Constructive Criticism

Is there a thread where noobs can post stuff to get feedback from the seasoned pros? I've only been painting since March when I started with Walmart face paint and a value pack of dollar store brushes. I've learned a lot since then but I definitely need to learn more and I'm sure others do too.

Show and tell is a great place to ask for feedback, many pros stop in and share their feedback when requested. Also, you're welcome to create a new thread under general face painting asking for help, these threads are great to Google as well, such as "tiger help," the search feature in the forum doesn't work good as Google, but there's a tomb of forum wisdom here if you ask the right questions.

my number one recommendation, if you can afford it, is get some professional face paints and brushes sooner rather than later. even a small pallette and several brushes in different sizes (fine round, thicker round, flat, filbert).

practicing with good quality supplies will make you better, faster.

Make a new thread and see how it goes.

This one was a learning experience.

My dots under her right eye look awful and I will never set up a piece where fine lining ends up in the eyebrows again.

Aside from that any and all criticism is welcome... Fire away!

Very moth like, and very dark design for sure, the use of color is cohesive, though I think you need to work on getting your whites whiter for your line work. The unevenness of the dot under the eye didn't even phase me because ones eyes adjust to ignore it. But one thing that I did notice was the 'shine marks' in white on the eyelids were not the same, the one on the right was a bit lower. To really get that shine effect they both need to be identical.

This design is very interesting to look at as a high fashion or glamour piece, but If i were to do it as a face painting design that needed to be done fast, i would trim down the detail on the nose mostly where line work is involved.

Good job.

Thank You Forest-Fairy! How do I go about getting my whites whiter? I'm very heavy handed, does that have something to do with it?

Very cool, Kal, I love it! You have a very distinct flavor to your art and that's super cool. =)

very cool design and color scheme. what brand of paint are you using for white (or black or any other color) linework and details?

the usual suspects for clean, opaque line work are wolfe, dfx, and tag. i can vouch for wolfe.

I did all but the green over the eyes with Fantasy FX. The green is paradise. I bought some paradise in white but I haven't quite got the hang of loading it on my brush yet. I know it sounds totally weird but the green is from a prisma cake so I've got the back and forth motion for loading just not the circular, if that makes any sense at all. I am working my way up to wolfe but for now I am totally in love with Paradise.

I think the real problem with my Fantasy FX white is that I haven't found a brush that agrees with my iron fist yet. As you can see the white dots are white but I'm still getting so many dig marks on any other motion.

oh, fantasy fx is creamy textured tube makeup, very soft. you won't get good line work with that. and from what others have posted, paradise cakes are one of the softer, glycerin based paints like snazaroo, so more difficult to load, and to get clean details.

i have trouble with snazaroo being like clayey pudding, and with white line work going over a base (my other snaz colors), but on bare skin it works better. but i'm about done trying to fight with snaz for details.

just ordered some snaz iridescent powders and mehron gem powders to see how they work, for bases and maybe wet for line work. and maybe adding some wolfe metallics for line work.

Alright here is a few that I did recently that I feel are my best at this point and one that you may have seen posted before but I definitely want pro points of view.

Face painting:






Extreme Makeup:

good designs and color combinations. what stands out is the line work could be cleaner and more opaque - black blacker, white whiter, which you mentioned above.

it would probably help to invest in one of the wax based face paints known for good line work, wolfe, dfx, tag, etc.

i find blending similar colors with a main color in a design makes it more interesting, like you did with the gold green/orange in your leaves, blue/light blue in the snow crown, red/white in the last picture. btw, snowflakes are 6 pointed, not 8

@Kal - I'm no real professional, so you can ignore my critique if you want, lol... definitely love your Venom face paint!  I like that you kind of have the Symbiote taking over the face and love the detail in the mouth with all the teeth.

The rest are ok - the first one with leaves, pumpkins and ladybug... I like the overall design, but I find the black outline too heavy and the same for the white highlights.  I think if those pumpkins sat higher up on the cheek than the currently do, perhaps overlapping the leaves it might have made it a stronger design.

The ice princess I feel could use some more... you added the large snowflake in the middle and some star bursts and some dots along with some white lines over the eye lids - but maybe some tear drops or some whimsical wispy lines would make it pop a little more.

The butterfly, I feel with the body being so large, it could have done with some highlights or something that makes better use of that much space.  One thing that I always like about butterflies are the beautiful colors in their wings!  I find the white to be a little boring... but of course, if that's what the child asks for then we provide.  You did add some dots and some curvy lines but is there anything else in this space you could have done to make it more interesting?  Perhaps a different shape to the wings would have helped.  Instead of just rounded, perhaps a little more angular with rounded points and sections.  You could still add tear drops and more star bursts to this one too.

All that being said, when reading above, the best criticism you could get is to invest in some good face paint... move away from that creamy stuff and get some good solid brand that holds up well and is easy to work. Your line work will definitely improve.

I hope my comments came off as constructive and not harsh... sometimes things aren't conveyed the same way when written over the internet.

Littlemonsters I welcome any and all criticism, that is unless you tell me you're not gonna invite me back to a festival because I'm fat. LOL now that I'm over the initial shock of it the next person to say it would probably get a knee-jerk b**ch=slap reaction. However, that is not a butterfly Darlin'. It's a bumble bee.

Venom is a Halloween private appointment special only. He takes too long and too much work to do any other time.

The ice princess is done solely with Paradise, no Fantasy FX.

I know line work is my biggest downfall right now so I will pick up a pot of wolfe black this week but I need a good brush too. Can you guys recommend a standard size and brand that will work with my lead grip?

Loew & Cornell Gold Grip #3 and #4 rounds are my line work paint brushes. They are available in the Facepaintforumshop (the little colourful rectangle in the top of this column). The prices are competitive, and the shipping is FAST!

Happy Painting!

i thought that was a bee, it's cute!

Love your work!!

Thanks guys! Giggle Loopsy I am a fan of your work too. Those one stroke tutorials you're doing are making my life so much easier

cool! unique design and nice color combo, & blending & shading. for a minute, i didn't get what the purple was, then realized they were the sword/dagger blades. maybe add a touch of silver to them for clueless peeples like me?

I would have but I have yet to add silver to my collection. That's why I used purple/blue instead lol

Kal, awesome work! Your line work is off to a great start, brushes are important and I second the #3 and #4 Loew Cornell, changed my game entirely just with the brush alone. Paradise is best for bases and blending, for line work DFX, TAG, Cameleon, or Wolfe all work great, everyone has their own "go to" so experimenting is the only way to find your own favorite. Practice your lines, dots, and swirls on your arm as much as you can and you will have the control you're looking for. Designs get faster the more you do them, so you may have your awesome venom design up to speed in no time. Good luck!

I dunno man... He's got a lot of details for a 5 minute paint job. If I could get the jolly rogers down to 5 minutes though that'd be awesome!

Kal, I like the diversity of you design...not the same old same old at all. RI don't usually give criticism because often time people who ask for it don't REALLY want it.

However, I can offer suggestions, and I have 2:

1. Designs like butterflies, dragonflies, etc. look best when they enhance the face and flow with the faces shape. If you keep the design focused in the area that would normally be covered by say, swim goggles and avoid the nasal fold, the viewers eyes will be drawn into the eyes of the person wearing the design. (Not literally, that's just creepy!) Also, try for soft gradations of color intensity as opposed to blocks of solid colors ... In my opinion, it softens the delivery of the butterfly. The center of the butterfly, if kept to a small scale, will allow the wing work to stand out as it should. You had a white butterfly or I think it was a bee posted, but the wings and body were competing. If it is to be a bee, I'd give the vibrancy to the yellow body and paint the wings with a semi transparent pearl white with fine outlines and webbing detail. If it's to be a butterfly, I'd downplay the body ( my eyes were first drawn to the yellow body)

2. As for getting your whites to stand out more and your blacks to pop, consider your base. White, I don't care if it's beeswax or glycerine based, is always going to struggle when painted over black. There are techniques to overcome this, but that requires more time than is usually available at a high tempo event. If you paint, light to dark, you will avoid a lot if those issues. I always save my darkest, non base element painting for last. If you can master blocking, you can paint around areas that you know need to be solid white or lay you white first. The key to getting your whites to pop against dark colors is estrangement...seriously, wet paints "mingle" and create new colors. Let your white show up late to the party...all of you color blending will have been done and everything pretty much bone dry. And just like the party wallflower, your white will be able to exist without actually blending into the established crowd.

For dots, which I feel strongly should only be painted as subtle accents, it's the same thing...party wallflower. And make sure your brush is well loaded so only paint touches the design and not the bristles ( if the wallflower touches someone at the party...she has to interact...and blending could occur!)

A heavy hand can only be cured by practicing varying your line strength in a single stroke. While lead feet are cured with traffic tickets, there are no such avenues if rehabilitation for painters. Practice, practice, practice. One painter I know actually forced her own rehab by only painting with #3 brushes. The smaller brush helped her with finer lines and she had to learn pressure variance in order to get thicker ones. I don't know how she made that work ... I mean, wouldn't that just make you heavier handed when you went back to your 4's and 6's? To each his own... I'm a 2,3,4 painter myself and usually reserve larger for body painting.

I hope I provided something of value in my long winded diatribe!