Sugar Skull Mask

i just love lisa's work

AWESOME!!! Hair, makeup and eyes! Very cool. And not at all late - tomorrow is Day of the Dead isn't it? Interesting that it coincides with election day here in the US - LOL!

Beautiful Lone

I used black to outline the rose so it would show up better on the white background. Hope this helps some. I think having your flat brush double loaded with white & red at least can make a huge difference in the appearance of the rose, giving it more of a softness to it. Would love to see anyones attempts with this.

lone wolf i love your sugar skull and your work

Thanks. I wish I had more time to prepare for it, it was a late request and by chance I was passing trough the city next day on my way home from a festival. So something with sketching and researching late nigh.

@ Lonewolf: LOVE your sugar skull lonewolf!

I did a sugar skull yesterday just for today "Dia de los Muertos" [img][/img]

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i like it very much!

Bliss that is simply gorgeous. I especially love the flower at the top, the rose eyes and oddly enough the teeth...lolol

Great job

@ Fantasy Faces: Thank you ... oh, my 4 yr old just saw your profile pic and is begging me to paint her face like that .... I will keep you posted

@ Changing Face: Thank you ...lol! the teeth could be a little creepy
and btw LOVE that you're always "changing faces" with all your posted designs....I have to get back to finding more time to practice on a weekly basis (besides painting at parties...those don't count).

Mandi from Tazzle - thank thank thank thank you for that step by step for the rose - doubleloading brush front and back - ah - never occured to me to try that. I was just thinking the cakes where it would be side by side.

This is perfect timing as I'm going to do my own sugar skull tonight if I can squeeze in some me time.

I'll post results here but don't think I'll surpass any of these. I like bliss's twist on it with more flowers. Course I like everyone's!

Thank you Pixieface! Looking forward to yours. I love everyones creativity.
I was able to convince my daughters and niece to let me paint them this morning YAY!!!!
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I can't find anything on the meanings of the different elements on the face - only about decorating the candies. For example the flowers? And the circles around the eye sockets which seems common - are those petals? Is there any information out there on that? Has anyone done a "male" sugarskull? Or a sugarskull that honors a particular person?

ablissfulaffair: they are really great =)

ablissfulaffair wrote:@ Fantasy Faces: Thank you ... oh, my 4 yr old just saw your profile pic and is begging me to paint her face like that .... I will keep you posted

can't wait to see it...it's my entry for the fabbulascontest...I just learned about lucie brouillard and i love her work!...

love those sugarskulls you did on those girls!!!

i saw a guy do a sugar skull on youtube..

@Pixieface - the flowers are a very traditional symbol of death and as an offering to the dead, especially orange flowers. Males usually wear masks at the event and facepaint is reserved for females.
Wiki is usually a good place to start if you're interested in more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

I did paint a male this weekend with a Dia del Muerto mask and I'll post that when I'm back home.

Pandora - thanks, for the information and look forward to seeing what you did!

I had skimmed the Wikipedia article but hadn't found much on the masks themselves. I did follow the calacas link this time, though to find "Tracing their origins from Aztec imagery, calacas are frequently shown with marigold flowers and foliage."

I didn't get that time I was hoping for today :-(

These sugar skulls are great! I'm still a total newbie to face painting, only been going a month but I've been working as a henna artist for ages and these are kind of henna-esque with the flowers and swirls so I thought I'd push myself and try one. It made me realise again just how far I have to go to even be in the ball park of a good face painter but it was great fun! I stayed up late and it took ages and it was a little worrying when my teething tot woke up and I had to go sooth him with my face half skulled up!! Luckily it was dark when I went in then he closed his eyes cause I'm thinking it would've given him serious nightmares! So I was wondering do you plan the whole skull before or go with an idea? I had a few different pics up on my desktop and just mixed and matched a bit as I went. I also layed the whole white base down first is that the go? I've only got a small snazaroo kit at the moment so was a bit limited in colour choice...anyways here is my rookie effort hope it loads in properly. Thanks for the inspiration!

JBM, great job for a newbie... you wouldn't know!

I just waned to send a THANK YOU!!!! to Lisa Young for inspiring this thread! It's been so much fun seeing all the different styles of all the artists doing the same type of painting!

Yes, JBM - thumbs up - hope mine turns out half as well (I'm working with snazaroo too and one paradise black and then a few dfx blended cake colors (tiger lily and a jungle greens one) I've hacked up already into separate pots because I don't think they are going to be something I like working with.

JBM: Nicely done!!! Newbie? I think not! I'm the opposite from you...been face painting for some time now and just recently got into Henna (love it!!!).

Thanks Lonewolf!

Well, I finally did it. My first face on someone else :-) I probably should have chosen something less complex? LOL!

I really enjoyed the creativity of the sugar skulls though -so had fun doing it. I also ended up with more paint on me than on my BF who so patiently let me do this to him. Wow, it's hard not to stick your fingers right in the middle of what you are painting! My detail work is horribly sloppy - it was amazing to me how working on the right side of his face was fine (you are actually seeing that in the photo as it is reversed), but then when I shifted to the left it was like I lost all motor control.

The idea I had was to go a little more masculine so I chose to use wheat instead of a flower and keep the colors to simple gold, red, white and black. And wow, it's so hard to draw a spade on a nose - grin - who would have thought!

Thanks all for your inspiration here on the forum. Now let's see if I can get this posted....

very cool!