Finally, it’s Halloween time and that means I can bring to life the idea of the easy zombie face paint design that came to my mind recently! When googling for “zombie cartoon” images I stumbled upon this image below and I instantly fell in love with it!
You all know that I love painting in cartoony style and I thought that adapting this inspiration image into face painting would be super fun!
And I think it turned out in quite a nice zombie Halloween makeup design, that is also very easy to reproduce.
And I hope it will serve you well this Halloween season! 😘
Get Your Beginner Zombie Face Paint Kit Here
Zombies come in every shape, size and style. If cartoony isn’t your thing, you can find other great ideas for zombie face paint in our Ultimate Halloween Face Paint Inspiration Guide!
Materials used:
- Ivory 017 by Superstar (Alternative: Almond 016 by Superstar)
- Teal 209 by Superstar
- Petrol blue 173 by Superstar
- Bubblegum 105 by Superstar
- Red 135 by Superstar (Alternative: Carmine Red 128 by Superstar)
- Bright Yellow 044 by Superstar
- Purple 038 by Superstar
- White Interferenz by Kryolan (I used Kryolan white, but you could use other glycerin-based white like Superstar line white)
- Paraffin white by Fusion Bodyart
- Strong black by Fusion Bodyart
- UV neon by Fusion Bodyart
- Paint Pal little drop by Sillyfarm
- KingArt round brush 3
- Half Yellow Sponge
- Stencil #230 by Diva Stencils
- Finger dauber
Feeling confused with what tools you need to start face painting? Check out this Ultimate Face Painting SUPPLIES Guide! Direct links to the best face painting materials — all in one place!
Step 1: Start Sketching Your Zombie Face Paint
First I use a beige color and a round brush to delimit the sections of my design: the brain, the mouth area and the tears. I know many artists use white for this.
But I highly recommend using a light skin color for this purpose! It is much easier to remove from the skin and it blends better with the colors that we’ll apply later on top.
Step 2: Main Colors on the Background
The next step is super easy! Now we just have to fill in the areas we’ve delimited with color! I am using a half-circle yellow sponge for the teal skin and a little drop brush with bubblegum pink for the brain and torn areas.
Step 3: The Shading
To make the face more dimensional and less flat we need to add shadows. Zombies have very deep shadows on their faces. Because, you know, they are dead and that means that the skin is pulled down by the gravity from their bones.
To make the process of finding the right places for the shadows it’s really important that you study the anatomical structure of the face, palpating the prominent bony part and finding the hollow areas.
I placed the shadows under the cheekbones, on the temples, around the eyes, under the nose and a little bit on the chin.
Step 4: Halloween Zombie Face Paint Highlights and Coloring
Now let’s add the highlights to make the contrast even greater! I am using Kryolan interference white, which is a very soft and creamy glycerin-based white — perfect for blending!
The placement of the highlights also coincides with the classical skull structure, therefore they go above the eyebrows, on the forehead, on the cheekbones, on the bridge of the nose and a little bit on the jaw.
Step 5: The Teeth
It’s very important to remember that the teeth in a skull (and in a zombie with a torn mouth) won’t be extended on the cheeks!
If you look at a skull picture, you can actually see that there is just a narrow area in the front of the mouth that is occupied by the teeth arcades.
I used yellow paint for the rough background of the teeth, purple for the gums and black on the sides to make the teeth look protruding even more to the front and the side areas look even deeper and lacking flesh.
Step 6: The Outline
Linework time! With my Loew-Corrnel round brush #3 and Strong Black, I go around all the previously delimited areas, adding creases and creating angry eyebrows for a sinister look in my zombie face paint.
Make sure to keep your lines always thick in the middle and thin and pointy on tips.
If you feel that your linework needs improvement, then I highly recommend taking this Free Online Workshop — Improve your linework in 3 Days! You will be amazed at what you’ll achieve thanks to it! 😍
Step 7: Blend the Zombie Halloween Makeup
Using a Cameleon blending brush I am softening the shadows around the eyes and under the linework. Always thinking that the light comes from above, the shadow must be always placed BELOW!
Step 8: Final Touches on the Easy Zombie Face Paint
There are some very handy tricks on how you can take your design to a new level in seconds! And adding a stenciled texture as I did here is one of the best tricks! I used a scale stencil #230 by Diva and a petrol blue and went primarily on the empty areas of my design.
To make the stenciling cleaner and more precise I recommend using a finger dauber instead of a regular sponge.
Last but not least, I am adding fine white lines with Parrafin white by Fusion to make the zombie face paint design pop even more.
Voila! The Halloween zombie face paint is ready!
Very Creepy right?! 😄
For more Halloween inspiration, check out our other tutorials:
Super Easy Skull by Kristin Olsson
Old Joker vs New Joker by Elodie Ternois
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