Rose Face Painting Techniques with Donna Godfrey Webinar

Want to paint roses that look amazing AND get them done fast enough to keep your line moving? In this webinar, UK-based face painter Donna Godfrey from Donna's Face Fitting breaks down her approach to one-stroke roses — designs built for the real world of face painting gigs, festivals, and events. Whether you've been struggling with roses or just want to speed up your technique, Donna's practical, no-nonsense tips will help you level up your face painting game.

About Donna Godfrey

Donna runs Donna's Face Fitting and is known in the UK face painting community for her generous, down-to-earth teaching style. She focuses on designs that are built for working face painters — beautiful enough to wow parents but fast enough to keep your line moving. Donna regularly teaches face painting classes and is passionate about helping other artists grow, sharing her brushes at jams and encouraging painters at every skill level. Her philosophy is simple: we all help each other, we all grow.

Products Featured in This Webinar

• Grimas MS14 Sable Brush (or similar 5/8 angled brush)
• Face Paints Australia "Lily Pilly" One-Stroke Split Cake
• Silly Farm "Teal Marina" One-Stroke Split Cake
• Superstar "Petrol Blue" Face Paint
• Superstar "Ink Blue" Face Paint
• PartyXplosion White (Prettier Transfer Edition)
• Rosemary & Co Liner Brush
• Liquid Bling White Iridescent Glitter Gel

Finding the Right Brush for Roses

Donna tried just about every brush out there before landing on the one that works for her — a Grimas MS14 sable brush. It's slightly bigger than a standard 5/8 angle and beautifully soft, which matters when you're trying to get speed and smoothness on the job. Because it's sable hair, it holds more water than synthetic brushes, giving you better control over your paint load.

But here's the thing Donna really wants you to hear: don't just buy what someone else recommends. Go to jams, talk to other painters, and try their brushes. What works for one person might not work for you. She spent a fortune early on buying every brush that was recommended to her before figuring out her own preferences. The best brush for roses is the one that feels right in YOUR hand.

She also demonstrated using a 5/8 Verona angled brush by The Face Painting Shop, showing that you can absolutely do roses with different brushes. Angled brushes in particular can help with the lift-off technique needed for rose petals.

Loading Your Brush — Get This Right First

If your brush load is off, your roses won't work. Period. Donna's loading technique is key to everything that follows.

Start by wetting your brush so it's dripping, then remove as much water as you can. It's always easier to add water than to take it away. Then use the "two up, two down" method — a technique she learned from Debs Mills years ago. Stroke the brush two times up and two times down on your paint, making sure you're building up a clean, crisp load with distinct colors visible on the brush.

The most important part of your load? That white edge on the tip. Without a bright, clean white (or very light color) on the tip of your brush, your roses simply won't have that pop. If your white isn't picking up well, here's a handy trick: dip just the tip of your loaded brush into your white face paint to pick up a bit of extra white.

Another little tip — instead of spraying your paints, Donna activates them with a single wet stroke. And if she needs just a tiny bit more water mid-painting, she'll dip the brush tip into one of the small water droplets sitting around the edge of her paint pot. That's all the water you need.

The Base Petals — Think of a Person

Here's Donna's clever way to remember petal placement: think of a stick figure person. The head is your top petal, the arms are your two side petals, and the legs are the two bottom petals. Five petals, easy to remember, and it gives you a nice balanced base every time.

For each petal, every one-stroke shape follows the same rule: start on the tip, apply pressure in the middle of the shape, and finish back on the tip. This is where a lot of painters go wrong — they start with pressure and keep it through the end, which gives you a smudgy shape instead of crisp, defined petals.

Donna's signature move is a bouncy wiggle while twisting. As you press into the petal, do gentle bounces while rotating the brush. This pulls the colors through and creates beautiful lines within each petal. You don't have to do the bounce — a gentle wiggle works too — but the bounce is what gives Donna's roses their distinctive look.

And here's the thing she really wants you to relax about: the base petals don't need to be perfect. It's what goes on top that matters. Just like a Spider-Man design where the base isn't the star — it's the line work on top — your rose base is just the foundation. Don't stress about it.

The Bud — Where the Magic Happens

Once your base is dry (more on timing in a moment), it's time for the bud, which is the centerpiece of your rose. Donna places the bud between two petals rather than in the middle of one, giving you more room to work.

The bud starts with an "n" shape using just the tip of the brush with no pressure. Then, at the side of the "n," add a "u" shape — again, tip only, no pressure. Together these create the tight center of your rose.

Here's the critical thing to watch for: when your brush tip touches the dark paint underneath, it picks up that color and you lose your bright white edge. Every time this happens, you need to go back to your paint pot and reload. Don't try to keep going with a muddy tip — that white edge is what makes your bud pop.

The Side Petals — Tiger Stripes and Aeroplanes

The side petals around the bud are what really bring a rose to life, and Donna has two great ways to think about them.

First, the clock method: imagine your brush pointing at twelve o'clock. Move downward while twisting out to one o'clock, then twist back to twelve. That's your basic side petal shape — like a tiger stripe or claw mark. Add a gentle curve to it, and you've got petals that wrap beautifully around the bud.

Second, the aeroplane technique: think of the brush as a plane coming in to land. It touches down (applying pressure in the middle of the stroke), but then takes off again at the end. This lift-off at the finish ensures that bright white tip catches the light and stands out against the dark base underneath.

How many side petals you add depends on the size of your base. A large rose might take several; a smaller one at the side of the eye might only need two or three. And remember — reload between each one when the tip picks up dark color from below.

Working Smart — Timing and Speed Tips

One of the biggest takeaways from this class is how Donna manages drying time. You can't paint the bud and side petals over a wet base — it'll smudge. So instead of sitting and waiting, she fills the time by painting lilies (leaf-shaped bouncy strokes) around the rose using the same brush and paint. By the time the lilies are done, the rose base is dry and ready for the bud.

Other speed tips from Donna include keeping the same brush loaded as long as possible rather than swapping brushes constantly. Every brush swap adds time. She also recommends having multiple one-stroke split cakes pre-loaded with different colors if you're doing multi-color rose designs, so you can move between them quickly.

For filling in empty space quickly, double-dip flowers are your best friend. Load a petal brush with two contrasting colors (Donna loves Superstar Petrol Blue and Ink Blue), stamp down quick petals, and suddenly your design looks much fuller. To add a bit more depth, flick two tiny lines into the center of each double-dip petal with the same dark color.

The Rescue Trick — Liquid Bling

Here's Donna's tip for when your rose doesn't quite come out the way you wanted: Liquid Bling white iridescent glitter gel. If your white isn't popping or those bud shapes aren't as crisp as you'd like, trace over where the white should be with Liquid Bling. It makes everything pop, adds a sparkly three-dimensional effect, and parents will be absolutely buzzing.

Donna used this trick a lot when she was first starting out with roses, and she still keeps it in her kit as a backup. You can also use it on lilies and leaves to add swirly accents. It's a great safety net that takes the pressure off getting everything perfect.

Finishing Touches — Liner Brush Work

Donna is a big fan of liner brushes for adding thin decorative lines. Because liner brushes are long and thin, you can create delicate flicks and lines without worrying about pressure control. She adds thin lines radiating from the rose, does drag-and-drop leaf shapes (thin line, press down, thin line back up), and uses flicks to fill in around the design.

Her go-to liner brush is a Rosemary & Co, but any long, thin liner will do. She also mentioned that if you're not yet confident with one-stroke work, practicing with liner brushes is a great way to add detail to your designs while you build those skills.

Chest and Body Design Tips

Donna also demonstrated a chest piece using the same rose techniques, showing how these designs translate beautifully to body painting for festivals and events. Her approach for body work is the same: map out your placement first, work in roses and lilies, add leaves with a green one-stroke, fill with double-dip flowers, and finish with liner work and glitter.

A smart business tip from Donna: at festivals, try to paint a chest piece on a bartender or stall holder early in the event — someone who'll be visible all day. Give them a business sticker too. They become a walking advertisement, and adults at the bar will come find you wanting something even fancier. Start at your base price and work up from there as clients want bigger, more elaborate designs.

Choosing Your One-Stroke Paints

When picking one-stroke split cakes for roses, Donna looks for two things: a really dark edge on one side and a very bright white or light color on the other. You need that strong contrast for the technique to work. She featured several Face Paints Australia split cakes (like the Lily Pilly), which have dark centers with light sides and fit her Grimas brush perfectly. She also used Silly Farm and Fusion Body Art one-strokes throughout the class.

A nice bonus of the Face Paints Australia design — because the dark is in the center and light on both sides, you can pick up from either side of the cake for different color variations, and the paint wears evenly instead of dipping in the middle like traditional split cakes.

Key Takeaways

Donna's whole approach comes back to one idea: these designs are built to make you money. Beautiful roses that are fast enough for a busy gig, forgiving enough that they don't need to be perfect, and impressive enough that parents are thrilled. Remember, parents aren't comparing your work to what they see on social media — a bit of one-stroke rose and some double-dip flowers, and they'll be over the moon.

Practice by copying other artists' designs first, then start experimenting by adding your own elements. That's how you grow. And most importantly, share what you learn, help other painters, and keep this industry moving in a positive direction.

Thank you so much to Donna Godfrey for sharing her talent and tips with our community!