Have you ever seen a face painter using airbrush and stencils whipping out amazing designs? Often followed by the thought “Man I wish I had airbrush tools so I could do that too!” Well never fear my friends, one doesn’t need airbrush equipment in order to use stencils with your face paint, we can show you how to make use of them with the tools you most likely have in your kit now.

Face paint stencils come in a variety of styles from animal shapes to beautiful detailed  designs. Some stencils come on a rigid plastic while others are more of a flexible plastic much like vinyl. Both styles work nicely and clean up easily with a wet wipe or warm water.

Applying the paint over the stencil with a damp sponge is going to give you an even coverage without letting paint sneak underneath the edge of your stencil but you can use a wide brush to paint across the stencil as well.

Layering the stencil over a base color is a terrific way to paint, as the colored background will really let the stencil jump out. You can also outline the stencil art with a complimentary color if you wish. Now let’s take a look at these methods with a face paint design.

We used the Snazaroo Chinese character stencil sheet with Graftobian pro paint colors black white and gold to create a Chinese Banner.

Step 1. Using a 1″ flat brush and the black, paint the banner.

Step 1.

Step 2. After the base color dries, lay the flexible stencil over the area you wish to add the design.

Step 3. With a damp sponge gently blot on the gold paint over the stencil.

Step 3.

Step 4. With a detail brush, touch up the design with gold if needed.

Step 4.

Step 5. Add accents to the design with the medium round brush and white paint.

Step 5.

The design is complete, quick and easy.

Finished art.

There are so many possibilities when using stencils, we think you will have fun trying some for yourselves.