Monster Mathematics sounded like a cool and intriguing name for a workshop and let’s face it, while many of us find mathematics and monsters equally difficult to manage, to a face painter, monsters provide much more inspiration for face painting ideas than mathematics. 

Nick gave each of us a squidgy practice face and showed us how to divide it into sections.  It looked a bit like somebody had tried to draw the Union Jack but got bored half way through and decided to add a few bits to make it look more interesting.

Then, using the sections as guides, we painted a skull on half the face.

On the other side of the face we painted a monster and guess what? The shading pattern was exactly the same as it was for the skull except the line work and colours were different.

As I’ve struggled with skulls and monsters in the past, this seemed like an act of pure genius.  And, as is the case with most acts of genius, it was simple and obvious.

Then Nick taught us about light. As with any painting you need to know where the light source is. For scary face painting, it’s really effective to give the impression of light coming from under the face (ever shone a torch from the chin upwards? Scarreee…. heh, heh).

To demonstrate the power of a lower light source he painted a non-scary elephant and tickled its tummy with a gentle ribbon of pale grey. Instantly the whole painting sprang to life, it looked so much more 3D.  Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the elephant but it was really cute.

I can’t wait to put my new-found monster face painting skills into practice.  Who’s first?