Need help lining

I am new to face painting and am having difficulties outlining. I'm using Paradise Black with a #0 or #2 Soft Grip Lowell Cornell round brush. It either comes out too thick or very streaky. Seems like most of the paint ends up by the ferrell instead of the tip. It also tends to be gloppy. I'm not able to get nice solid continuous lines. I've tried lots of water and very little water. I also seem to have to reload the brush frequently. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

Honestly - it comes with practice - I know that's not what you want to hear - but it's the truth. I could of written this post myself about a year ago when I first got my paradise - I even considered going for Wolfe just for lining, but really it came down to practice.
Paradise is VERY creamy compared to snaz and other paints like Tag, so it is possible to overload your brush. I would say your biggest mistake ( if you are anything like me) is not using the the whole brush, just trying to use the tips to get nice thin neat lines, when you are better to pick a thinner brush and use the whole brush.... practice thin to thick- thick to thin lines instead, they look better then uniformed lines that are the same thickness. I had a look at videos to see how they were holding their brushes and how much of the bristles they were laying on skin to get a nice line.
You are using the right tools so just practice every night on your arms and legs doing tear drops and swirls.
Oh and do not use too much water - especially with the black, it will go all goopy on you. If this starts to happen use a clean fresh brush with a touch of water and work it on a part of the cake that is not goopy yet.
Same with the white.
If your brush is loaded at the ferrell, then I roll the brush on the cake to work the paint back down towards the tip.
Confidence is a big issue - tell yourself you can fix any mistakes that happen and just go for it. Remember nothing is perfect!

And yes, you have to reload a lot more times than you think. That is the downside with small brushes, they can't hold so much paint.

Keep practising and have fun =)

try using a number 4 round and play around with the pressure to get the size line you want. it will hold a lot more paint and with practice you will get a nice fine line.

another tip the wolfe brothers taught me is to always look at where your line is going and not where it is at. they admitted they don't know why it works, but it just keeps you lines neater and straighter.

good luck.

-metina

it's the same with driving ...look at where you're going...(hear me...I don't even have a driverslisence!.. but I do drive a bike all the time...and there the same rule applies...

figuring out how to use my whole brush, tip to flat and back to tip changed my whole world. And it is so much easier than what i was trying to do with just the tip of my brush. Its impossible to make perfect lines with the tip of your brush on a squirming 5 yr old. By watching some youtube videos of others doing face painting, you can watch how they do their lines. Watch it in slow motion too.

and alot of times, before I put a brush on a face loaded with black paint, I'll give one little test swipe to my arm to make sure its the right consistancy, that way you can fix it before you mess up a face.

I use Paradise Black too and haven't had too much of a problem with it getting gloopy unless it's out in the sun (maybe putting a tiny ice pack under it would help) but those small brushes are a pain to load I find with most colors. It does tend to chunk on the brush but what I've found helpful is this:
since I've cut out small chunks of my paint pots to make rainbow cakes, I have some empty gaps in the side of each pot. To load my small brushes I work with these empty spaces by dragging small amounts of paint from the larger chunk into the empty part of the pot and loading it that way so that it gradually builds up in the brush rather than the brush taking away globs of excess paint. (does that make sense? I hope so )

Thank you all for the advice. I will start practicing your suggestions........

I have a belved frame/glass that I have my apprentence practice on, you can practice over and over and then clean it and start over. I even use it to try out new ideas on.

Metina wrote:try using a number 4 round and play around with the pressure to get the size line you want. it will hold a lot more paint and with practice you will get a nice fine line.

another tip the wolfe brothers taught me is to always look at where your line is going and not where it is at. they admitted they don't know why it works, but it just keeps you lines neater and straighter.

good luck.

-metina

So true, esp about looking where you want the brush to be, not where it is at. It works, period and you will see great progress.

I've freelanced many safety articles for national touring magazines and the first thing they teach us in driving safety classes is just that, esp when coming up on obstacles you want to avoid - don't look at the obstacle, look where you want to BE!

Same holds true in painting, I do it automatically and never think about it, which does me proud on faces, every time ; )

Happy Painting,
Susan