Ideas for male face painter's face?

I'm new to face painting and want to have a painted face when I work. I'm a male and want something that isn't feminine but won't scare the kids because it's creepy. I'm not interested in tiger or superhero, any other ideas?

You can check out last month's contest. It was boy designs.

Bugs are always cool. Lisa has a tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnPtDthXfs

NOT tiger or superheros?? I don't think there is anything else for boys...

just a thought from the Sean Avram workshop that I went to... he does his face as a HALF skull or monster and the scary side is the side that is NOT close the the kids as he is painting them but the people watching from outside see the cool painting?

Great idea Perry.

Some kind of basic abstract might work as well.

Clayton (Marvelous Masks) does a lot of great faces on himself. This one (neon monster) would fit your bill - he calls it a monster but it's not really a scary one. My daughter does something kind of similar in green; she does scales over it with a piece of mesh, looks really cool. Here's one that she did: http://urbanlovely.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/punkin-patch-16.jpg

Pirate, dragon(or dragon eye), snake, gator, any sports(baseball, football,etc), flames, dog, tribal

I'd go for a cartoonish ogre mask, flames, or a dragon/snake mask. All masculine but without being intimidating for kids (or adults).

I think Dragon, or maybe a Snake Mask, just make sure you actually like to do it cause odds are you will be doing it all day.

what about something like this:

(this is my first time of posting a pic ive done on this forum, so PLEASE be nice lol)

Eventertainments - love it! I think that design looks so tricky! But what a cool effect - I bet kids love it :-)

I like her suggestion or go with the suggestion above of a pirate, or maybe an eye/cheek design of a chinese/tribal looking dragon? I don't think those look scary so much as arty. Color would be critical - using the fire colors and metallics as opposed to pastels, of course.

Hazel's suggestion of using the mesh for scales is excellent too - gives more depth and bumps up the design - thanks for that - I was thinking I was going to have to buy a stencil to get the dots on a design like that!

Thanks for all the ideas, guys. Like I said, I'm really new... I've only painted 9 faces so far. I posted 5 of those in my gallery and look forward to doing more.

You could also do a shark like the dinosaur above! I'm new to face painting too and just did my first street fair and the dinosaurs and sharks were pretty big hits!

I don't like to cover too much of my face when working, but have just one eye or small area around both eyes. So maybe a tribal around one eye area would be enough.

Yeah I would go for the tribal idea or for a dragon or something that stays away from your mouth as you will want to drink, talk a lot maybe even eat, so you don't want to mess it up.
rmember about wiping your face when you work - I have a very bad habit of doing this - it does get very hot here - and hardly a job goes by where someone doesn't say to me - hey you've got something on your face -
I don't even look anymore I just say - yeah that would be right, paint and glitter everywhere. The later I notice the big smudge of (usualy) black paint next to my nose or across my forehead.
Have you thought about just painting horns on yourself?
Or painting your arms ( unless you are hairy) with tigerstripes ( i know you don't want to be a tiger) or tattoo style things like tribal and dragons, flames etc?
Let us know what you decide to do because painting boys is ALWAYS hard.
I'm always impressed that Mandie from Tazzie is always coming up with new great ideas to put on her son.
Speaking of Mandie............ have you considered Mario?
Or does he fall into superhero classification?
by the way there are a lot of cool male designs you can only really do on a man - the boys faces don't have the bone structure and won't sit still for long enough - google Sean Avram.

Thanks for all the ideas guys, I'll post more pictures in my gallery when I come up with something. I'm thinking about a human/dragon hybrid with scales and a few spikes, but not an all out dragon. I'd like to have a persona so when people see me at fests, I'm easily identifiable as "the dragon guy", etc. We used to have a "tiger man" in my area who did faces but I believe he has moved away. Everytime someone saw him they'd say, "oh, there's the tiger guy, let's get out faces painted!"

Lucid Arts does one that I love, sounds sort of like what you are thinking of.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucidarts_facepainting/3594359165/

You could also paint a moth - isn't that a butterfly equivalent for boys?
I'm only half-joking. Moths are toned in color, but quite beautiful - some even have skulls on their bodies.

There is also things like spiders, wasps, lizards, or masks. You could paint an aquarium on your face

i vote pirate or a cool skinny dragon w/ wing mask or oriental style dragon wrapping around your face. also flame masks or other kind of generic but manly mask designs (maybe colorful diamond patterned or something).

I think something that is on the face (cheek, forehead, etc.) but not the whole face or a mask would be the least likely to scare kids. How about "toothless" from How to Train Your Dragon on the forehead? ...Or a dragon on the cheek. ...or maybe Mike from Monsters, Inc. on your eye.

I agree with Catz, tribal or Celtic designs would be cool.
My dd did quite a few tribal designs this Summer the boys and men thought it was manly.
Amber, my dd did one that was full face and the guy was surprised how neat it was. I'll see if I can find the photo and post it, that is, if it wasn't lost on my other computer.

wolfe has an awesome car design where it looks like your eyes are looking through the cars window. I've worn that a couple times and I'm a dude. There are many options for guys other than the typical superhero route. I don't paint my face very often when doing events...as crazy as it sounds, I don't enjoy having my face painted whatsoever. I do like being airbrushed though, so figure that one out. The airbrush paint is so light and airy that you really can't tell its on when done properly. As an artist I do both traditional and airbrush.

I like the idea of a tribal eye or half face.