I’d like to share with you the practice session we did on Kira for developing her purple fox face. We wanted to deviate from my usual pattern for putting on a fox face, making it more angular and using highlighting and contouring (something I’m currently working on). This was also a good opportunity to play with our new camera, backdrop, and lights.
Materials
- Black liquid lipstick by Black Moon Cosmetics (Sleepwalker)
- Rodial smokey eye pen (black)
- Kat Von D tattoo liner (trooper black)
- #16 Round natural hair brushes (Mont Marte gallery series)
- Flat Wisp 1⁄2” 13mm (Royal & Langnickle - Moderna - M77FW)
- #8 Round brush (Royal & Langnickle - Moderna - M77R)
- Lip brush (bhcosmetics)
- Gravity feed airbrush (Grex Tritium.TG)
- Violet mehron Paradise Makeup AQ (color: BA.K-72)
- Graveyard Grey Graftobian Pro Paint (color: 77012)
- White Wolfe Hydrocolor (color: 001)
- Black Wolfe Hydrocolor (color: 010)
- Grey Mehron Liquid Makeup
- Black Mehron Liquid Makeup
Not shown in the picture, Kira prepared her face before painting using a pore minimizing primer, a primer spray, and then an oil control setting spray.
Eyeliner and Painting on the White
The first step was to put on eyeliner. We used eyeliner from Kira’s makeup kit and went ahead and drew the animal shape, making points toward the nose and wings at the edges.
I used a large #16 round brush and the white face paint to paint white fur up her chest and neck. I kept my brush strokes going the direction I wanted it to look like the fur is laying.
On her face, I painted her entire upper lip. I usually paint a black line connecting the nose to the lips, but the real fox in the reference picture we were using didn’t have that line. I also painted her lips with some white so we could make her lips look smaller, instead of doing the full and plump black lips I usually do. We gave her nose some white to match our reference picture as well.
What I found tricky was making the sharp angles on her cheeks. We wanted to do this to force the sharp and angular look of a fox’s face on her human face. I typically follow the curves of the face, but this makes everything look rounded and more cat like. I’m not accustomed to forcing the angles, so I had to break myself out of the habit for this.
Painting on the Purple
To paint on the purple, I used another #16 round brush. On her chest and neck, I first made brush strokes starting out towards the shoulders and ended in the white, trying to avoid where the white already was. This helped keep the fur illusion by keeping the transition between white and purple sharp. Then I went over those same purple brush strokes in the opposite direction, so it looks like purple is fur continuing in the same direction as the white.
Airbrushing Contour and Highlight
After the purple, I loaded my airbrush pot with grey airbrush paint. Then I loaded a paint brush with the same purple face paint from earlier, then put the brush in the pot of my airbrush and mixed the two colors. I did this because I do not have purple or a way to make purple as an airbrush paint. This allowed me to create a lighter purple to act as a more “natural” highlight than white.
I tested my mixture on a patch of purple I painted on the back of my hand before applying it to Kira’s face to make sure I had the desired color. I then applied the lighter color as a strip on her nose, above her brow, and on her cheekbones in a high angle.
Then I took black airbrush paint and lightly sprayed over and under her eyes to darken the area. This is to try and give her eyes the appearance that they are further back than the rest of her face. I also airbrushed the sides of her nose right along where I had sprayed the grey. This is to help make her nose look more like it is coming out at you like a muzzle.
I also sprayed black along her hairline. This hides the skin that was showing and also frames her face more.
Final Touches
To put on the final touches, I used my flat wisp brush and the graveyard grey paint to make little fur marks along her cheeks and above her brows.
With my #8 round brush I painted Kira’s nose black, lined her lips. I went back and retouched her eyes with eyeliner since the airbrush covered some of it. Finally, we put on black liquid lipstick.
With the painting complete, Kira put on her accessories. Kira makes a fantastic fantasy fox!
