Step - by step bird mask face paint design

[Sherry]

I requested a bird mask from one of the Wolfe brothers (I believe it was Brian).  I've not like my bird mask design and wanted to see how they do it.  My husband took so many pictures, that it practically looks like a step by step!  

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

Neat. Thanks to the hubby for the step by step photos.

[Glitterfly Faces]

Awesome...thanks for sharing.

[Sherry]

You're welcome!  I'm glad to do it.  I have more to post from the convention, but I may have to wait until Sunday to post them.  I have a big event tomorrow.

[jubob]

I love that may have a go myself.

Julie x

[sparklingfaces]

Very pretty. I may have to give this a go.

[Sherry]

O.k. guys, I tried it at my event this weekend.  I was so happy to get a request for it and get the chance to try it out.  The Wolfe brothers make it look so effortless.  I ended up feeling like my customers when they go on and on about how good I am and how I make it look easy.  I was disappointed with how it turned out, but I guess I just need practice.  I also think my DFX white may have been the problem.  The cake I took with me was surprisely gunky all day and I couldn't get it to go on smooth.  I'm not sure what was up with that, but decided to keep that particular cake around the house for practice.

Here's the result.

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

Good first time! Hate when it gets gunky, but the girl doesn't look disappointed. I'm sure she was the envy of all her friends!

[Sherry]

Thanks Wina!  She seemed happy, so I hope so. 

[Alison]

You look so beautiful Sherry.

And I know what you mean - about wanting your paintings to look like some other Wow Artists'. 
But I finally learned to like myself - just like the customers who like what we do. 
Dramatic looks great.  Smooth looks great.  But so does Whimsical or Folksy. 

I try to be happy wherever I'm at.  And it not only gets 'better' - sometimes it even gets 'worse'.  Just keep living and doing stuff. 

I like your painting on the girl.

[Sherry]

Thanks Alison! 

I agree, it can get worse.  I've noticed that I get out of practice sometimes when I've been away from painting for a while.  I need to get back in the groove.

[reginanewsum]

This might help those of you that have occational problems with the chunky face paints in the container! This is what I do and it really helps solve the problem!
I do this at home, not at a gig! I really spritz it with wate,r really wet, place the cake container in a zip lock plastic bag and close it. So your hands don't get all gunkie! Press the plastic against the cake surface and mash it down with your fingers, and just keep mashing it and kneeding it , some times you need to add more water to it, and then coninue to mash ans kneed it, takes a little mussles to do this! After it has all mashed and formed back together, you can even the top surface out flat, by pressing and flatting the top, take it out of your bag and bingo you are good to go! I keep all my paints flat on the surface by doing this. When I do a really good cleaning of my paints and notice a deep well hole forming in the center of the cake, I use the zip lock bag and press all the paints from the sides to form a flat surface again, except for the black paint! I like to keep a well hole in the middle! This works great for the black, you can put some water in the whole to make it like an ink,  all you are doing is dip your brush into the hole to pick up paint on the end and then roll it along side of the cake, this works wonders for line work, attaching a picture of my black cake! When my black paint gets low, or the hole starts to get bigger, I just cut a few slices of black from an other pot and press it around the hole to fill it in! I love doing the black like this!

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

I was at a Wolfe booth at a trade show and the artist said with Wolfe paints he keeps a tiny hole in his cakes to put water down. Then he puts his brush in there to get a good amount to do details. But he keeps the rest nice and flat to use with his sponges. And he showed me how very LITTLE water he put on the sponge and how much skin he could cover with it. He said most artists put way too much paint on their sponges. Here LESS IS MORe, and most cost effective.  :DImpressive.

[Sherry]

Wina, You must have met Kurt Drake?  Him and April taught one of the sponging classes we took and he taught that exact method.  What a learning experience! 

I'm definitely a weller and like to have a little well in my cakes for linework.  But I like this idea Gina for possibly fixing that sticky, gunky white cake I have.  Possibly get it wet and kneading it will help?  I'll give it a try.  I'm thinking this might help with my excessively dry cakes as well.  The ones that seem to be hard to work up.

[reginanewsum]

It does work! And I have tried this on several different brands of cake paints. I even keep a few zip lock baggys in my work box, so if I find I am having a problem at a gig, I can fix a cake if I need to really fast. Fingers don't get all mesy and just throw it away! There will only be a little small amount of paint on the baggy, it does not cling to it! Or you can take a clean brush and swipe the paint off the baggy and put it back onto the cake! You will not waste any amount of your cake paints, and you will hae a nice flat surface again, and it will be workable again.