While some face painters have loads of boy options on their boards, some find boy designs difficult to come up with. This design can be altered to lean toward the preference of for either a boy or a girl who is a fan of the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. The version shown hints at the romantic love interest of the main character, Jack Skellington. To change this, make your branches more random and you’ll remove the heart shape at the center as well as the eye shapes above.

Materials

• Silly Farm Mermaid Pixie split cake
• Diamond FX black
• Diamond FX white
• TAG Pearl White
• Paradise White Face Paint
• #1 Round Brush
• #3 Round Brush
• Sponge

Tutorial

Begin by sponging a small circular shape in the center of the forehead above the eyebrows in a combination of TAG pearl white and Paradise white.

Next, load your sponge with the three darkest colors from the Silly Farm Mermaid Pixie split cake. Around the white circle, use the lightest end of the sponge and blend it with some of the TAG pearl white to lighten it around the eyes.

Load your #1 round brush with Diamond FX or Wolfe black and create the slender branches around the center moon/Jack Skellington shape. Also create the eyelid and eyelash shapes higher up on the forehead and the dots which will represent the eyes of Sally. It’s easier to work backward and make the trees connect to these smaller branches afterwards.

Using the #3 brush, make the larger branches, the tree trunks, and the roots which go around the outer edges of the eyes.

(If you’re going with a non-romantic version, just make your small branches randomly around the circle and over the forehead.)

Finally, load your #1 round brush with Diamond FX or Wolfe white and make thin reflections along the edges of the branches toward the center and add a few stars and starbursts to the sky.

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. Stop by Clownantics.com for more of her face painting tutorials. If you’re on Facebook, join the Facepaint.com Challenge Group to showcase your artwork and have a chance to win a store credit for each week’s theme.