This little critter reminded me of the poems my grandmother used to recite to me as a child when I spent summer days at her house just down the road from our farm. While this critter isn't quite as elegant as the fairies in her poems, he's still a happy little fellow which children who want a rainbow design will love for the St. Patrick's Day holiday season. I hope you enjoy painting him as well.
Materials
• Global split cake Zanzibar
• Small green split cake
• Green face paint
• Yellow face paint
• Orange face paint
• White face paint
• Black face paint
• Cosmetic grade glitter in translucent and green
• #5 round brush
• #2 round brush
• #1 round brush
• 1-inch or 3/4-inch flat brush
Tutorial
Begin by loading your large flat brush from the Global small rainbow Zanzibar or you favorite small rainbow split cake. Make a C-shaped curve over the eyebrow on one side of the face. (Add glitter now so it will stick to the rainbow.)
Next load a large flat brush from the green split cake. With the darkest color on the outside, create a bushy shape at the end of the rainbow, leaving the bottom where the feet will go flat. If necessary, dab the center with the light side of the brush to fill it in and smooth it out. You can also dab the center with a sponge if you'd like to remove brush strokes there.
Use your #2 round brush and green to create shamrocks and grass at the sides of your critter.
Load the #5 round brush with white for the clouds, eyes, stars, and dots. If you feel like you need to switch to a smaller brush for the dots and starbursts, that's fine, but if you stay on the tip of your #5, you can probably do this step without changing brushes.
Add a yellow nose and orange dots for toes. (The largest toe dots will be in the center, and they'll gradually get smaller as you go toward the edge.)
Complete the design by using a #1 round brush (or larger, if you are comfortable doing details with a larger brush) to add outlines and the eyes to your critter. If necessary, add a few more highlights with white as well.
Have a happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in Elgin, Illinois, and her artwork has appeared in The Colored Palette and SkinMarkz magazines. 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.