This weekend I face painted at a baseball game, and it was the perfect place for getting inspiration for baseball designs. I hope you enjoy this cartoon baseball, which is obviously part of a home run hit and is perfect for the baseball fans in your line.
Materials
• Diamond FX, Wolfe, or Cameleon white face paint
• Diamond FX, Wolfe, or Global black face paint
• Small split cake with red, orange, and yellow
• TAG light blue
• Paradise red
• #2 round brush
• #5 round brush
• 1/2-inch filbert brush
• 1/4-inch flat brush
Tutorial
Load your 1/2-inch filbert with white and make a large white circle above the eye on one side of the forehead. This is going to be your baseball, and how much space you have available for it will dictate the size. Just make sure you stay up about one half inch above the eyebrow.
On the opposite cheek, use your #5 round brush and TAG light blue to make some check marks shooting away from a black center point. (I used a technique like that of Laura Oliver’s 4th of July explosion design, so you could also use a flat brush for this as she did.)
With your #5 round brush and white, make three curved lines coming from the blue design on the cheek spreading out as they approach the baseball.
Load your 1/4-inch flat brush from the red/orange/yellow small split cake and write “THWACK” across the center of the blue on the cheek.
Load your #2 round brush with black and paint two eyes and a surprised mouth on the front of your baseball. You won’t need to outline the baseball with black, but if you’d like to add a lowlight, use a small filbert to put a swipe of light blue on the lower side of the baseball to add a little dimension to it before painting in the facial features.
Add red stitching to the baseball with tiny teardrops curving in on each side.
Use the same small round brush to add a shadow below and to the left of each letter.
Use the small round brush to add a white or yellow highlight to the top and right of each letter. Also add some white highlights to your blue checkmarks.
Your design is finished! For the most part, this is a quick design. The event I painted at was high volume, so I only painted baseballs on the cheek with no sound effects written in, but for a regular birthday party with a sports theme, this would be a perfect design.
Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. Stop by Facepaint.com to check out her other face painting blog posts and tutorials. If you’re on Facebook, join the Facepaint.com Challenge Group to showcase your artwork and have a chance to win a store credit for each week’s challenge.