Tips for easy face painting for children

Face painting is fun and often appreciated by children, especially in the context of other fun activities, such as children's parties or other celebrations.

And face painting is something everyone can do - it's not as hard as it looks! Face painting is also a great activity tip to do with your babysitting.

What you need for face painting

For example, there are special face painting kits that you can buy (which include sponges and brushes), but if you don't have such kits handy, a good tip is to use ordinary watercolour. Most of the time, ordinary watercolours that children paint with are safe to use for face painting, but always read the label first! You need at least the three basic colours (red, blue, yellow) and black and white, because with these colours you can mix all the other possible colours you need. Then you need brushes, and preferably thin ones. The thinner the brush, the easier it will be to paint details, such as dots or whiskers. Clean kitchen sponges can be used to dab the paint on a larger area, for example as a background colour for painting the face. Then, it is always good to change the water you use to dissolve the paint as often as possible, to get a nice colour when painting, and to use wet wipes to erase mistakes.

Here's how to do it

If you're new to face painting, you can always start with simple designs, such as a cat's nose with whiskers, a heart or a star on the cheek. Or, depending on your child's patience, you can start slowly but surely and work step by step. You can watch a sample video before starting, and then try to follow the steps in the video. If you have tried face painting a few times, you can start with more advanced designs. Below are some examples and tips for simple face painting for children:

Butterfly

The butterfly is quite simple; you start by painting or dabbing the wings in any colour. Then let them dry before painting the body, head and antennae in black or brown. Lastly, you can add details to the wings.

Skull

If you want to be a bit scary, you can paint a skull. Start by sketching out the lines with white paint and then fill in with white background colour. Once the paint has dried, you can paint black around the eyes and other details, such as the mouth, with black paint.

rabbit

The bunny is a cuter option. If you want to be a white rabbit, start by dabbing white paint all over your face. Once the paint has dried, add a nose, whiskers and bunny ears. You can also paint the bunny ears on your forehead.

Spiderman

Maybe you like superheroes and want to be Spiderman? It's easy! You can choose whether to paint all or part of the face. Start with red paint and then paint the spider web in black.

Clown

Clowns are fun and colourful, so why not paint a clown? Start by dabbing white paint on the face, then paint colourfully around the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. Finally, add a red clown nose.

pirate

Being a pirate is fun too! You paint an eye patch, scars, moustache and beard in black and you're done.

Looking for more fun activities for children?

Talk to your nanny for inspiration or check out Hey Kiddo's nanny blog.