Well you've got this far so you must be interested. So where do you start? Everyone has to start somewhere and we hope this will help. Face painting can range from a simple design with only a few colours, sometimes only one or two face paints, up to incredibly detailed works of art with blended colours fading in and out to create a masterpiece on the face. Whatever you are going to create you will need some sort of face paint and the equipment to apply the paint to the face, usually brushes or sponges.
Face Paints: Lets start off with the face paint: Obviously this needs to be a special paint as its going to be applied to the skin on mainly children, so going off to the local DIY store for some match-pots isn't a good idea. There are a few companies who produce paints specifically for face painting, which have been tested for safety and comply with various European and American regulations. These paints come in a huge variety of colours and can generally be purchased either singly in various sized pots or in sets containing a number of different face paints. A few examples from one of the manufacturers (Snazaroo) are shown here. They can be plain coloured face paints, contain glitter to give a sparkle effect, have a pearlescent effect added to them or even some ultra-violet light reflecting paints for the disco nights! At first it is best to start out with maybe half a dozen of the basic colours to get used to working with them and see how you can apply and mix to achieve the effect you want. How you apply them brings us to the next section.......
Brushes and sponges: Brushes come in all shapes and sizes, so which do you use? First of all face painting brushes must be of good quality, usually with a synthetic bristle and soft enough for young faces. Three or four brushes is enough to get you started to allow you to experiment with the face paint and working on skin. You'll need say a small fine pointed brush for extremely detailed work, a medium sized softer pointed brush for the bolder strokes and a larger brush for filling in the big areas outlined before. as you progress you'll find a need for more specialised brushes to acheive the end result such as an angled flat brush to blend two face paints together, a fan shaped brush for feathered edge effects and so on. eventually you'll find a large selection of brushes in your box but will probably have your favourites which you use time and again. To cover large areas of the face with one base colour a sponge is used to give a smooth effect with the face paint, yet again these sponges are made for face painting and are readily available. One tip with the sponges is don't be afraid to cut them up - two reasons, one you get twice as many for your money but more importantly you can use the sharp edge on the cut sponge to produce lines and clean edges if the design calls for it. (see the picture)You can paint the whole face with a couple of sponges, bending them to create different edges and face paint effects. For stipple effects special sponges such as the one in the picture are available.
Working with the face paint: As said above the face paints are water based so really it's just like going back to your childhood with the painting kits. All you need is lots of water for dipping sponges and brushes into. The majority of face paints will get thinner the more water you mix with them to enable you to change the shading/intensity of the colour. Obviously the brushes need to be cleaned between each colour to prevent mixing, hence the need for lots of water usually a small pot or pots regularly changed. Some people tend to have different brushes for dark or light coloured face paints, but this can prevent you from using your "favourite" brush for one particular colour, it's all a matter of personal preference.
Removing face paints: Now you've managed to cover your children's faces with the paint and want another go, you'll have to 'clean the canvas' as it were. Being water based the face paint comes off easily with soap and water (or just water). Baby wipes are also useful - particularly for getting rid of small designs on the cheeks or part of a bigger picture to let you try again.
No comments:
Post a Comment