Brow Tutorial

Painting Eyebrows and Eyelashes…..by Paula

I taught porcelain doll making for 10 years and after always painting on my students brows for them, came up with the decals. But, I would always make them learn how to paint their own on first. Sometimes, I would put on a lighter eyebrow decal for them and let them paint over it, until they learned to do it without.

I find it easier to paint your brows looking down, with the doll head upside down. That makes you concentrate less on the placement and making them look like brows. This is the general goal but your eye does better if the prospective changes.

I always do my brows last, just prior to rooting. I used this head for a clean example.

I use a 0000 or 00000 long hair liner brush. Make sure you don’t have the end of the brush with a glob of paint. It is useful if you have some slick paper, palate paper or glass is great. Load the brush by laying it sideways at a 20 degree angle and dip into the paint with the tip and pull away from the paint with the brush leaning against the surface. Turn the brush a quarter turn and repeat 3 times. Test the amount of paint by taking the tip of the brush and drawing a line at the same angle against your palate surface. When you are happy with the line thickness, you are ready to paint. (This method is a little better with oils, I have even heard you can use china paint)

With your head upside down, start your strokes at the brow bone line. Using an imaginary straight line, draw from the corner of the nose to the inside corner of the eye, and at the brow is where you should start your brow. The same applies to the end of your brow but to the outside of the eye opening.

With the brush at a 65 degree angle, with only the tip of the brush, just barely touch the tip the brush to the head, and make your stroke, pulling straight back toward yourself. Pull up when you get to the tip of where you want your hairs to end. Sometimes I do a few strokes in the air just to judge my distance from the head. You can also practice on your palate first. To change the angle of the hair as you get closer to the ear, turn the head around as you go. Do not change the angle of your stroke, this will make your hairs inconsistent.

Follow the same method for the next brow.

I use the same method for the oil pencils. I rub the pencil at an angle on a piece of paper to sharpen my oil pencil to a sharp point.

I sure hope you enjoyed my tutorial,

Thank you for coming,

Paula