I admit that I’ve been a sci-fi fan ever since I stumbled across the genre in my brothers’ book collection. After my daughter grew up and left home, I developed this little alien for a series of cartoons which I sent to her in my letters, and I thought he’d make a great Sneakadoodle for boys, too.

Tools

• Diamond FX black face paint
• Diamond FX white face paint
• Paradise light blue face paint
• Paradise light green face paint
• Paradise lime green face paint
• Paradise dark green face paint
• Paradise purple face paint
• Paradise violet face paint
• Paradise yellow face paint
• Paradise orange face paint
• Paradise brilliant silver face paint
• #1 round brush
• #2 round brush
• #5 round brush
• Sponge
• Round sponge or dauber

Tutorial

1. Under the hair line on one side of the forehead, use your DFX white and a #1 or #2 round brush to outline your alien’s shape. For my character, I put him in a spacesuit, but you can experiment with what you’d like your crazy alien to look like. Spritz a little water on your sponge and rub it in the Paradise light blue to load it. Sponge the blue around the alien. For the area inside the alien’s helmet (if you add one) keep it a little lighter there.

On the opposite side of the face, follow the same procedure to draw your space ship outline and sponge the light blue around it.

2. Now that we have our basic design on the face, we can fill in areas of color. I used Paradise light green for the alien, white for his spacesuit, and Paradise brilliant silver for his arms.

For the planets, you can double load a round sponge or dauber with a light color on one side and a darker color on the other side. When you dab these colors on the face, twist your sponge or dauber slightly and it will create a beautiful spherical shape for you. The space ship is Paradise brilliant silver with yellow and orange interior shapes.

3.  Now it’s time to add your black outlines with Diamond FX black and your #1 round brush. You could try a liner for this, as it holds more paint so you don’t have to load as often, but I recommend using a regular #1 round because you’ll have more control with the shorter bristles. Stay up on the tip of your brush for best results. Remember that the more you press down, the wider your line will become.

To make your space ship look like it’s flying, add several lines coming away from it and several curved lines as shown below.

4. Our last step is white highlights for the objects, dots for stars, and a few starbursts.

Your alien is ready to rejoin his ship and continue his journey.

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