Cyborg Face Paint Design

It’s August! And August is before September… which is before October! Remember when you were little, and the most impressive costume on the block was that one cardboard robot costume, complete with duct pipe and a layer of silver spray paint? This year, up your game with a dab of face paint and take your Halloween-creepy to a whole new level.

I used:

Wolfe metallic silver
Paradise white
Kryolan metallic bronze
Diamond FX black
Non-toxic, water-based glue stick (optional)
Scar wax
“Gears” stencil by Bad Ass Stencils
Mascara brush (optional)
Small and a large round brush
Small fan brush
High-density sponge

Start out with a clean slate. I like to wipe my face down with a hypoallergenic Huggies baby wipe because they don’t leave any residue.

If your eyebrows are unruly like mine, use your clean mascara brush to prep your eyebrows for blocking. This part is optional, but I think it helps the illusion. If you’re using glue, swipe the stick upward in the direction of your hair growth and build up; if you’re using wax, scoop a small amount into your hand and warm it by kneading it between your fingers. Smooth it over your eyebrow with the handle of a paintbrush or another, similarly-smooth tool.

If your hair is short like mine, you might also want to block part of your hairline.

Start outlining your design with Paradise white and a small brush. Consider the seams that might exist in the metal components of a robot’s face–I’d suggest Googling images of cyborgs and robots for reference.

Using your gear stencil, create a cluster of gears beneath the cheek and jaw panels. Define the details and fill in your negative space with DFX black using your choice of brushes.

Use your sponge to fill in the large areas with Wolfe silver. Don’t worry about the edges just yet.

Fill in the eye socket with black, and highlight the eyelid with silver. Use one of your brushes to define the inner margins of your silver areas.

Using your fan and small round brush, start creating some shadows and wear on the metal. For the darker shade of silver, I combined silver with a small amount of black.

Use the smallest brush you have to outline your “parts” in black. You may then soften your edges by cleaning and dampening your brush, or blending with your finger or a cotton swab.

Use your large round brush to paint bolts along the edges of each panel where it might have a fixed connection to your face or another part. Define with black.

If you’re comfortable, define your eyes by outlining the “real” one with bronze, and apply silver eye makeup to the “robotic” eye with your mascara brush.