Dragons are a creepy critter for cheek painting.
The roots of face and cheek painting stretch back much farther than the latest street fair or carnival. Cultural and tribal face painting was long used for scaring the enemy as well as for hunting, camouflaging or in religious or other ceremonies. Folks today still paint their faces or cheeks to show support for a particular sports team or political cause, but it is also frequently available at parties and celebrations just for fun.
Creepy critters
Creepy critters include snakes, dragons, spiders, bats, scorpions, wasps and other insects. Snakes can be especially creepy by positioning the head on one cheek and making the body of the snake wrap around the face's perimeter. Get creative with the snake's outline and have him weave around the nose, mouth and eyes. Spiders get an added creepy touch if you include their web on part of the face or over the entire visage. Bat wings make a dramatic statement when they are extended to cover the eyes.
Sweet critters
Butterflies are definitely one of the sweeter critters, as are dragonflies, bumblebees, colorful caterpillars and darling dragonflies. Like the creepy critters, the sweet critters can also display a creative flair. Wrap the caterpillar around one side of the face. Extend the butterfly wings to cover one or both eyes. Additional colorful designs can supplement the sweet critters, with flowers around the critters or perhaps a blossom or two on the other cheek.
Animals
Animals work for cheek and face painting either as the entire outline of the animal or painting parts of the face to resemble the animal. A small cat, elephant, dog, alligator, rat, horse, octopus or pretty much any animal for which you can paint a basic, recognizable form works on a single cheek. Painting the face to look like an animal includes a couple of base colors around the cheeks, eyes and mouth accented with whiskers, a prominent mouth or teeth and animal eyebrows. Tigers work well for a full face painting with black stripes around the face's perimeter.
Landscape
Landscape ideas can be as small as one cheek or again cover the entire face. Single landscape items that work well for a cheek include rainbows, flowers, a sun, moon, stars or other elements found in nature. To make the face paint more dramatic, extend the rainbow across the front of the face or around the perimeter. Make a large cheek sun surrounded by smaller stars and a tiny moon. Floral design ideas range from a single daisy on one cheek to a whole bouquet of flowers strategically arranged around the face, connect to each other by dramatic, sweeping stems.
Sports and politics
Cheek and face painting can also display your affiliation to a cause or favorite team. Use team colors, mascots or logos to create a small cheek painting, such as a purple and gold Minnesota Viking horn or a black and white circle striped circle that includes the New York Yankees logo. Make a political statement with a small circle, square, small flag or other outline using red, white and blue with your favorite candidate or politician's name in its center. Such paintings can also extend the entire face by painting different parts of the face with alternating sections of the team colors, using the team name or transforming the entire face into an American flag.
Other
A host of other designs work well for cheek and face painting. Holiday designs include snowmen, Santa Claus, snowflakes, reindeer, Christmas trees and presents. Try a four-leaf clover for St. Patty's Day or a small rabbit, chick or colored egg for Easter. Other small design ideas include hearts, diamonds, fish, swirls, scrolls, crowns, skulls and paw prints. Designs that work well over the entire face include argyle, plaid, suits from a deck of cards that include the hearts and diamonds as well as clubs and spades, and a series of intermingled swirls and scrolls, especially around the eye area,
