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Tutorial: Sleepy Bear Belly Painting

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This design is perfect for beginning belly painters. The cute bear and fun details are sure to make your mommy clients happy.

Materials:

Tutorial:

The first step is to outline the design with white paint. Start with a circle, then draw a curved line to create a crescent shaped moon. Then, draw a rough outline of the bear. It does not have to be perfect, but try to at least make the proportions correct so that it is easier to fill in the color later. You can practice with a pen and paper first to make sure that it looks good when you actually paint the design on a client.

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Next, fill in the background. Fill in the crescent shape with Paradise Yellow, then fill in the rest of the circle with Paradise Lagoon Blue. On top of the blue, add some dark blue to add more interest to the design.

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On the moon, use a light beige to create craters. I used Wolfe Skinz in Fair. Remember to vary the size of the circles.

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The next step is the fill in the bear. Use the lighter brown color to fill in the sketch of the bear. Try to color all of the white spaces so that there is nothing showing through the brown. Then, use your beige color to create a muzzle and your pink color to create the insides of the ears.

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Next, begin outlining. Outline the bear with dark brown. Use short, wispy strokes to look like fur. Then, create a small oval nose in the muzzle. For the moon, mix light brown and yellow and outline each crater. Use wavy, imperfect strokes.

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Then, use a small round brush to create the details of the face. Using dark brown, create a thin curved line and horizontal lines to create a stitched look. This really makes it known that the bear is a teddy bear. Then, create elongated U shapes for the sleeping eyes using black paint. If the gender of the baby is a girl, add some lashes. To complete the face, add a little smile also using your black face paint.

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Create the starry night sky using your stars Bam stencil and white face paint. Make more “stars” with little white dots in varied sizes. Then, add a little white cloud with connecting clouds to the bear’s head. Use your red paint to make a little red heart in the middle of the cloud.

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Use your pressed black powder to create shadows. The shadows add depth to the painting. Try to think of where the shadows would naturally fall (under the bear’s belly, on the lower half of the craters, behind the cloud, on the outside curve of the moon). Make sure to blend to make all of the shadows softer.

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Finally, add some dots to outside edge of the circle to complete the image. Just add a few more highlights on the bear’s fur and on the heart and the painting is complete!

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