Hi everybody! I am Blake Cabot and I am the owner of FacePaint.com and I am here with Inga Yushchen from Ukraine. We found Inga through a contest we ran for Halloween and she does really amazing designs so I think you're going to be excited to hear this. She's going to be doing a fantasy tiger, and you can never go wrong with tigers!

Hold up the mask you were showing me earlier. This was a great mask! She did that in five minutes, and she did that with the Kraze Split Cake Palette. And we also have Natalia, who will be the model today, and she is a guitar player and a singer and does a good job of Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind". With that, I will turn it over to Inga!

So hello guys, I am really excited to be here today! My name is Inga and I am from the Ukraine, I'm a face painter, body painter, and henna artist. So today I will create a fantasy tiger design and I hope you will like it! So have your practice boards, face painting kits, brushes, and sponges ready, and you will paint with us and have fun!

So here we have a classical tiger design and here we have some elements of fantasy design. So what is the difference? For the classic design, we have some yellow colors, some orange colors, some tiger lines, and we have some makeup elements. Also, when we're collecting references, we choose different variations, so here we have a face with a leopard design and one with black lipstick. We also have on stroke designs, like I did on the mask. Here is a fantasy variation of the tiger and we're using different colors and today actually I hope we will have fantasy designs, so let's start!

Fantasy Tiger Face Paint Design

First we will be activating our regular colors. I have an amazing palette from Kraze FX, so I'm activating my white and black face paints. When we activate our colors, consistency is very important. So the white face paint, should be like melted ice cream, and the black one should be inky. So remember, when we're activating our colors, that the white face paint should be very creamy, just like melted ice cream. When we are activating black face paint, we just spray water onto the paint. When our regular colors are activated, I will apply my white with a sponge. So slowly I'm applying my white face paint with a sponge and I hope Natalie is ready!

Now we'll apply our regular white activated face paint with our half moon sponge to the face area of our model. Slowly, we go up to the bridge of the nose and onto the forehead area.

Blake: Also, feel free to ask any questions and I'll pass them on!

Inga: Yes, if you have some questions, you can ask me, and I hope I will answer and share my experience with you.

So the pigmentation of Kraze FX White is really, really good - I like this white color. After the whisker area is ready, I'm applying white to the inner corner of the eye and going up, and I'll do the same thing on the other side of the face. If you are working with children, you should be very, very careful with the eye area. Actually, if I work with small children, I try to avoid this area. Because sometimes children aren't ready to sit so calmly, like Natalia is sitting now.

So here is our base and now it's time to load my flat brush with a split cake palette and I will do flower petal. So guys if you have some questions, if you want to say hi, please give me some feedback!

Now I'm loading my rainbow cake. For this I am using my angled brush, I think it's #12 and it's a TAG brush. Here I will do a lotus flower petal. Slowly I am going up from the eye area. When we're doing one stroke, we don't need so much water in our palette. Actually I really like the Kraze FX palette because the colors have very good pigmentation and I don't have to load up my brushes very often. So it's very good for fast, one stroke designs. And I also recommend, if you are doing many colors, if it's a fantasy design, to use a different brush for every color. This will avoid colors being washed out and it will also save you time. If you are working at a big event, where speed is very important, it's important to have a different brush for every color. So here we have two regular colors, and ten split cakes. I really recommend you have ten angle brushes for each split cake, and two brushes for the regular colors.

Now I will apply some pink. On the side of the face, I will do some blue colors and I will also load another angle brush. It's a Ukrainin brand, but you can also use a TAG brush or any other brand. When you're working with the one-stroke technique, it can be very, very fast and very creative because you don't have to mix colors. All that you need is just to properly load your brush and work and enjoy!

Of course I can do some sponging, but when I am working with the one-stroke technique, I prefer to use angle brushes. Now I will add my activated white face paint to the neck area for this tiger design. On the chest area, I will create a cluster of tropical flowers, because tigers often go into jungles.

Creating Leaves and Flowers

So now I will create a cluster with tropical flowers. For this, I will go back to the Kraze FX Split Cake Palette and I will load some colors which reminds me of tropical colors. When the tiger goes into the jungle, there are many tropical colors. Here is just the base, and after, I will add some details. My inspiration is a tiger that is hunting in the jungle. Once the flowers are ready, it's time to add the leaves. I will load a green split cake, and spray the split cake with some water to activate it.

Now we will go back to our cluster and I will add some leaves. Very good pigmentation on these Kraze FX face paints, as I don't have to load my brush too often! Now we continue with the strokes, and I will add some blue down onto the neck and onto the chest. You can find inspiration anywhere! You can find inspiration in a video game, in nature, in music, basically anywhere!

Why I like one-strokes so much, is if you don't know how to create something really creative or something crazy, just use one-strokes and your design will look very interesting! And you can be very confident with your strokes. So if you don't have the ability to work every day and practice your skills, I recommend you practice on a practice board. When you're working with the one-stroke technique, the consistency is very important.

Question: For the tropical flowers, what colors and what kind of brush are you using?

Answer: I am using the Kraze FX Split Cake Palette, and I don't know the names of the colors, but it's the green one and the orange and yellow one. For the brush, I am using a TAG angle brush, and I believe it's a #12.

So now I will load my brush again with the pink, and I think I will add some flowers near the whiskers.

Question: When you are doing decolletage designs, do you have steps of what you're doing first or do you just start to paint, and then fill in the designs?

Answer: First of all, I start face painting the face area, so usually I'll start with the eyes and forehead. If I am working with small children, I do not apply any colors to the eye area. So the first step is the foundation.

Which is your favorite tropical flower? Mine is hibiscus because it's the flower of the many Indian demi-gods, and sometimes I take my inspiration from that. The hibiscus is a very special flower. So now, a very important part, if you are working with a model, is to stand up and move back from your model. Why do I do this? When you're sitting down and working, you see your design very close, and when you take a few steps back, you'll see the full view. It doesn't matter if you're working at an event, painting children, or in a competition, you should always step back to see what your design really looks like. Very few people will see your design very close, so it makes sense to stand up and see your design from afar. If you're working with a canvas, I always recommend you do the same thing.

When I do fantasy tiger designs, I can do rainbow tigers, or a Valentine tiger, where I add some hearts.

Face Painting Tiger Lines

I think the foundation is almost ready and now I will work with the details. I will add some tiger strokes and tiger lines. When we are doing tiger lines, it's very important to have a good paint brush. I'm using the same brushes from Loew-Cornell, from #0 to #3. When I used the Kraze FX palettes, I found very good brushes, one round and one flat brush. So if you buy a Kraze FX Palette, there will be two brushes and they'll also be very good for tiger lines.

When we are adding tiger lines, the consistency is very important. It's like the consistency of ink. If our brush is too wet, we just roll it and try to get rid of that wetness. So now I will add some strokes. I will do a tiger nose, and because this is a girl tiger, we'll do it in pink. I will do the shape of a heart on the nose. With black, at the end of the nose, I will paint small triangles. Now I'm loading my #2 brush again, and go down and up to create the tiger lines. So the whisker area is ready! Now I will add some black to the nose. If you do a male design, the nose area should be a little bit bigger. 

So now I will add some tiger lines, and I hope you can see how I do this! First I am doing small lines, press, and go up. Pressing, rolling, and again, going up. I will do the same thing on the other side. Press, roll, and go up. Make sure you have a focal point. All strokes should go to the one point, which is the inner corners of the eyes. Actually, if you're not so confident with your tiger lines, you can practice before on your hand or a practice board, because it's a basic design. Practice, practice, practice, and you'll be much more confident! My teacher told me if you're doing something a few hours a day for 5 years, you will become a professional.

Blake: So how much did you have to practice?

Inga: Actually, I've been practicing for the last 9 years and I have 5 years of active painting. After 5 years, I'm feeling more confident. I also recommend you take part in competitions. It doesn't matter if it's a contest online or a physical competition where you have to travel. There, you will learn speed techniques. In a design competition for example, you only have two hours. Nowadays, I can paint much faster.

So now again, I will take a step back, and I can see that I should go on to forehead area and continue with my tiger lines. Actually when you are confident with the tiger lines, you can also paint your own face. If you have a tiger themed party, you can add some designs near your eye, like I did. It will give some positive vibes to your party. When you're doing the strokes on the forehead, it's important to remember the focal point theory. If the tiger is angry, we will do some more black and angle the lines as well.

Here I will again add some tiger lines, and when our tiger lines are ready, I think it's time to add details to our flower clusters. When we are painting flowers, we'll use line work techniques. Just think of how flowers and lines look in nature, and go by that. My inspiration for these flowers is paintings from the 60s and 70s. I don't like too much realistic art, but prefer psychedelic art.

Blake: I notice you're wearing gloves. Do you always wear gloves?

Inga: Sometimes I do yes, so I don't stain my hands. Sometimes you add glitter, and when you do that, it's everywhere, so wearing gloves can keep everything clean.

So now I will continue to do line work and adding some petals. When I'm doing outlining, I'm also using a double dip technique, but I'm loading only black and not two colors. My brush moves like in a double dip technique though. So now you see it's a little bit like graphic art!

Adding Stencils

Now I think it's time to use my stencils. The stencil I will be using is not a regular stencil, like BAM stencils. It's actually a wooden stencil from India, and it's a very ancient technique.So with this Henna wooden stencil, I just add the black paint onto it, and press it onto the skin. When you're doing stencil work, it doesn't matter what type of stencil you're using, your paint should be like the consistency of glue. I will continue adding the flower stencil onto the chest area. The ancient Indian painters used this stencil for Henna, and because I am also a Henna artist, that's how I learned this technique.

I will also add a few stencils to the forehead area. So I hope you will like it, and if you don't have wooden Henna stencils, you can just use regular stencils. Actually when we're painting tigers or other animals, you can use an animal stencil as well. I will be using BAM #1004.

Now I'm going to load my sponge with black face paint, and place the stencil onto her chest. You can use a sponge or a dauber to do this. If you want a highlight effect, you can use white face paint on top of the black face paint.

So now I will continue with the line work. I'm loading my #1 Loew-Cornell brush with Kraze FX black face paint.

Blake: Marina asked, do you paint attention to the symmetry of the design when you're painting?

Inga: Not often. Sometimes when I do a fancy design, it's not so much important for me, but when it's a competition, and it's a design which requires symmetry, then yes. Usually I am working with an assistant for the competition, so it's teamwork.

Blake: When you do body painting, do you do air brush as well or do you do it with your brushes?

Inga: I do both. I like to mix techniques. Usually I do the foundation with a brush. When I take part in competitions, I work in the brush and sponge category. But when I take part in face paint competitions, I mix a few different techniques.

When you do this every day, and do the same designs, it can get boring. But when you try to create new designs and try new techniques, and you try to do different styles, it can get interesting. It can give you space for inspiration. Inspiration is everything!

When you're choosing a model, it's also important that they're right for the design. Natalie, for example, is a cat lover, and the shape of her eyes go well with this design also.

Now I will add some dots to my design. Just remember, if you're not confident with your tiger lines, just practice! So now I will take a step back, and it reminds me of a vintage tattoo style, like a Japanese tattoo.

I will now outline the eyes and I will use a #0 or #1 brush. If you're face painting a small child, I would not recommend that you outline the eyes. When you're painting young children, be very very careful around the eye area, especially the water line.

Now I will add a cartoon effect to the eyes, and our tiger will look like a cartoon tiger! Doing bigger eyes makes the design pop, and most people love the look of it as well!

So I will add some pigments to the eye area. Now I will also add some glitter to the design. Again, be very careful with the eye area, and if you're working with children, do not apply glitter to the eye area. Once I've added the glitter, I will also add some dots throughout the entire design.

I hope you guys enjoyed and that you learned something! Thank you very much for your time and for this opportunity to show my art to such a big audience, and I hope I see you soon!

Blake: That was fantastic, thank you very much!

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