STAGE MAKE-UP
Face Painting adds great excitement and novelty to any Drama class. With stage make-up, children finally feel like professional actors!
If you are far from being a professional face painter, like myself, I suggest you use very simple creations to maximum effect!! You also should consider “time”, as any group of children will find it difficult to wait patiently and quietly while you create individual masterpieces for each child’s face!
So I personally suggest that you always keep it:
1. QUICK and SIMPLE
2. Make your life easier by investing in a stage make- up pallet and paintbrush, base pancake and sponges. The paints are water based, very allergy friendly and easy to wipe off after. You can also make animal whiskers and moustaches, and rosy cheeks precisely and in seconds.
1. If you have a large class and want to make-up everyone before a show ..try and get the children to arrive early and straight into costume. As soon as one child is ready start making up. So you don’t have a line of impatient children waiting.
2. Also, prepare beforehand what kind of faces you are going to do and for whom so you don’t waste valuable time thinking when you have the children in front of you!
3. Avoid eyes, children don’t like make-up too close to their eyes as they get irritated and start to water.
4. Remind the children not to touch their faces until the paint is dry, you don’t want 20 smudged faces before the curtain even goes up!
5. Get inspiration and ideas for face painting on the internet or try some books here are some from Amazon you could check out. I really like all Usborne books for children and find them really user friendly.
Here is an interesting video I found on you tube that could get you motivated in doing something more sophisticated.
ESL Drama Games 