If you're painting at county fair this year, this is the perfect design for the animal-loving kids attending the event. I'll admit my example didn't have as big a nose as I was trying for, so feel free to expand the size of your pig's nose as much as you like to make him a true Big Nose Buddy. I naturally tend to constrict while painting, so I've had to push my comfort zone to a bolder level. After taking Olga Murasev's workshop when she was in the United States a couple of years ago, I always hear her voice in my head as I paint saying, "Make it bigger!" So I do my best to comply with that voice, because, of course, she's right. Larger designs, as long as they're done well, are more visible and have a higher perceived value to the viewer.
Materials
• Pink face paint (Paradise light pink)
• Diamond FX Strawberry Delight small split cake
• Green face paint (TAG)
• Light purple face paint (Paradise)
• Black face paint (Diamond FX)
• White face paint (Wolfe)
• #5 round brush
• Small filbert brush
• #2 round brush
• Sponge
• BAM dot stencil
Tutorial
Begin with your small filbert. After loading it with a light pink, Create a large oval on the center of the forehead, just at the top of the eyebrows, and fill it in. Swipe the filbert a couple of times across a split cake such as Diamond FX Strawberry Delight to darken one edge. Go over the outer edge of your oval to give the outer edge a darker definition.
Go around the outer edge and make the head shape behind the nose with the same brush loaded again with a slightly darker edge.
To add the ears, use the same brush and make a heart shape for each one.
If you want a sparkly pig, add pink glitter. Then use your flat brush loaded with light and medium free to make the grass on either side of the pig.
Use the BAM Dotty stencil and a sponge loaded with lavender/light purple to create the texture behind the pig. Extend and soften the green around the sides of the eye with the same stencil and green.
Use the #2 round brush and black to create your details and outlines. Load the brush well with a good lining black like Diamond FX, Global Strong Black, or Wolfe and stay up on the tip of the brush for the best results in creating your lines.
Finish up with highlights, dots, and starbursts (as always) done in white with a small brush, like a #2.
Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in Elgin, Illinois, and her artwork has appeared in The Colored Palette and SkinMarkz magazines. She services Elgin, Illinois, the NW Chicago suburbs, and northern Chicago, as well as the eastern suburbs of Rockford. Stop by Facepaint.com to check out her other face painting blog posts and tutorials.