Black eye?

Hey y'all!

This weekend I'm painting at a wrestling expo. Among my designs are a black eye/beaten up face.

I was wondering how I should go about painting a black eye (with just face paint)? I'm afraid I'll be too heavy handed and make it look really fake and bad. Should I stick to purples and yellows, and just avoid using black at all?

If anyone else has done a black eye with face paints, I'd love to see!

Wolf brothers are big fans of 'brownple'... It's purple and brown mixed. It looks realistic for bruises.

I don't have photos, but I have done black eyes and bruising for theater. Basically layering with a small sponge or brush your purples, greens, brown, navy, red and black until you get the look you like... I use only the smallest amount of pearl black (because it's a softer black) Only use yellow if you are trying to achieve an older bruise and the amount of green used should not stand out on its own unless you are trying to achieve a bruise in the healing stages.

How about doing a cracked face look for the wrestling expo? Or maybe even trying to do Xs on the eyes like they are knocked out?

pinkundies wrote:Wolf brothers are big fans of 'brownple'... It's purple and brown mixed. It looks realistic for bruises.

Cool! I'll have to try that.

Miss Ronnie wrote:I don't have photos, but I have done black eyes and bruising for theater. Basically layering with a small sponge or brush your purples, greens, brown, navy, red and black until you get the look you like... I use only the smallest amount of pearl black (because it's a softer black) Only use yellow if you are trying to achieve an older bruise and the amount of green used should not stand out on its own unless you are trying to achieve a bruise in the healing stages.

How about doing a cracked face look for the wrestling expo? Or maybe even trying to do Xs on the eyes like they are knocked out?

Thanks for the tips! It's amazing how many colours go into creating a black eye.

I like the X eyes idea! Thanks!

These are some black eyes with purple yellow combo I did these when I was first starting out. I had my first 3 min per face event (mchappy day) this seemed to easy I had watched a SF video



The reason the second pic has a bigger eye area has to do with him having had on a quick green mask about 15 mins before and green stains my son -so I was covering the stains - LOL
I have since learned that if I use purple/yellow combo and it comes out too big on the yellow like his did to throw on some brown purple (sparingly) over the top basically purple yellow it if it don't look quite right burple it a little?? don't have a picture of that though.
These are early on for me quick designs that I basically got from a silly farm video.

I agree, brown/purple mix... add a little yellow in if you want some of it to look like it's on the mend. I like to take a stippling sponge (a/c vent material) & stipple a bit or "blood" red or black over it. Using a bit of metallics can give it a wet like sheen.

Stipple sponges are AMAZING for wounds.

There's a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJMQNpjee8

This is some zombies I did and I find that red, black and purple are what works best together do make the bruising. I also do this for hockey games and other events where black eyes are a request and they usually look very realistic. You load and sponge it in a cirlce twisting the sponge then you dry dab it after wards.

I layered yellow, purple, and just a bit of black. I had the paint very thin so I could build up the colors instead of having a heavy hand. I was pretty happy with for my first "beaten up" look!
I got carried away with the scrapes tho, lol! Fyi, I found it was easier to make the scrapes with a ceramic sponge instead of a face painting one. They're stiffer so I wouldn't recommend for the eyes though.

I have one on my Facebook page, and can't post it from my phone. I had people think I was really hurt. The comments were awesome! I'll plots it later.

sillyheather has a youtube video on it,(could be a Halloween butterfly I think)

I find the Mehron bruise wheel is so easy I use it not paint. It's worth the investment. Every time a boy asks for Spiderman I offer him a black eye or a spider. Now i don't spend my whole life doing butterflies and spideys

Here it is. I followed Heather's advice and layered red with a little black in it with yellow and green until I got the desired effect.



Everyone was asking what happened, and I was very mysterious, saying I was okay, and that we all would be okay. My sister was NOT AMUSED. It was when I got a stern, "What happened to you, young lady?" from a friend whose daughter had been physically abused by her husband that I came clean.

Now I warn folks when I do crazy stuff like that.