Masquerade masks are one of the most fun designs to create while face painting. They’re beautiful and ornate, and there are very few boundaries, even when it comes to shape. With my daughter soon to go to her first masquerade party, we put our heads together to come up with this unique and fun design. I hope this steampunk Venetian mask becomes a popular design choice with teens in you line who may prefer a more sophisticated design.

Materials

• Mehron copper powder
• TAG pearl copper face paint
• TAG pearl black face paint
• Paradise black face paint
• Paradise silver face paint
• Lining brush
• 1/2-inch flat brush
• BAM stencil “Gears” #BAM1022
• HAS stencil “Mechanical” #HAS5004
• #5 round brush
• #2 round brush
• Sponge

Tutorial

1. Spritz your TAG pearl copper face paint with water and gently tap a small amount of Mehron copper powder into it. This will give your mask an opaque, solid metal appearance. Mix them together well with your 1/2-inch brush.

Load your 1/2-inch flat brush with the copper face paint and create the shape of the mask on your model’s face. For the eyes, a cat’s eye shape is very common for masquerade-style masks, as well as being pretty. (If you like, you may also use a sponge to add silver highlights to the eyebrow and cheek bone areas of the mask, but they aren’t entirely necessary. You may notice that I did take this extra step, because I felt it added visual interest and depth to the mask.)

2. Load your sponge with a mixture of the Paradise black and the TAG pearl black, and sponge the edge of the BAM “Gear” stencil so that the edges go above and below one of the eyes, but only below the second eye. For the smaller gears, use the HAS “Mechanical” set.

3. Using your copper mixture, make three swirls using the #5 round brush above one of the eyes.

4. Using your lining brush to outline the entire mask and the eye shapes with Diamond FX black.

5. As a final step, load your #2 round brush with Paradise silver and add swirls and dots to the mask. Keep in mind that you want to make all your lines draw the eye back to the focal points on the face.

You could easily use liquid bling and glitter to add some real sparkle to this design, but my model requested no glitter, so we went without. Even without the extra glitter, it’s a beautiful mask. If you’d like to give it the appearance of lifting off the face, you might also add a slight shadow along the bottom line of the mask.

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. She also writes for Examiner.com as the Chicago Face Painting Examiner.