Last night I had the fun of face painting for a planetarium event during which families came out to watch the Perseid meteor shower. The board which we used had lots of space-oriented designs on it, but one of the most popular designs of the evening was a cluster of three flaming meteors. One after another, kids passed over more elaborate designs like the Mars rover for this vibrant design, so in honor of this year’s Perseid meteor shower, I thought I’d share it.
Materials
• Paradise red face paint
• TAG Flame small split cake
• Diamond FX black face paint
• #2 round brush
• #5 round brush
• 1/2-inch flat brush or angle brush
• Amerikan Body Art Tangerine opaque glitter
Tutorial
1. Start by loading your #5 round brush with Paradise red, which is a gorgeous deep red I love for this cheek art design. Make three red balls, with the largest in the center and bottom of the design, and the other two staggered and higher up.
2. Next, load your 1/2-inch flat brush from the lighter side of the TAG Flame split cake. Keep the darker orange to the outside of the flaming balls and twist up U-shapes on either side of each round meteor. Make sure your flames are all heading the same direction.
3. Without cleaning your flat brush, place the edge against the top of the meteor between the flames and pull up and away to fill in the space. At the bottom of the meteor, which is the leading edge as it plummets down, again place your brush at the edge and flick the brush up into the meteor, giving the impression that the flames are surrounding it.
At this time I also used my favorite Amerikan Body Art Tangerine glitter to make the flames really glisten.
4. With your #2 round brush, create some graceful, flame-shaped black outlines.
5. As a final step, inside the design I added a few more small flame shapes for the flames which are shooting up around the meteor.
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.
