These are perfect for stencilling onto a cheek. You'll need stencils of different sizes to accommodate different face sizes.

5) If you want something faster than stencilling, why not try temporary tattoos? Make sure the person's skin doesn't react badly to it first, by asking them (or their parents)…or testing it on a small area first.

6) If you have a line of kids ready to have their faces painted, ask them to be thinking about what they would like a few minutes before its actually their turn. You don't want to be delayed while each kid thinks of what he or she would like painted on their face.

7) Remember to have a mirror with you at all times so you can show the person what you have painted, and to make sure they're happy with your work.

8) Professional face paint and stage makeup can be quite expensive, especially if you're planning to paint a lot of faces. You can make your own simple face paint with cheaper ingredients. A quick search on Google will find you plenty of ideas that you can use to make your own face paint with. Bear in mind this won't be as good as the professional face paint, so if you can afford it. It is better you get the professional stuff.

Halloween certainly boasts the biggest number of face painted ghouls, vampires, monsters and more. For the Hulk, one can simply paint their faces green. You can also use a simple Halloween theme, as well. Try bats, a spider web face, or an eerie yellowish tint for a witch's face. Zombies and ghouls can cast sunken features under their eyes and paint blood around their mouths. Of course, the characters don't have to be scary. It's not hard to paint a clown face, with a little patience for painting a giant mouth, or using a solid color to enhance a costume, such as a giant raisin, bear or anything else one can build or find a costume for. Many Halloween costumes will provide directions for adding face painting.

There are also plenty of kits in stores or on the web, which are geared for specific characters, or that come with all the colors for one's own creativity to come out. In general, these paints are a little thicker and harder to remove than the typical face paint used for your everyday festival or event.