Creating your stash

I've spent hours reading the threads about what newbies should buy to get started/build a stash, and I'm still a bit bewildered. I have some small Snaz palettes, and the Wolfe primary, metallic, and neon palettes. I'm crazy about Wolfe white and black for line work, but when I use the other colors on large areas, it seems a bit heavy. I love the mildness of Snaz for bases, but of course it's less durable and really hard for line work. So where do I go from here? I've got a Wolfe neon rainbow on the way, should I go with other rainbow/one strokes? Is the Paradise set of rainbow cakes good, or one of those BYO Tag kits? Should I skip the splits and buy single colors of different brands?

Since I'm nowhere near making money yet, I need to make sure I spend wisely. I know there are a lot of individual preferences,but surely there's some consensus on must-haves and things to avoid.

The cheapest way to face paint is the Wolfe Brother's way of having a laptop case with basic colors and sponge your bases and then have just a few brushes for linework. They have splits of the basics so they can mix and create a 3rd shade...it's also a good way to have twice as many colors in your kit. You can also make pseudo-rainbows with this type of kit by employing the Lynne Jaimeson method of loading a color at a time on the back (rounded edge) of your sponge. You can fit this kit in a bag or a suitcase with a brush basin and RULE THE WORLD!

That being said, why can't you make money with what you've got? Honestly, you don't even have to do full faces to make money in face painting. Make a board with what you've got. You've got enough paint already to do about 200 or more faces....That's about a $1,000.00

Right now I think it's time for you to do lots of research and start building your inspiration folder SPECIFICALLY with your current kit in mind. Don't go to the one-stroke facebook group and go "I wish I could do that..." Go to the snazaroo inspiration pictures, google, quick designs, etc. and look for designs that you can do with the stuff you have.

After you've gathered a bunch of pictures start trying to do them on waxed paper (with a face printout underneath) and then when you like a design, add it to your board. Christmas is a great time to build a board because most gigs you would get would be corporate or large family where you'll want to do smaller/quicker designs to get through lines quickly.

Very sound advice from Denise! While a big display of colours does impress the parents, you do not need it to create great designs.

What I would do is practice your favourite faces - a lot. When you've got those 10-12 basic faces you would like to offer under your belt, it should be easy to decide from your palettes to see which colours you use up more, and are worth buying bigger containers of.
May not be the colours you'd think in the first place.
Mine are white, black brown and orange...I thought they would be light blue and pink!

Denise Cold wrote:


After you've gathered a bunch of pictures start trying to do them on waxed paper (with a face printout underneath) and then when you like a design, add it to your board.

This is a great idea. i'm going to give it a try.
when just in practice mode, i find painting, then washing off my practice head, rather rinse repeat is a pain in my naughty word.. I love this idea. TY TY
I have some of the silly farm practice faces and they are amazing, but i didn't wanna use em all up

JennyNixe i'm right there with you, i have a bunch of stuff, but still can't figure out what i need and how

I LOVE the wolf black, i've been fighting with snaz for line work and it was making me hateful. but for base, i like the snaz well enuf for now

Wow! Thanks Denise for such great advice!

Great question Jennynixe!

Thanks Denise and Mamakatrien for the advice. The reason I can't make money with face painting is because I know exactly three faces -- unpredictable fairy mask, lopsided butterfly, and shaky Spider-Man. I can copy some other designs with constant reference. And I guess I sort of believe that if I have better stuff, I'll magically be better! Silly, I know. It helps to be reminded to change my attitude. I will absolutely try the wax paper.

Lady Sinaz, I've also felt that I spend more time washing my practice head than practicing on it! And I wish I could get every color the consistency of Wolfe black, that slightly thickened inky feeling.

Kingsmeadmama, thank you!

JennyNixe wrote:Thanks Denise and Mamakatrien for the advice. The reason I can't make money with face painting is because I know exactly three faces -- unpredictable fairy mask, lopsided butterfly, and shaky Spider-Man. I can copy some other designs with constant reference. And I guess I sort of believe that if I have better stuff, I'll magically be better! Silly, I know. It helps to be reminded to change my attitude. I will absolutely try the wax paper.

Bahahaha,, i hear ya, i have much of the same faces that i can do

I actually really like snaz for my base, I have starblends and on my skin tone it just wasnt so opaque for the sugar skull I wanted for Halloween so I tried my snaz white and I loved it. I used it for all my halloween designs Ill post them up later :p All my friends wanted to be skulls of some sort. I kinda built my kit little by little first basics, neons, then one strokes and I still want more lol.

When I was first starting, to save money, I got white and black acrylic paint to practice teardrops. I find that line work is the make or break of face painting. Teardrops, swirls, spider webs, tiger stripes, jaguar spots, starbursts, dots (took me almost a year to get good dots! I like my Target petal brush ) spiders, eyes (for unicorns), snowflakes, wings, etc. are all things that you can practice with a round and acrylic that will really improve your face painting by leaps and bounds. My favorite exercise was making "S" curves and then wrapping teardrops around them. Even one-stroke can be practiced with acrylic (think Donna Dewberry.)

But, if you look at the greats their sponge work isn't all that great but their line work if fabulous. Get one of those cheap Dollar Tree pads of paper and two bottles of acrylic paint and work on one type of line a day. If you do that for 20 minutes a day you'll see your work improve by leaps and bounds.

I like that tip Densie I'm going to work on that. I never know where to go with my swirls so its usually all over the place lol Im really visual if I don't see it or haven't done it before it really doesn't come out too well. lol

Denise, you always have awesome advise. I love how you always hit the nail on the head. It is so easy for us beginners to blame lack of kit when it really is lack of experience or confidence which prevents us taking our painting to the next level.

Denise, thanks again! I agree with Dartiegirl, your advice is always practical and specific, which is just what I need!

Denise Cold wrote:When I was first starting, to save money, I got white and black acrylic paint to practice teardrops. I find that line work is the make or break of face painting

AWESOME... It would be really quick... It takes a long time for me to even set up and practice and then I'm covered from my thigh to ankle with hearts, swirls, starbursts and lots and lots of teardrops. It would be easy to get out a bottle of acrylic paint and a paint pad and just use page after page. Thanks Denise... I'll be making a store run tomorrow!

Thanks for the great tips. I too need to pracyice all the basics. My sister i feel was the artist in the family. I can copy things real well, i think, though. Never thought of paints at the $ store. Gonna get some, print out a couple faces and lay my parchment paper on top.

Few face paints go on as thin as Wolfe FX - that is when it is sponged. Wolfe blends well and goes on very opaque and very thin. Really you can use very little. It all in mastering the technique through practice.