Face Painting Ideas
Most children and many adults love face painting because of its endless possibilities. You can paint faces at almost any holiday or event if you have the right colors and imagination. Birthday parties are an especially good time to paint faces. Paint each child as a different object within a theme and have the children use the theme to play a game like Animal Tag. They could also put on a play.
Weather and Sky Designs
Begin with indigo and paint an upside-down U across a child's cheeks and nose. Do the same with the other colors of the rainbow, working upward to avoid smearing. Have the child wait about a minute for the paint to dry.
Paint a fluffy, dark gray cloud around a child's eye, leaving a thin border of skin bare around the eye. Right under the eye, draw a jagged yellow thunderbolt stretching from the cloud to the chin. This child is a thunderstorm.
Paint little white, yellow or gold stars all over a child's face with a crescent moon on his or her cheek. Paint the rest of the child's face dark blue. This creates a night sky.
Holiday Designs
Paint the child's nose pink and two large, white circles over the child's mouth. Outline the circles in black, and paint the rest of the face white with short, uneven strokes resembling fur. Paint a few whiskers on the white circles and top with a bunny-ear headband. The child is the Easter Bunny.
Paint two black triangles around the eye, leaving a small border of unpainted skin. Paint a toothy grin around the child's mouth and paint the rest of the face orange. Use red to create vertical ellipses that mimic the lines of a pumpkin. This creates a Jack-O-Lantern.
Yin-Yang and Peace Sign
Paint a black, stretched-out S down the center of the face. Paint a large black circle on the left side of the forehead and a white one on the right cheek. Color the entire left side of the face white and the right side of the face black. This creates a yin-yang symbol.
Choose any color you like, so long as it is bright. Paint a thick circle around the edges of the face then split it into sections by painting an upside-down, three-pronged Y on the inside of the circle in the same color. You can leave this as is or paint each section a separate color, or paint them all the same color. This creates the peace sign.
Helpful Tips
Make sure to purchase paint specifically for skin, as other paints are more difficult to get off, especially oil-based ones. Rub a thin layer of petroleum jelly onto the skin before painting to help get the paint off later. Also have a variety of colors and brush sizes and several teens or adults to help you paint everyone faster.
