Face Painting and Body Art Association (FPBAA) - facepainting, bodyart, henna, airbrush art

A distinctive feature of tribal art is that it does not aim to REPRESENT things ( in the way that a photograph does) but rather to SIGNIFY them, in the manner of language. In mask making, an animal identity is achieved through symbolic colors and signs featuring the significant elements that make that animal unique.

Here’s an example of how you can take a tribal approach to painting something like a snake face. For each snake face (1 - 5) I followed a general “tribal approach” formula:

Begin by creating a background that transforms and disguises the face by dividing it into areas of color using horizontal or vertical stripes, and/or strong geometric shapes; choose the background colors for symbolic content (like red, black and white for a dangerous snake) or to compliment the clothes, coloring and eyes of the person you’re painting. Over that background, add significant lines and symbols to represent the animal (such as fangs, forked tongue or snake eyes). Finally, add decorative elements or linework to unify the face as a complete design.

For these examples (1 ) and (2) I created a background with geometric divisions based on the triangle. For (1) I was thinking of bright Papua New Guinea coloration and (2) is following a basic tribal pattern placing triangles over the eyes like a mask. Then I turned them into snakes by adding some significant snake symbols: fangs and eyes.

For the next three I divided the face with stripes and added black line work to indicate “snake”. (3) is in a line style loosely inspired by Polynesian and Maori face patterns. On (4) + (5) I used two versions of simple iconic representations of a snake.

This approach leads to endless successful variations for the same face. The use of strong colors in an interesting pattern for a background makes almost anything you put on top look good. It also allows for some incredibly quick designs, especially for animal faces. It’s not just the simplicity of the designs that lets you paint fast, the formula lets you paint creatively without having to think too much about each face. When I’m working quickly I’ll be making decisions about what signs to use to turn this person into their animal while I am already busy painting their face to make the background.

This recreation of a sketch of an Amazon shaman’s face design illustrates a key concept in using cultural inspirations. This was the pattern worn by a medicine man named Cobroti and these lines gave him the “strength of a jungle snake for a dance ritual, so that he could get in touch with the dead.” It’s a meaning that is indecipherable to an outsider like me from just looking at these lines — there is no pictorial representation here at all — and that gives me some courage to invent my own symbolic meanings for my linework. What is important is the meaning you can bring to the face as you paint it, and how the painted face makes the wearer feel.