Today’s tutorial was the idea of my model, who decided she really wanted roses. We collaborated, and the result was this lovely, simple mask.

Materials

• TAG pearl sky blue face paint
• Paradise light blue face paint
• TAG pearl white face paint
• Diamond FX white face paint
• Diamond FX small split Strawberry Delight
• TAG light green face paint
• TAG green face paint
• 1/2 inch angle brush
• 1/2 inch flat brush
• # 1 round brush
• #3 round brush
• Liquid gold glitter
• Sponge

Tutorial

1. Begin by loading your sponge with TAG pearl sky blue. Create your outer mask shape with this color, leaving the area in the bottom center open for now.

Next, load TAG pearl white on the other end of your sponge. Use this in the center area and on the eye lids. If necessary when you’re finished, wipe any rough edges so you have a nice mask shape to work on from this point.

2. Load your #3 round brush with Diamond FX white, which is an excellent liner, and outline the outside of your brush. Also create interior cat’s eye shapes around each eye.

3. Using your angle brush and Strawberry Delight split cake, load your brush with the lightest color on the longest bristles of the brush. This is going to be the outer edge of your rose. First create a five petal shape for the most open petals. On top of this, make a cylinder shape in the center, and curve petals in from each side toward the center and bottom. (If you’re not certain how to create a rose, check out this Youtube tutorial by Ashlea Henson.)

4. Using the same technique, create two smaller roses (without the back five petals) on either side of the mask. Double load a 1/2 inch flat brush or the angle brush to create a few leaves for the roses with your TAG light and green paint.

5. The mask is pretty, but not particularly detailed at this point. To make it seem like a lace mask, load your #1 round brush with white and carefully make diagonal lines crossing the mask at a 45º angle, first from the left and then from the right.

Adding small white dots where the lines cross each other will make it look like a lace mask.

6. Add a few dots and starbursts in the empty areas.

7. In the end, I couldn’t resist adding a few swirls to dress the mask up a little, because even with all the detail, it still looked a little plain to me.

8. As a final step, add gold liquid bling around the edge of the mask wherever it is visible. You could outline the flowers as well, if you wanted to, but I felt like it would detract from the overall design so I just went with the edge.

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.