HELP! Need African tribal symbols and more

Oh! My! I have this huge event coming up. And the more the days goes by the more they get demanding. This is for a multi-international event and the theme will be Africa. So they are asking me to paint tribal symbols, animal prints and jungle/nature things. I tried to search for many but there is to much and not sure what would be appropriate for them. I did ask them to sent me some pictures of what they would like or to at least give me some examples of what they would like me to paint. I'm still waiting for there response. Does anyone have any examples or any suggestions of what I could do. I do have a series of beautiful tribal animal faces, but as for tribal symbols and jungle/nature pictures, not sure what I could paint. I have some ideas of vines with animals prints but since I'm really limited on time it will be quite a challenge.

The only thing I can help you with is to tell you to take a Marc Reid or Pashur class. They do wonderful tribal's. You can find them on the web I am sure.

And then the kids/people come and just want a butterfly, ironman and rainbows. You're setting your self up when you solicit the client to send you what they want. They are not the experts here.

Stop stressing and put that energy into just dialing down some great designs. Use those animal prints in butterflies, animal faces and behind some tribal designs. Google African tribal symbols and replicate a few select designs into cheek art and such. I can think of lots and lots of designs that fit the theme. Your good work is and folk leaving you chair happy is better than less than good face art that fits their theme.

Make up from The Lion King - look it up for ideas. But do not go crazy as the kids will ask for what they want. Themes never work in my experience if it is kids you are painting.

Thanks Shannon! I have never seen the Lion King before and I am enjoying these pictures. They are fantastic.

African Tribal and Mark Reid Tribal are VERY different. They probably want you to ONLY offer themed designs (and would rather you didn’t do the regular Spider man & Hello Kitty faces) so you should make up a design chart of limited choices. If you Google African Tribal face Painting - LOTs of images come up and I even saw an easy chart.
Good Luck with the event - sounds fun. Traditional tribal looks pretty simple - lots of lines and dots, don’t over complicate the designs and you should be fine.

Last week my kids had an Africa week at their school, and I was also invited with a few mums to paint the faces of the children. I also looked for a very long time after motifs, which was really difficult. You can have a look at the side of the school: http://www.vswolfsegg.com/aktuelles-2013-14/afrikawoche/ there are a few impressions. Unfortunately I had no time to take pictures. Most samples consist of white dots and lines! I added gold and orange and red - all the warm earth tones they use there.

I had to look this up, because I thought that tribal's came from Africa. I had no idea that they came from another continent. I am good with geography but not with the cultures.  
In ancient times, tribal tattoo was used for a symbol of identity dealing a certain tribe. Other than that, it was used for expressing religion or spiritual belief.For some tribes, tattoos were used for self protection to camouflage their selves in the woods. However, modern tribal art is usually adapt the style from Aztec, Samoan, Polynesian, Indian, Hawaiian, Egyptian, Mayan, and Maori. These tribes use tattoo for identification, social status, and even medicinal purposes. Overall, the black tribal tattoo designs are usually impresses mythical and mysterious meaning.

Thank you guys for all the wonderful ideas. I actually decided to bring some examples but will not display it. I will go with the flow on this one and if I see someone is really in need to see pictures I will be able to bring the example book out. I would like to use my imagination on this one and really be creative with the designs. Some events does not allow us to do that but this one will and I will grab the opportunity on it.

Shannon you have a very good idea for using lion king designs. Will keep that one in mind.

Albatros, that was wonderful to share the site. Sure gives more ideas.

I did do some reasearch on the internet and was able to find lots and lots of examples, and it was getting to much overhelming so I just decided to use my imagination on this event.

Happy for you. I wish you a very nice and fun event. I love tribal designs but don't get asked for enough. Happy Painting.

Did my event and it was the one that I actually can say that I had the most fun. I had a huge crowd surrounding me just to watch all the African faces I was coming up with. Did all kind of African animals, did lots of tribal masks. I even had a lady that was in tears as I was doing her son. She was told me she was actually from Africa and seeing her son painted in a tribal mask reminded her so much of the family events she had as a kid when living there. Usually I take pictures but I couldn't on this one because they had there own professional photographer. They usually post them on there website and I will be able to show them off once they are on it.

That was my third event I did for this client and the more I do for them the more they keep being amazed at my work. I was surprise at my work myself. lol! Just didn't realise that I do not do enough of these kind of events. They are fun, fun, fun.

So happy for you - these type of events are what make what we do worth all the other stuff we put up with. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

Gee no stress for a third event! Glad it went well.


Lion King! That Shannon she's such a smarty pants! Great advice there.

Here's an African style tribal that has been popular for me.