How to get a nice "opaque" finish ?

Hello !!

I'm still quite new in face painting and one of my great issues is that I would like to achieve neat results (on simple designs at least) like those



but I generally end up with a watered down version, like this: The white is not opaque on top of other colors and I can see the "stroke" of my brush.

 (click to see my tired face bigger   )

Can somebody explain to me what's up? is it a brush problem (my brush are cheap but quite decent I guess) or me using to much water or wrong movement?

I have to do a bunch of very quick (so, simple) design in a week or so (don't worry I'm not payed for this haha) and this is kinda ruining it. What do you think?

white over a dark color is always difficult.  try to let the background color dry a bit before doing the linework. p.s. if you look closely at the sample photo you posted that you want to emulate, you will still see the shadow of the colors under the white linework.

you can do this by painting the background (base) color first, then painting other areas or details, adding glitter, and doing the white linework the very last.

and the brand of white you use is important - brands for good linework include the paraffin wax based ones - wolfe, tag, dfx, and cameleon. i see from your other post you are using dfx, so that's good.

load your brush well with white face paint that is not too runny and not too thick.  go over the linework with a second coat if needed.  

a good brush will have smooth hairs lying in the same direction, and coming to a nice point. it will hold it's shape when loaded with paint, and while painting. after that, practice, practice, practice.

if, like many new face painters, you have ever tried using snazaroo for linework, despair now and switch brands, lol! snaz is notoriously difficult for linework.

good luck and let us know if you have any more questions. you can search the forum for lots of these kinds of tips, too. just type your key word in the search box at the top.

THank you so much !!!

I had looked around for a similar post with the search tool but couldn't find any. I guess I mostly have to put less water on my paint and wait a bit more....
I'm trying to nail some designs under 5minutes at the moment, so timing is key.
I'll tell you if anything changes when I get my loew cornell (what a cool gift !!), that will help too.

I tried snazarro, I actually have some for some white and black base, but yeah it's not good for linework. Considering I came from the world of liquid paint, it was quite a shock to try and use it

another thing you could do is switch colors around.

use slightly lighter base colors under white linework.

or use lighter base colors and dark colors for linework. besides black, you have probably seen people use dark purple, dark blue, dark green, or dark red as a complementary color to the base colors.

personally, i prefer to do designs that look good even if you aren't perfect. i tend to avoid designs that are more difficult to do - like white over dark colors, lots of straight lines, lots of tiny details, etc.

or i change them or simplify to make then easier to do. when face painting in public with a line of kids, i like designs that can be done fast and still look good.

elaborate designs are better for smaller venues or portraits, or to show the extent of your skills.

So the event is done, it was a lot of fun !! I had roughly 15 kids aged from 3 to 6ish + 5 teens to paint in roughly one hour. What an adrenaline rush !! But your advice were so helpful, I ended up doing all my line work in darker colors.

I tried to make the designs as intricate as I could within the small amount of time I had, it wasn't amazing on all of them but, they enjoyed it so

I'm pretty positive I need to work on knowing the level of 'wetness' my paints can handle though....

Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice it helped me a lot on my first 'half real' event

glad it worked out and everyone had fun. i'd say 20 people in an hour is pretty real!

enjoy practicing and perfecting your technique, it's always a good feeling when you "get" how to do something.

it's usually all about brand. Use a was base white on top instead of a glycerin base.

I use diamond FX/ cameleon for my line work, but for the advice Forest-Fairy !

I think it might be a consistency problem as well I don't face this problem as much now, though It's true I tend to line with darker colors than my base.... I'll try it again

I'm going to throw my two cents in as well your white definitely looks like it might be too runny and wet it should be like the consistency of single cream (I hope that makes sense!) rather than too watery and if it starts to bleed or run even the tiniest bit then it's too wet!

I also wouldn't write off your cheap brushes just yet, my favourite brush for dots and teardrops came in a pack of like 15 brushes for £3 from a discount store! It's just trying them out and comparing them

laura-lou, you're right, higher cost does not necessarily mean best brush. my local craft store has some freaky looking loew cornell brushes - bristles splayed all over.

Hi just wanted to mention, in hot and humid conditions I keep a bag of dry clean sponges on hand to kind of press onto the newly painted base to give a more dry surface before I draw the lines.
If you just press straight down and lift off it should not alter the color. But it kind of takes away excess moisture.