Beginner face painting ideas for kids (printable PDF)
If you’re throwing a carnival, event or birthday party, here are some beginner face painting ideas for kids perfect for the novice artist. They are simple and fun. Your face painting station will be a hit. Check it out!
I am not a super good artist. So when I was asked to be in charge of our school carnival’s face-painting station, I had to get creative. I found some simple designs and compiled them into an easy printable handout. It worked wonderfully and everyone loved it. Here’s how you can do it too!
Print your face painting designs PDF
I compiled 30 simple face paint designs onto two 8.5×11 pages. Just print on your home computer or email it to your local copy store. The designs work for both boys and girls. Most kids are more than happy to choose from these designs. And they are simple enough that even someone who has never done face painting before can do them. To purchase, download and print your PDF, click on the link at the end of this blog post.
Gather your face-painting supplies
You don’t need very many supplies for a face-painting station. And it’s not as expensive as you might think either. Here’s everything you’ll need:
Set up your face painting station
Set up your station in the shade and out of the sun. You’ll need a small table and at least two chairs (one for you and one for your participant). We had six chairs because we had three face painters.
Cover the table with a disposable tablecloth and place the face painting crayons, hand mirror, wet wipes and print face paint designs on the table. You’ll need the mirror to show the participants their painted face and the wet wipes because the crayons make your hands pretty dirty. We forgot a mirror so we just used our phones.
Display the printed face paint design options on a table easel so participants can choose their favorite while they are waiting in line. I only had a large floor easel, so I attached the designs to a poster board and displayed them that way. But a small table easel would be best.
Start painting!
I was a little nervous at first because I’m not much of an artist, but once I got started, it wasn’t very hard. It was actually really fun. I tried to look at the design each child chose and follow it carefully. A good rule of thumb is to make the design as big as possible on the cheek. I made sure to ask the child which cheek they wanted it on before I started.
I had two teenage volunteers helping me at the face-painting station. Neither of them had an artistic background and they did an amazing job. They painted better than me. Some of the kids wanted multiple images painted on their faces and we just told them they have to get back in line for each image.
I hope these beginner face painting ideas will help you as you’re preparing your own face painting station. Let me know how it goes in the comments below. If you want more easy craft ideas, check out my “Crafts for Kids” idea list.
Click the link below to purchase, download and print your Face Paint Design handouts:
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This post is incredibly helpful! The step-by-step guide and tips on setting up a face-painting station made it seem so easy and fun. Great for beginners like me!SunPerp Dex
Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve done face painting for my kids’ classes and for small parties. I was asked to do a big annual party and needed some ideas for examples they could pick from so I’m not doing 15-30 mins designs, lOl. But it seems like there isn’t a lot of free information? This is super helpful. Thank you!
This is such a lifesaver! I’m not an artist either, so the idea of using simple shapes like circles and triangles for a butterfly or cat really makes face painting feel doable. It’s funny how pixel art games often rely on similar basic blocks to create complex characters—sometimes less detail works best. If you ever need a break from paint, checking out some pixel art games might give you fresh inspiration for those clean, bold designs that kids love.
This printable guide is a lifesaver for nervous artists like me! The step-by-step butterfly design sounds so easy to follow, especially the tip about using white as a base. I love how you emphasize that simple strokes work best for beginners. It actually reminds me of how we approach simplicity in arrow games at arrow game mechanics, where mastering basic moves leads to big fun. Have you tried doing these designs with just water-activated paints? I’d love to know if they smudge easily on active kids.