Thursday, March 9th 2017 – East Coast Face Painting Convention, Manchester CT

Day One, Class 4: Illustrative Brush Strokes with Dutch Bihary

Dutch Bihary of “Skin Wars” fame.

After touching on materials (such as the ?”797″ or “795” brush), palette of paint cakes (he uses aluminum wedding favor tins and pots them himself), the anatomy of the brush and how to load it, he got right down to business.

Using our own paper & black, he had us paint right in class.  Here are my attempts at

Illustrator’s Eyes (heroine, hero, baby, villain and cat):

Dutch’s FERN LEAVES:

Fern leaves by Dutch; natural & unnatural (and tribal Z’s)

Thick-to-thin teardrop strokes for top fronds and dagger strokes for bottom ones, gah;

Frond Practice

Tribal Stuff:

“The balance of negative space tells the story.”  ~ Dutch Bihary

Facial structure:

—-  templar ridge

—–  cheekbone

—— jaw line

Teardrops, swirls… and magic:

(Upward turned swirls emote beauty and happiness; downturned swirls suggest oldness and sadness.)

A mind turning experience.

Oh and the secret is gazillion amounts of practice.  I knew it.

♠