Practice head or real skin???

I recently bought a really great practice head in the swap shop. I blinged her out her neck and ears, she got this really sassy sexy haircut. She was almost too cute to paint..... lolol

I have painted on her several times since I received her last weekend. I have come to the realization that I don't like painting on a practice head. I prefer to paint my own face even if I have to wash it several times in one night. There is just no substitute for real skin, and the true curvatures of the face

In addition to the above it takes me twice as long to clean it than paint it. I do have to say that I use DFX and have been able to eventually get it all cleaned even the black each time, but it is alot of effort if you wish to do several designs in a row. My only recourse would be to paint it with my daughters Snaz 22 color palette which I hate, but the snaz does wash off easier.

sighhhhhhhhhhhh

I have resigned myself to stick to painting my own face and use the head as a training tool for my daughter and my new apprentice.

I am still glad I got her and have named her Celeste

I've got a few of those practice sheets and I just didn't like them. It did seem to take longer washing them off the painting.

The way I practice is on my legs. I throw a pair of shorts on and practice away I don't do it so much in the summer, but it's been below freezing here so no one will see my stained legs! LOL

Try spraying it with hairspray first before painting. Also use pure acetone for cleaning. Love the sugar skull!

My practice head is in the bottom of my closet. I hate that the brush doesn't flow smoothly on it. My thigh, inner arm & face are my best practice tools.

I will remember to try the hairspray, but I did use the acetone to clean it. I didn't think even the acetone was gonna get off the DFX black but it did.

I was just playing around with the skull...not one of my better ones, but Thank you though.

It will be used. My daughter is not at the level where she can effectively paint her own face yet, and it will be great to teach my apprentice as I can do something on 1 side of the face and they can work on the other.

skin..for sure!

I dislike practice on the heads however they play an important role in two ways - mote learning, meaning muscle memory - your gonna remember what goes where on the face, and they will help you develop your own faces by givng you a space to lay them out. Using the head to really learn to control your line work or learn to blend is not useful.

Nothing really keeps the heads from getting a residue on them. However you can get them clean as almost new. Just get over thinking it is stained and wash your head really well every so often and restore it to sparkling clean. In between use just practice over the stains.

Practice pads are great too for winter and just when you are tired of the wet cold feeling from baby wiping your arm or leg the 50th time. Good for use when taking a class.


Of course real skin moves and will always be the best for learning.

Loretta, I like your logic. Much prefer skin for stroke practice but for design visualization that's a whole different line of thought. That's why I love this forum. Fabulous, intelligent, creative people.