I’ve had Brilliant Bling in my kit for some time, but it’s only in recent months that I’ve begun to experiment with it more. I felt it would be a good choice for this design, and since striking eye designs tend to be more popular with older children, teens, and women, this design makes a good addition to your board, as it allows you to offer something that older ages may prefer.
Materials
• Brilliant Bling split cake
• Diamond FX or Wolfe black
• Paradise black
• #4 round brush
• #2 round brush
• Always Wicked butterfly sponge
• Half-circle sponge or dauber
• Reptile stencil (or your favorite textured stencil)
Tutorial
Load your Always Wicked butterfly sponge from the Brilliant Bling split cake. I absolutely love the butterfly sponges, and I use them constantly for this type of eye design, because they fit so well into the inner corner of the eye and create less over-painting which needs to be wiped away. For this design, since it’s not meant to be a true butterfly, I’m leaving the outer edge somewhat jagged by using the edge of the wide end of the sponge and dragging it away from the eye.
Use your #4 round brush and the darkest color on the Brilliant Bling split cake to create the outer edge of your design. While the top has more of a butterfly look, the bottom has a slightly reptilian/dragon wing feel.
To create the texture over the top of your design, you can either load your sponge or dauber from the Paradise black (keeping the paint fairly dry) and dab it over the top of your stencil. If you have black Starblends, you can load a smoothie blender with black and brush it over the top of your stencil. Both techniques will create a similar look.
Load your #2 round brush and add a more intense outline and black dots to the design.
As a final touch, add a few swirls coming out of your eye design, and some small black dots on the outside of the design. To dress it up, add glitter or liquid bling.
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Please share your own variations in the comments. We love to see your work!
Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz, and she services Elgin, Illinois, the NW Chicago suburbs, and northern Chicago, as well as the eastern suburbs of Rockford. Stop by Facepaint.com to check out her other face painting blog posts and tutorials.