Extreme Face Painting

Gr 6 Up—This is a guide for experienced artists ready to take their craft to the next level, instead of painting pictures on a face, like colors on a flat canvas. These instructions show how to use shading and highlights to shape a variety of frightening and whimsical forms. The authors open the book with basic information about materials, colors, and techniques. Then they demonstrate different projects, with the "friendly" faces first, and the "fiendish" ones in the back. Each entry has a full-page color photograph of the final product and smaller photos of each step in the painting process. Clearly written instructions appear below each photo. The book contains the standard faces, such as a butterfly mask, animal faces, and a clown face, as well as some unusual projects. Some of the fiendish visages are quite frightening. The book comes with an informative DVD where the authors demonstrate two of the face paintings from the book. As one brother does the painting, the other gives a running commentary of what he is doing and why. The projects in this book have more impact than those in the Usborne Book of Face Painting (Usborne, 2003), but are not necessarily harder to create. This is a great resource, especially for older children, teens, and adults.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT