How to Do Animal Stage Makeup

Some animals, such as birds, require additional props.

Whether you want to stage a performance of “Cats,” play the role of a talking horse or just expand your creative horizons, learning the techniques involved in creating animal stage makeup enhances your theatrical abilities. When creating any animal look for the stage, take your time learning the methods and practicing. Don't wait until the last minute; the more you practice, the better your final outcome. Also, with animal makeup, your look might vary from performance to performance, so remain flexible with regard to the final product.

Things You'll Need

• Sponge
• Large round brush
• Small round brush
• Small flat brush

Instructions

1. Clean the skin thoroughly and dab it with an alcohol-free toner.

2. Cover the eyebrows with eyebrow-concealing wax as directed by the specific wax product.

3. Apply a layer of base makeup, using a large, round brush or sponge, depending on the kind of animal you want to create. Start with the “background” color. For example, you might choose brown as a horse’s background color, or white for a cow (a white one with black spots).

4. Apply the midground makeup using a small, round brush. When choosing which color is the midground, look for larger sections of color and not for fine details. For example, a cheetah’s coloration is generally made up of three different colors: dark orange, light orange and a blackish brown. If you paint the base a light orange, then you must choose between dark orange and the brown shade for the midground. Because the black seems to visually sit on top of the dark orange, you should choose the dark orange as the midground color.

5. 

   The orange cheetah coat moves from light to dark.

   Paint the foreground details onto the skin, using a flat brush. For a cheetah, this means painting the dark spots. For a lion, this means adding the foreground black details to the nose and around the eyes.

6. Affix the stage makeup with a light coating of translucent powder.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice difficult animal makeup weeks in advance. Continue practicing until you perfect your style.

• When creating stripes or lines, such as for a tiger or zebra, try wiggling the brush slightly as you move it across the skin. This creates a more natural look.

• Adding water to face paints makes them thinner, which helps when blending two colors together or creating a slide shadow in a certain area.

• Because of the nature of face paint, don’t touch any skin or clothing to the painted area until after the performance. Touching the makeup could cause smudging.

References

• Face Painting Tips; Animal Face Painting Techniques Video; Philadelphia Tivoli.
• Glamour Boutique: Fancy a Quick Pluck?
• MusicalTheaterKids.com: Stage Makeup
• Face Painting Designs: Starting Out