Counting the days until my favorite holiday Dia de los Muertos, and as a warm up to this year's celebration I've hosted a couple workshops in costume creation and sugar skull making. I hate to leave my out of town friends and fans out of the fun- and at the compelling request of Crime Spree Carol, it seemed like I ought to post a quick tutorial on calavara creation. I won't say that she threatened me into doing this, but now that the blog post is up, I'll assume she's destroyed all negatives of the incriminating 8' x 10' photos that arrived in last week's mail.
So Carol, and the rest of you, before we get to the disguise part, you'll want to gather up supplies- The clown white grease paint was a purchase from Goodwill for $1.49, almost a steal! I got the black and glitter liquid eyeliners, mascara and fake eyelashes from the drug store and black face paint and body art kit from the craft store. In all the gear set me back about $30 but I'll be able to do a whole posse of folks with this so it was a good investment. You might also want to get white face powder and tiny gems to add at the end for extra bling.
My friend Laura was kind enough to pose for the photos, I think Crime Spree Carol may have something on her as well, after this we'll consider all debts paid in full. In the 1st step I covered Laura's face in the grease paint with a small sponge. I left large areas around her eyes and tip of nose free. If you'd like the makeup to set you can brush on the white face powder next, it will also help the other colors go on smoothly on the top.
Next, I applied face paint to the eye area, you could also use a dark eye shadow for this step but I liked having the ability to layer and add lots of color to the flower shapes.
In dark blue face paint I created a flower shape around Laura's eyes
I filled in the flower petals in a lighter blue and blended them into the green circles
Using the black liquid eyeliner I filled in Laura's nose and made the outlines for her mouth
I used the black eyeliner again to draw a spider web on her forehead and fill in her lips. I also used it on her eyes in the waterline and outlined her upper eyelid
To give the web definition, I added a second line in black grease pencil. This is a great tool to use when doing skeletons for guys especially in the cheek areas and to add lip effects.
For the last few steps, I traced around the flower eyes in black liquid liner and added glitter eyeliner highlights. I also drew shapes on her cheeks and filled them in with face paint. From here you could add false eyelashes and sequins or small gems as well
Top the whole thing off with a saucy headdress of flowers and don't forget the little people!
