Placing Cheetah/Leopard/Jaguar spots..

I'm so lost when it comes to placing animal spots. Stripes are fine, I know they should all point to the middle, but spots I find are so difficult to place so that they flow. Does anyone have any tips on perfectly placed polka dots???

Thx!!!!

I normally put them along the eye and around the nose.

Krissie, I like how yours seem to flow around the brows. I would probably try to fill the whole forehead and fail miserably.

I go blank when I get the black on my brush. Do you just randomly slap a spot on? And I notice some are smaller, some are bigger... why???

I don't know if this helps but i do nail designs sometimes and i looked a tutorial for cheetah print nails and i usually follow the same guidelines for for face painting It basically says that you start in the middle and place big and smalls ones randomally. But you can look it up and pratice with face paint

for me, no 2 spots are alike, kind of like the saying with stripes on a zebra, i think the more randomness to it the more realistic, but thats just my opinion. and i don't always use straight black, sometimes i mix it with a darker brown. but its all in how you like it best

I like to paint my spots larger around the outside of the face an make the smaller the closer in they come. I try to have the most above the eye and just under it with fewer in the spaces between and keeping the nose clear.

mine may not look as realistic, but I'm fairly happy with them...

KrissieMarie, I like that look.

I work out from the edges & have them get smaller as the move towards between the eyes (the focal point).

Here is my one and a half cents about leopards and cheetahs (I paint these suckers in other mediums)

Regarding their body coat markings:

Cheetahs have solid black "spots" that are sort of irregular, although mostly roundish. These spots are mainly in in three sizes; small, medium and larger than medium (if that makes sense!) They are somewhat randomly placed.

Leopards have a combination of solid "spots" (on the front chest and leg areas) and open two-toned "spots" on the main bulk of their backside and flanks. They are pretty much spaced evenly apart on all sides.

The faces of these two beauties are completely different:

A leopard generally has no white on it's face, except some have a thin line under the eye and almost all have a small amount in their inner muzzle area and under their mouth. They do tend to have a lot of spots on their faces, but they are mostly solid black. For the purposes of face painting though, it is much more fun to make two-toned spots.

A cheetah has white under it's eyes, on the lower half of it's nose and the entire muzzle area. The cheetah also has strong black lines that define it's face at the muzzle, the cheeks and the above eye area.

I'm a big cat fanatic, as you can tell.

And no matter what you learned in Sunday school.... a cheetah ALWAYS wins!

Miss Ronnie, this was really helpful info, thanks!

I'll be painting my first cheetah in an hour or so. I've studied this animal on shutterstock, and as Ronnie pointed out, the spots aren't really "hollow" on the real creature. But, they look great, so I'll be infusing mine with a mix of real and imaginary. I really can't wait to do this painting - all that gold and orange and yellow blending, the coppers, the browns, yee hah!

my cheetah has a thick black stripe from inner eye to muzzle...and the SPOTS are ROUND DOTS....that radiate out from the center, from tiny to bigger.

my leopard had multicolor lumpy c's and dots, that radiate out from the center.


i place dots in the inner corner of the eyes, and radiate out from that point.i don't put ANY on the bridge of the nose.

I place them still somewhat heading to the center if that makes any sence lol.  Here is one i did on my daughter a while back that i'm pretty happy with so far :-)

Miss Ronnie wrote:
Cheetahs have solid black "spots" that are sort of irregular, although mostly roundish.  These spots are mainly in in three sizes; small, medium and larger than medium (if that makes sense!)  They are somewhat randomly placed.      

Leopards have a combination of solid "spots" (on the front chest and leg areas) and open two-toned "spots" on the main bulk of their backside and flanks.  They are pretty much spaced evenly apart on all sides.

The faces of these two beauties are completely different:

A leopard generally has no white on it's face, except some have a thin line under the eye and almost all have a small amount in their inner muzzle area and under their mouth.  They do tend to have a lot of spots on their faces, but they are mostly solid black.  For the purposes of face painting though, it is much more fun to make two-toned spots.

A cheetah has white under it's eyes, on the lower half of it's nose and the entire muzzle area.  The cheetah also has strong black lines that define it's face at the muzzle, the cheeks and the above eye area.  

totally agree.

miss ronnie is spot on with everything else  ! 

a jaguar has DOTS, thick small dots dripping down the elongated INNER corner of the eye in tight clusters right next to the nose. usually the nose is black-rarely pink.

leopards have long slanty eyes-so you want to elongate the OUTTER corner. usually the nose is pink, or rarely pink with black.they are spotted even UNDER the chin.also, they are usually DARKER in the center of the face, with exterior edges of face being the lighter color.