New design

Ok, so I am one of those newbies that didn't even realize copying was unacceptable. Apologies to all. Now I have started trying to come up with my own. Before Feb when i started FP I had NEVER been an artist in any form. I so totally respect all of you!

This is my monkey wearing my monkey design. What do you'all think?

Nice even coverage and blending, maybe a bit of hilighting with some white would really make it pop even more

Copying, as in, using someone else's painting as an inspiration and then taking it as a foundational idea and making it your own with your own 'take on it', is fine - there are very few totally original ideas after all - it's when someone takes another person's work and passes it off as their own, where the problems lie, imo. ("lie" being the operative word )

When I started two years ago, I went on the internet and got lots of face painting designs of a certain thing. Even if the overall face painting (brush strokes, colors, etc.) was not that good, I was looking more at the design. For example, for a tiger. I may have 40 different kinds of face painted tigers, 50 different butterflies, and so on. I can truthfully say I have yet to find a design that I liked every single brush stroke about it. With the tiger, I may like how the muzzle on this one look, the stripes on the top of the head on another, the nose on another, and so. I used this process to come up with my own designs. Not sure if that's cheating or not.

It is not cheating as long as you paint it yourself...

Well said Shannon!

I would never ever use another person's photo on my board, website, fliers, or anything else. I like when people look at their face and say, "Wow, it looks way better on my face than it does on the the picture," and not the other way around. I'll put my best pictures on my site but not on my menu board for the same reason. Because, I may not have time to put all those little extra's on theirs.

I think your monkey design is cute on your little monkey. If I were to add anthing to it I would try maybe a yellow toned face to make it two toned kinda like boots the monkey off of dora with pink and purple but instead just brown and yellow. I also might think about shading or outlining a more muzzle look around the mouth to get that protruding lip look. But for a simple design looks great... would work great for a costume I think.

There are a lot of books, dvd's and u-tube videos up and about to teach you how to paint designs....it would be silly not to use them. But have fun creating your own too. Good try with the monkey design. I take my hat off to you. I avoid monkey designs at all costs!!!