Are you interested in face painting and looking for a place to start? You aren’t alone, many mothers, fathers and entrepreneurs are interested in face painting. If you have already started looking you may be extremely overwhelmed, with good reason.
Are you interested in face painting and looking for a place to start? You aren’t alone, many mothers, fathers and entrepreneurs are interested in face painting. If you have already started looking you may be extremely overwhelmed, with good reason, there are so many brands, options and decisions to make when first getting into face paint. For many of your questions you can go to www.facepaintforum.com which is a huge forum filled with questions, answers, photos and product reviews. I learned many things from the Face Paint Forum and found a vast wealth of knowledge from other face painters who have been painting for many years. Not only does the forum offer a lot of information, they also have a very low cost shop with most of the top brands of paint and products you will need.
The first thing you need to decide is what kind of events and painting you will be doing. Will you be entertaining for your child’s birthday party, painting for a slumber party or starting a business? If you plan on painting for one event or function you could easily get a sampler palette along with a few sponges and brushes, all of these items can be found on www.facepaintforumshop.com or another popular site www.sillyfarm.com, they have a very large selection and can offer pretty much anything you might need. If you are looking at starting a business, you will need to be buying individual containers and possibly several brands.
Types of paint:There is the traditional clay based clown paint which is not really used for children’s faces any longer and then there is water activated powder face paint which is what I use exclusively. Within the water activated paint, there are essentially two types of paint, glycerin based and wax based. A glycerin based paint (Mehron Paradise, Kryolan, Ben Nye) is great for a base and has wonderful color coverage, they blend easily and make beautiful designs. A wax based paint (Wolfe, Diamond FX, TAG) is great for line work and color consistency, they don’t blend as easily but sit on the surface without soaking in. Wax paints tend to crack if put on too heavily and aren’t always easy to use for large surface areas. Many professionals use a mix of glycerin and wax based paints using each for different applications or color combinations. If you can’t decide or haven’t tried both types of paints, go with the colors you like and the rest will fall into place. Each brand has their own colors and combinations and this can sometimes be the leading factor for selecting a paint.
After you decide what type of paint to get you will need something to apply the paint to the face. You can either use a sponge (a special condensed sponge for face painting) or a brush. I personally use both and will frequently use a sponge to apply a base and then use a brush to apply the detail work. I enjoy using professional level sable brushes, a combination of natural and synthetic fibers. If you are just starting you will need at the bare minimum, round #2 or #3 brush and one sponge. You can get sponges for about $1.00 each and cut them in half to yield two sponges per whole one. If you really prefer brush application, you can use a 1” brush and a small round brush to apply the base and then the lines over the top.
One thing you absolutely need to remember is the mirror. Nothing is more rewarding then seeing the look on a child’s face as they see the final image. I don’t always get a huge response with smiles and laughs but it is always rewarding.
After you get all of the supplies, take a look on You Tube and find some tutorials and just start painting. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, the more you paint the better you will get. If you don’t have a willing model just paint on your arm or legs and get some practice. Remember as you go through the process, your original goal was to make people happy!
