Best paint colors for darker skin color?

I may have my first job for a 2 year old bday party for a family from Jamaica. I have not painted on dark skin before and am wondering if I need to use different colors - brighter colors - that will show up the best?

This may be a silly question but I want to do my best and make them happy!!

Thanks!!
Debbie
Rainbow Painting

Use lighter colors, pastels, etc. They will contrast best with the skin and show up the best. using black as an outline may no be as effective as on a person with light skin, so outlining is at you discretion. definately stay away from the dark colors, at least in large amounts as they won't stand out.

Sounds like a lot of fun! You'll do great! OH! And Post pictures!

I painted this cutie the other day and I was really disappointed at how it turned out... It just didn't pop as well as I would have hoped. I should have him come over this weekend and test more colors on him...

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Red doesn't do much, unfortunately. My friend has 2 adopted African boys who are very dark. EVERY time I paint them, they want to be spider-man. (sigh). One time I talked one of them into a knight helmet. The silver looked awesome.

I've seen light blue look great too.

Here is a painting I did that won 2nd place in the MCA Convention 2 years my model's skin tone was the reason it looked so good. Needless to say, that irked me, but hey, it turned out great.

Avoid white and pastels as base colours ... too much white looks ashen on dark skin. Unless you are really good at even opaque coverage!

Use sparkles, metallics, and really BRIGHT colours.

Snaz Sparkle Turquoise looks amazing on black skin, as does gold and bronze.

Often, when you make a butterfly or something, it helps to make the area`s that you want people to notice, a bit highlighted with a light metallic color. The thing with darker skintones is that facepaint can look dull. When you add a metallic on top of the color that you used, like metallic white on white, or light metallic yellow on yellow, the metallic paint reflects some light, which adds more contrast and brightness. The normal white or yellow underneat the metallic makes the metallic on top cover better and much less dull.

Also using black lines is ok, but add a little white line around it to make the black line stand out. Sometimes it really helps: click (sorry that the picture is on light skin, but I do not have the example with a darker skintone. I do use it though, and often it works ok.

I like to use bright vibrant colors on dark skin. I also do my line work in whites or if I use backs I highlight w/ white. Neons are wonderful on dark skin!

Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful advice! I will be buying some metalics, neons, turquoise (for sure) and glitter this weekend! (The party is May 1st)

Thanks again and wish me luck!!
Debbie
Rainbow Painting

I paint a lot of Aboriginal children and find metalics and pearls colours work really well Basiccolours just dont give that glow at all.I use DFX and TAG paints.

My Starblend powders work well on dark skin if it's not real dry. Dry (ashy) skin is harder to blend on. I then switch to a paint base.

EerinArts wrote:
Also using black lines is ok, but add a little white line around it to make the black line stand out. Sometimes it really helps: click (sorry that the picture is on light skin, but I do not have the example with a darker skintone. I do use it though, and often it works ok.

My friend here is lighter but I agree, white accents and/or dots like this will help. This is also a metallic blue.

How do i attached photos??
i hit upload but then nothing happens. tries hitting copy and nothing would paste??

Anyhow, the point i was hoping to illustrate is that using a different method of application can help. With light complections I can just drag/wipe the color on with a sponge and it looks great. On dark complections I find that patting/dabbing applies more paint and looks much bolder.

avigailmilder wrote:How do i attached photos??
i hit upload but then nothing happens. tries hitting copy and nothing would paste??

1) browse for the pic your want 2) click on "host it" which uploads the pic. 3) after it uploads, click on the copy button next to either the thumbnail or image. 4) Then go back to this area and click "ctrl" + "v" on your keyboard together to paste

thanks BluAng

The point i was hoping to illustrate is that using a different method of application can help. With light complections I can just drag/wipe the color on with a sponge and it looks great. On dark complections I find that patting/dabbing applies more paint and looks much bolder.

I think the spiderman red is pretty bold... Snazaroo Red.
Only Snaz color I use.

I agree with the metal colours. And then I often use white for lining instead of black.

avigailmilder wrote:thanks BluAng

I think the spiderman red is pretty bold... Snazaroo Red.
Only Snaz color I use.

What other colors do you use in these pics?

Fantastic application technique too!

Thanks,
Cheryl

re: color i use
hey there - thanks!
I made my own rainbow cake in a pill case - the color strips are 1/8 of an inch or so and the BLUE s paradise metallic blue - fantastic color goes on very vibrant with little effort.

the images are quite old - a year ago - I actually feel the line quality is quite sloppy... practice practice
best, avigail

avigailmilder wrote:re: color i use
hey there - thanks!
I made my own rainbow cake in a pill case - the color strips are 1/8 of an inch or so and the BLUE s paradise metallic blue -

Besides the blue are the other colors Paradise too, like the girl with the butterfly? Thanks for the info!

Here are some pics we took this past weekend using DFX metallics. Love them! Don't even need glitter! The light blue is Paradise Teal.

Awesome Squiggle. I don't have any metallics in my kit I feel some new paint purchases comin on...

Is that second one have a wolf metallic white base?

No, the base is dfx metallic silver

The DFX metallics are a recent purchase and I love, love, love them. Don't know how I ever painted without them! Even the guys love them because of the sheen to them and they don't have to have glitter.

Hi All,
I'm painting an adult B-Day and I know many of the attendees have very dark skin.

I recently bought DFX neon rainbow and DFX regular rainbow split cakes (thanks Metina )

My question, do these work well on very dark skin tones? I've never used these before so I'd like to know ahead of time if they'll work well.

I have great luck with my Paradise on darker skin tones, but I'm dying to try these new cakes out, so I hope the answer is yes !!

Shannon Fennell wrote:Avoid white and pastels as base colours ... too much white looks ashen on dark skin. Unless you are really good at even opaque coverage!

Use sparkles, metallics, and really BRIGHT colours.

Snaz Sparkle Turquoise looks amazing on black skin, as does gold and bronze.

Oh boy is Shannon right, I took my Geisha face off my board after a wee African lass asked for it, it looked awful on her... in fact I've noticed that when children are looking at my board they don't notice skin colour at all and often seem stunned that the face they picked looks so different on them.

Finally rainbow neon looks Fantastic on Darker skin... that's a tip from Gisrus