Being an amazing face painter isn’t really about how many designs you can paint. It’s more about being able to paint the most requested designs and make your customers say WOW!
Here is a list of Top 10 most popular face painting designs that will help you create a display board, practice with a purpose and simplify your face painting life, still being able to blow your clients’ mind away! If you like this mini-tutorial, see our complete face painting tutorial for beginners.
Note: All designs presented in this lesson are taught in the International Face Painting School only. They have been carefully selected and presented in detailed video-tutorials with additional text and scheme explanations regarding the rules of placement and of achieving balance for the most effective education. None of the tutorials for these designs will ever be posted on YouTube.
1. Double dip flowers
They are fast and easy to paint and are a true time-saver at crowded events. Nailing the double dip technique is one of the face painting essentials. By mastering it you’ll be able to create a multitude of designs, starting from regular flowers of different size and color and ending up with various clusters of petals that will help you embellish any girly design.
2. One stroke roses
Another must-know. Face painting has drastically changed over the past 20 years and one stroke is one of the most valuable added techniques. Master how to paint beautiful one stroke roses and they will become one more time saver of yours. Even one perfectly painted rose can blow your client’s mind away!
That’s why I dedicated an entire Module to this topic in the School, where we start from nailing the strokes and gradually come to building up roses in different blooming stages.
You’re in luck!! 🤩 You can master this very technique in no time with the help of our one-stroke rose tutorial for FREE on our blog. You don’t want to miss this, or the helpful video that goes along with it . 🌹
3. Butterfly
Each and every face painter should be able to paint a butterfly. On the basis of its geometry are build so many other masks!
I have a whole Module dedicated to this topic in the School. We start by learning the correct geometry and rules of building a perfect butterfly shape, we analyze the main mistakes and how to avoid them and we end up learning five various butterfly designs, that will train your hand and mind to paint any other butterfly design easily, basing on the gained knowledge and skills.
4. Fairies and princesses
Right after you nailed how to face paint a butterfly, you can use this shape for mastering fairy masks. There are tons of different fairy types, painted with one stroke or mainly with linework, involving double dip flowers or one stroke roses. In the School we learn six fairies and princesses designs, the most requested ones: a flower fairy, an angel, a heart princess, a winter (Elsa) design, a rainbow fairy and a mermaid.
5. Spiderman
I don’t think there will be times when Spider-Man will become unfashioned. This is definitely the most requested design by boys, so make sure you have a few variations of this design on your menu board.
6. Batman
I would say that this design stands on the second place right after the previous one. Again, make sure to have a couple of Batman variations.
7. Tiger
This full face design is adored by everyone — by boys and girls, and even by adults. Two main things to be nailed here are the tiger lines and their proper placement on the face. And that’s why we need to learn the Focal Points Theory first!
8. Kitty cat
Almost every girl loves cats! I suggest you have a few variations of this design, to be able to make girls of any age happy with your art.
9. Skull
If a boy wants something scary, then the biggest chances are that he will request a Skull design. Another useful moment about mastering this design is that it will help you understand the shapes of the face and rules of placing highlight and shadows in order to achieve many more of the other creepy full face designs like zombies, monsters, vampires etc.
10. Dragon
I would even rather say Reptiles. Master dragons and dinosaurs designs and be prepared to vary them. Good thing is that you can change the designs by only modifying the color in this case.
11. Pony (Unicorn, horse, Pegasus, Alicorn)
Last but not least is one of the most gracious creatures, that each little girl adores! Combine the horn from the Unicorn with Pegasus wings and obtain an Alicorn, an absolute must have on your menu board.
These are only a few of the designs that we study at the International Face Painting School. The full list consists of 45 most requested designs. Check them out in the Curriculum >>.
Want to learn the most popular designs? Our World’s Best Face Painting Ideas Guide has top requested designs for boys, girls, Halloween, Christmas, themed parties, and more!
What other design would you add to this list of most requested face paintings?
Let me know in the comments.
