Please help me with skullsss

I painted at a party last night - 11 6 year old boys. They ALL wanted skulls. Well didn't that just make me realize that I'm unbelievable slow at painting them. I can usually paint up to 20 faces per hour, but when my alarm went off at the 45 minute mark I realized I still had 2 left!

OMG... I started out sponging the white but it took too long to even out the blotches so I eventually just slapped it on with a large flat. The eyes killed me because the boys squished their faces and the black wrinkled... Then I did all the linework with the flat, dry
brushed the temple/head area and filbert-ed the teeth. Then the blood..

I don't know what happened, I guess I just don't do them very often... any tips on a FAST skull?

Dear Jessica:
StarBlend white base. (And, I know you have some).
StarBlend mean black eye pits, temporal line, black pit between zygomatic process and mandible, brow ridge, and slight definition just above the nasolabial fold.
White teeth with Wolfe white.
Black line work outlines.
Then, finish off with the white highlights, where the skin is thinnest over the bones.
2 minute skull.

But Lisa, I have the HARDEST time getting my Starblend White opaque What is the secret?

I don't try to get my Starblend white opaque.
I want it to have contrast against the skull white teeth and highlights.
I can get it more opaque if I load my lollipop smoothie as if it was a paint brush. Then, I knock off the excess powder and smooth it on.
I have never been able to take the time to get the black a deep black around the eye pits.
If there is a secret,
Denise Cold probably holds that knowledge in her hands.
I do not know what Denise Cold would take as a bribe to pry that esoteric knowledge from her bosom.
See if Denise would take some Canadian Maple Syrup, or an Andrew's Scenic Acres pecan pie.

I had my first gig at Andrew's Scenic Acres (We call it ASA now due to the lengthy 6-syllable name) yesterday and I think it went well. I made about $225 in 4 hours, but an hour of that I was stuffing my face with hot dogs and cider, and I already have a website submission from it.

It was a lot of fun, everytime the tractor drove by us to let the families off, I heard shrieks of, "FACE PAINTING!!". I heard parents convincing their children to get $5.00 face painting over the $3.00 pony ride because "The pony ride lasts 2 minutes."

Next weekend is their busiest weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm thinking I might have to get a black Starblend now. I did all my Spideys today with the white Starblend and somehow it was magically more opaque?

I suppose once you get a good buildup of powder on the blender you're good to go. I did a skull with it also and it was a decent speed. My problem was that I was trying to blend too much. I should've gotten pics today... totally had the chance, I wasn't busy at all. 4 hours and $120 later...

Oh well, I love painting at the farm. I just look outside, and if it's not going to rain I pack up my things and head on out! It's not great money but it's an extra $80 (after 10% vendor fee and babysitting) I wouldn't have made sitting on my butt scanning fpf all day long

Connie love your skull mask! That nose and mouth looks really easy and fast to do!

You have to remember, first, that 6 year old boys just want their mom to squeal. They know nothing of anatomy or how a skull is supposed to look. They will be THRILLED (I bet they were right?) with whatever you do but if you take too long they say "are you done yet?" and will start getting wiggly.

Second, you do need a Starblend black in your kit...I think it's a must for Halloween between Hulk, skulls, zombies, wolves, werewolves, and even mummies...you've got to have it.

Thirdly, I don't try to shade my quick skull...very similar to Connie's. The only difference is I make the outside more lumpy...more like the 3 heart shape. So I put in the black Starblend in the eye sockets as rounded hearts. So I cut in the Wolfe 45% angle through the eyebrow and then put the smoothie at the bottom and do the same thing there and put the smoothie in the corner of the eye right against the nose and fill it all in. Sometimes I have to pull up the eye lid to get good coverage because boys are squinters.

Then I load up the white, Fess is right, I load it really well and THEN tap off. I think for me that is the secret. You want a lot of product in your sponge. With Starblends I start at the top of the design and then move it around. This does a couple of things, if you have fall out you can go over it when you finish the rest of the design and it's also depositing most of the product in a bony spot so you can go back and pick it up and move it around without irritating the skin. So I do the forehead as a half circle, then I go around the black hearts I just made on both eyes (leave the little notch on the sides...don't fill it out...and then tell them to hold their breath for 5 seconds and do the upper lip.

I can make it a little more detailed by painting teeth and doing the little triangles at the top but usually I just make long teardrops starting with the gap in the middle.

I'll post a picture so you can see the line work. It's a wiggly type outline and about the time my brush is running out of paint I cut in and make a crack. My nose is loading the brush and pushing out a petal and wiggling it back and forth at the base.

It's not the coolest skull but EVERYTIME I make it everyone squeals and the boys love it. I have a more detailed skull that's shaded, etc. but I think I'll save it for private bookings.

I can't believe I don't have another picture of this...I keep thinking "oh, I have a bunch of those"...but I don't! I make the nose holes a lot bigger than this usually but you can see how happy he is with it.

Ohhh, I love the squiggly outline and the brows!

Denise, I can't believe that skull is with white Starblend! It's adorable, mine look blotchy I think (because I try to do the whole temple/forehead/cheek shading). Very inspiring. I wish I could go to the farm right now and whip out a little skull!

Um....Jess?
Any small children wandering around ASA at 9pm on a Sunday night are probably Zombies.
A) we don't paint skulls on real Zombies. We will get infected, or bitten, or bitten AND infected.
B) A real Zombie would probably not want a skull painted on their face.
C) Can't think of a C right now. You come back in half an hour when I can think of something smart to say.
xoxo

I take it back. I don't want to paint any ASA Zombie skulls tonight.

LOL...Fesspenter...cheeky..

Lisa, I waited up all night for your clever point C. I'm very sleepy as a result of this, so it better be good.

C) Zombies will not pay money for their faces to be painted. They expect it for free. Zombies do not value your work.

Brilliant.

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone can tell me. Do you do the outlines with black paint or is that with the starblend as well?

Dear shama:
I do the outlines with Global Strong Black. If you are looking for a skull face that does not melt off a sweaty face.... the Mehron StarBlend powder base with ProAiir DIPS make your design sweat resistant.

Happy Painting!

shama I think it would be better if you posted a new thread with your questions rather then resurrecting threads that died over 3 years ago.  

Please don't be shy to make new threads. They will get WAY more comments and attention, and it's less confusing for people as they may try to answer the origional post question from 2012 instead of your new question.

But by all means feel free to comment and post questions on newer threads if you have them.

I just think it would be less confusing, and you would get more answers if a new thread was made. Again don't be shy, we are here to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp4Szj_9HOI

I really liked this video--very helpful to me

I made a one-stroke cake with mainly white and a small portion of black on one side specifically for skulls.  Worked great too the first time I had to use it!  One sweep around the face for the outside of the skull with a 1 inch brush and a sweep around both eyes with the same brush and it pretty much covers the whole skull.  Then use the same cake for the teeth and add some cracks and tada!  Super quick and easy skull.

when i finally get around to making some one-strokes, i was thinking of doing that, too, for other outlines as well (dino, shark, dolphin, cyborg, etc). glad to know it works.