Getting the Basics of Animal Face Painting

Animal designs are among the most popular face painting designs. Animal themes vary extensively in design-you can create spots, stripes, whiskers, fangs, cat’s eyes, dog’s “black-eye”, pug nose, beaks and so much more! This article will show you the basics of animal face painting and how to further enhance your skills.

First, get to know the basic animal designs. The most popular beginner’s design is the butterfly and bunny. Here are other animals you can portray in your animal face painting:

– Lion -Tiger -Cheetah -Cat -Dalmatian -Cow -Chicken -Owl -Sheep -Pig

With these samples you can already learn and create so many kinds of patterns. To get started, here are basic animal details:

1. Making Spots – use round brush to make dots and spots. With this simple animal face painting technique you can create Dalmatian spots. Try drawing a circle around one eye and filling it in with solid color to create a dog’s “black eye.” You can then move on to creating cheetah spots by making solid dots and then creating a circle around them.

2. The Stripes – stripes are best for zebra and tiger designs. Create wavy lines across the face with a brush. There are many books available that can show you where to direct those lines.

3. Noses – noses are easy to create. You can simply apply a black, pink or red spot on the nose.

4. Beaks – beaks are best created by the illusion of “sticking out” from the face. For step-by-step instructions, search books or online information on animal face painting.

5. Eyes – different animals have different eyes. Paint on a vertical line that has a thicker middle and pointed ends for cat’s eyes.

6. Fur and feathers – there are many books that will provide you with information on how to create the illusion of furs and feathers using paint alone.

Prepare yourself for actual face painting now that you know the basics. Here is a basic procedure:

Step 1: Prepare the palette of colors that you will need for the design you want to make. For example, a tiger is going to need a color palette of orange for the base, black for stripes, yellow for eyes and white for the lower eyelids.

Step 2: Before you begin animal face painting, ask your model if he or she would like the face to be painted entirely or partially. For those who don’t want the whole face to be painted, add some animal-like features only in a small area like the eyes or part of the cheek.

Step 3: Begin painting! The typical animal face painting procedure is by first painting on the base with a moist sponge and placing the details or animal patterns with a brush last. Now that you have the basics on animal face painting, learn more about specific procedures on each animal and advanced techniques online.