Table of Contents:

• Getting Started
• Step-by-step Spider Face Paint
• Finished. Spider is ready!

Getting Started

Looking for a spooky Halloween costume idea that will frighten anyone who looks at you? Arteza can help you with that! Artist Cristina Mondragon has created an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare using nothing but an Arteza Face Painting Kit. She has broken down her process into some easy to follow steps so you can recreate this face paint yourself! This fantastical design can be done by both beginner and expert face painters. Keep reading and follow along with us as we create a creepy crawly look.

First, pick out the colors you’ll need. For this design, we used black, white and red. Activate the paints with a bit of water and let’s get painting!

Step 1: Paint a Black Base Over One Eye

This creation is designed to look as if there’s a spider coming out of the eye socket. How creepy! To get started, you’ll need to create the illusion of a hole that the spider will emerge from. Paint the entire right eye socket black. Remember, this black base isn’t the spider, it is meant to make your eye socket look like an empty hole. You will be adding the spider later.

Step 2: Paint the Shadow for 6 Legs

Now you’ll want to create an eerie shadow for the spider’s legs. Using a bit of black, paint three shadowy legs coming off of the black hole above the eye and three below. To make these shadows light, Cristina used more water and mixed in a slight touch of white to make a gray color. The legs will be black, so the idea is to create contrast between these shadows and the actual legs.

Step 3: Outline the Spider’s Body and Add Red Details

Next, you will be using white paint to create an outline for the body of the spider. Do this by outlining the outside of the eyelid while the eye is closed. You’re transforming your eyelid into the body of the spider so it’ll appear 3-D. Then, with red paint, add some details to the spider’s back, which is along the edge of both the top and bottom eyelids. Choose a creepy pattern like blood drops, a simple pattern with circles and dots, or pick a real-life spider pattern like the hourglass on a black widow.

Step 4: Draw in Legs and Pinchers

It’s time to draw in the legs! Use some black strokes to paint the legs. Start your line from the crease around the eye and make sure to add sharp turns for each of the joints. To make the legs seem like they’re casting shadows, draw them beside the shadows, not over them. Make sure that the end of each foot touches the tips of the shadows. Then paint in the front pincers of the spider.

Step 5: Add Red Tone Around Eye and White Details to Legs and Body

Mix red with a touch of orange and black to create a reddish-brown. Use this blend to highlight around the hole the spider is emerging from. This will give your “empty eye socket” a bloody appearance. Deepen the red details of the spider by adding more red on the lower lid to mirror the top lid. Use white paint to add extra details and highlights to the legs and body, giving them a more 3-dimensional appearance. Place highlights on the joints, along the edge of the legs and anywhere light may reflect off of the spider.

Step 6: Add Shadows of Legs Over Lips

With the reddish-brown blend from before, paint shadows for eight more legs around your lips - four small shadows above the mouth and four longer shadows below. Use more water when you apply these shadows to make the paint lighter. This will cause the paint to look sheer when it dries, and give the illusion of shadows.

Step 7: Blacken Lips and Add Dark Legs

Paint the lips black to form another spider’s body. Add the legs above the mouth shadows and make sure they correspond with the placement of the shadows. To do this, you’ll repeat the steps we did earlier on the eye and paint the legs beside the shadows, not over them. Add in angles for joints to give a creepy illusion that the second spider is moving over the mouth.

Step 8: Highlight the Legs Around the Mouth

With white paint, add highlights to the spider legs around the mouth. Accentuate the joints of the legs as well as the sides and the tips to make them really pop. This will add to the illusion of movement that we created in the previous step.

Step 9: Add Cracks and Highlights to Accentuate the Hole Under the Eye Spider

Now for more details! Let’s make it really seem like the spider is breaking out of your face. With black paint, add a bit more water to lighten the color. Paint lines to make it look like cracks are coming out of the eye socket hole around the spider. This will give the illusion that the spider is truly pushing out of the eye socket, causing fractures to the face. Use white paint to highlight these features.

Step 10: Detail the Spider Legs with Tiny Hairs

Now let’s add some detail to the spider legs to make them seem even more realistic. Return to the black paint and add some small hairs to the legs. Paint these in light strokes coming off of each leg. You can add as much as you like depending on how hairy and fuzzy you’d like your spider to be. These details will give the spider more of a lifelike appearance to amp up the spooky factor.

Step 11: Highlight All Details

With white paint, go back over your design and add more highlights to necessary areas. Where would your spider’s body glow if a light was shone on it? Add some highlights there, then finish up the highlights of the painted cracks. Your design will truly pop with these details.

Now you’re finished. Your spooky spider look is ready!

Finished. Spider is ready!

Oh my goodness! There’s a spider crawling out of your eye! Arteza Face Paints are so smooth to apply and can help to make your design look incredibly realistic. Body art paints are incredibly long-lasting, so you can go out all night without the fear of smudging or smearing your look like you might’ve with more oily paints. You’ll definitely be spooking your friends into believing there’s truly a spider coming out of your face. For more Halloween inspiration, check out our other tutorials or our artist Cristina Mondragon’s website.