Month: March 2013

Well, I have been posting a lot of my recent face painting experiments on my Facebook page but I like to keep up with that on my blog too.  Plus, I can’t “pin” stuff on Facebook! So, here is some of my recent work, if you’re not a Facebook-er!  I’m also working on a new book that I’m super excited about, which has been keeping me very busy lately…stay tuned!  And don’t forget to subscribe to our free monthly e-newsletter to get free how-to’s and coupon deals.  The next one will be sent out in just a few days and has a $5 coupon on any order of $30 or more! Happy painting!

“Operation” Arm! I think this would be the coolest ever Halloween costume, to be the Operation guy!

Our kids don’t stay clean for long….did this Optimus Prime on Sammy immediately after his bath! Ha!

I did this image for the section of my new book that focuses on teardrop methods! The black is of course my most favorite Wolfe black, background is done with a sponge and a TAG “gelati” base blender.  Brushes I used are a Wolfe #1 and #4.

Lowly worm…been wanting to paint him for a while! Perfect google eye design!

One stroke mermaid! I used TAG “Fire” for the hair and “Ocean” for the fins/tail.

Today I finally got some extra time while the boys napped to work on an entry for the Face Paint Forum’s “Steampunk Challenge!”  I have been trying to come up with an idea for a couple weeks and finally decided to do one of the things I do best…HANDS!  So here is my interpretation of a steampunk hand!  🙂

I used mostly my Kryolan metallic paints, along with some Wolfe black and white.  I also used a little Kryolan black as well.  Now that I’ve gotten familiar with both brands, I find I like the properties of one or the other better depending on what I’m doing.  Wolfe is by far the blackest of blacks!  So that’s what I used for the darkest areas and the outlines.  I used Kryolan when I wanted a more transparent layer of black on top of the metallic paints while adding depth.  I also mixed a little Kryolan black with the metallic paints to create darker shades of each metal for shadows.

I wanted to try my BAM stencils for a little texture, but couldn’t do that one handed! Ha! I only used two brushes for the whole thing…a Wolfe #1 and Wolfe #4 round.  All in all I think it turned out pretty cool for my first steampunk inspired idea.  I would love-love-love to do something like this over an entire body!  Although, just this hand took me 45 minutes so it would be a long day of painting! 😉

Sushi Cakes

Today I had so much fun making my first sushi cakes! If you haven’t heard of them before, they are basically like round versions of split cakes…designed to easily load a round foam dauber and create cool effects with a slight spinning action as you lay the paint against the skin.  They can also be used like a stamp, when the paint is loaded and simply pressed against the skin without twisting the dauber.

The four sushi cakes I made today!

I used my 1.5″ diameter screw-together jars that the rest of my paints are in so they pack up so well together with my kit! It’s a great way to use up your left-over paint.  However, if you have never made your own split or sushi cakes, I’d highly recommend starting with fresh paint…paint that is still soft.  These cakes are made out of mostly Kryolan, and when it’s fresh you can easily cut it into the shape you want, and mold it just like clay.  It only took me maybe 5 minutes to make each cake so they were a lot less time consuming than I thought.  If you have dry, crumbly paint, it can be a real headache!

I originally made this for more boy-ish designs like a spider’s body.  But, it looked so much like an eyeball I had to paint one!

Peacock cake

“Bubble” cake!

I love how this one turned out.  By putting gold around the edges, I can make a gem set in gold in seconds!

How I made my bubble cake

Photos of the steps I took in making my peacock cake

I thought it might be useful to create some images to help you compare the differences and similarities of several brands of metallic colored paints that we carry in the shop.  Below I have brushed on a stroke of each brand of similar colors: TAG Pearl, Wolfe Metallix, Kryolan Interferenz and Kryolan Metallic.

The greens are all pretty different in their color.  TAG was my favorite here for how nice and bright it is!  However, the color you want of course depends on what you are painting.

The golds had more variation.  Wolfe turned out to be more matte in finish.  Both Wolfe and TAG are the most yellow.  Kryolan Interferenz is yellow but sparkly, and Kryolan Metallic is definitely the most shiny, true gold-metallic of the bunch.

The first three blues are all pretty similar.  Kryolan’s Interferenz GB is a little more grean, and the silver blue is more silver.  But I don’t think you could really tell the difference between Wolfe, TAG, and the Kryolan Interferenz BG.

The silvers have similar properties of the golds, where Wolfe was a little more matte finish. However, TAG, Wolfe and Kryolan Interferenz were pretty close in appearance.  Kryolan Metallic wins again for the most bright and shiny true metallic!

You can find all of these brands of metallic, pearl, and interferenz paints on our site, here!

Toby (3) and Sammy (5). I’ll probably be forced to delete these photos before they hit their teenage years, but we’ll just enjoy them here while we can!

Let’s just say that my boys have learned now to take FULL advantage of their Momma when she has all her paints spread out in her studio working on designs.  Today they both wanted their bellies painted, so I went all out.  First Toby came to me and said, “Momma!  I wanna Mickey Mouse Clubhouse come-inside-its-fun-inside on my tummy!” Shortly after, Sammy was ready for a Hot Wheels Monster Truck. Well, maybe SOMEDAY I’ll have a customer request a Monster Truck and I will have had TONS of practice!  Here are a few pictures of our little belly session done today, right before naps.  I sprayed Toby’s with some of my Kryolan fixer spray.  So, we’ll see if that helps it last longer!

Here are a few photos of them in progress…

I had so much fun coming up with Easter cheek art designs for my March e-newsletter, I just had to share all of these how-to’s with you! These were all painted with Kryolan paints, with the outlines and white in Wolfe.  The neon google eyes are great for Easter designs with their bright, springy colors!  Scroll down for 11 step-by-steps!

Talk about FUN mail!!

I am sooooo excited to have received my first shipment of TAG one strokes and split cakes this week!!  Here are a few samples of my first attempts to use three of the one-stroke cakes: Berry (used for the rose petals), Snake (used for the leaves), Ocean (used for the dolphin), and Unicorn….

1-Strokes that are now available!  Don’t forget the brush! 😉

 

Well, I got too impatient to wait for my hubby to let me paint him, so I went ahead and did my next “Luck of the Irish Challenge” entry today on my leg again.  I made up sortof a Celtic dragon, incorporating the rainbow in his belly, lucky horseshoe on his gold leprechaun hat, and a four-leaf clover on the end of his tail.  🙂

Close up of the head

I drew the design with a white Mehron Pro Pencil and started adding Kryolan colors

Adding the green and some gold on the wings

Gold hat and scales

Black and White…always my favorite part!

We are having our first snow day of the winter here in MN and I am getting a little stir crazy.  Especially since we didn’t leave the house yesterday either due to the snow.  So, once I got the boys down for naps I thought I’d take a crack at an entry for the Face Paint Forum’s latest monthly challenge: “Luck of the Irish!“

I didn’t want to just go with the usual four leaf clovers, rainbows, and pot-o-gold.  So, I came up with this little scene that I like to call “Luck o’ the Eighties!”  I brought back some characters from my eighties childhood.  My Little Pony, the lucky Care Bear, and the Lucky Charms guy have banded together to track down the gold at the end of the rainbow once and for all!

Here are some progress photos!  I’m not quite sure how I feel about plastering so many photos of my thigh on the internet.  But hey, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the good of creativity.  I apologize to your eyeballs.

My pencil sketch on the back of some of the boys’ scrap drawing paper…(hence the sideways parachutes in the background!)

First I drew out the design using a white Mehron pro pencil ($5).

Next I started filling in the various greens using Kryolan paints and some cosmetic glitter.

Adding a little dimension with lighter and darker shades of the same greens.

Finally something other than GREEN! I did all of this with my two Wolfe brushes, #1 and #4 round.

Well now, it sure does POP when you outline with the Wolfe black, doesn’t it?! I used some Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling to add the sparkly purple horseshoe on the pony and the gold buckles on “Lucky’s” shoe and hat.

I was gonna stop there but then decided to add a rainbow with a pile of gold.

Filled in the inside of the rainbow with a sky blue, added a little base shadows, and done!

A close-up of the gold.  Oooh, shiny!

Love how that Liquid Bling makes the buckle and horseshoe pop!!

I have another design I’d like to try next but we’ll see if it happens.  I’m trying to convince my wonderfully supportive husband to let me paint on his beautifully hairless and never-been-painted back, although I may have finally found a limit to his support of my business.  I didn’t even want to try suggesting ponies and Care Bears for him though so I started with my own leg! Ha! Stay tuned and see if I can convince him to let me paint a more manly St. Patrick’s Day design on him…