Creative Grooming Ideas for all levels of experience
In Creative Grooming, the possibilities are endless! With so many options, it can be hard to decide what look to give your pup next. To help, we have chosen our favourite looks created by Andis Ambasador, Gabriel Feitosa, to get you inspired. See below for creative grooming ideas for every level of skill, or click the handy links below to jump to your level of expertise:
Simple Designs - Ideal for beginners
Intermediate Designs - These designs will require skill and practise, but are definitely do-able!
Expert designs - Not for the faint of heart, but achievable for skilled creatives, or those looking for a challenge.
Simple Designs:
A Pop of Colour
This design is truly nice and simple, no stencils are required. You will need either the Groom Professional Blow Pens, or the Groom Professional Airbrush, and the colour of your choice. The application is relatively straight forward, you can simply apply the colour using the directions of your selected product. Once coloured, you can accessorize with bows of your choice.
To avoid accidentally colouring the head or the body, you can cut a hole in the center of an old towel. Take the towel and put your dogs ear through the hole, and apply your colour using your blow pens or airbrush. This also works well for colouring tails.
For tips and tricks on how to use your Groom Professional Blow Pens, read our guide on this here.
Zebra Animal Print
Okay, so you're probably thinking "this is a simple design?" Though it looks intricate and rather difficult, a zebra stripe pattern is much simpler than you may think.
To achieve this look, you will need your Groom Professional Airbrush, and the Groom Professional Black Ink. You can create your own stencils using medical tape, washi tape, or masking tape. You can apply the tape to your own skin first to remove some of the stickiness. This works best on a short coat.
Apply the tape to your dogs coat to create the borders for your stripes. Once you are happy with the layout, use black ink in your airbrush to fill in the stripes. Allow the colour to dry for a minute before removing the tape, to avoid the colour running. Once dry, remove the tape and take some photos of your little Zebra!
For tips and tricks on how to use your Groom Professional Airbrush, read our guide on this here.
Intermediate Designs
Flower Child
This design is a bit more complex than the others so far, and will require some experience with colour for the best results.
To achieve this look, we recommend using the Groom Professional Airbrush. While you can achieve this look with blow pens, it will take a much longer time and you may need to stop for breaks, as it can be difficult blowing for extended periods of time.
Start out by creating stencils to block out spaces for the flowers, using a gentle sticker or tape, such as medical or masking tape. You can apply the tape to your own skin first to remove some of the stickiness. The outline doesn't need to be detailed, but should be a solid flower to save the space for details later. Once you have positioned your flower stencils, you can either create wavy stenciled lines using your tape, or you can create the lines freehand. Using pink, yellow and orange (or your preferred colours), create thick squiggly lines of alternating colours, working your way around the whole body.
Once your base is complete, you can remove your flower stencils. Using yellow for the centre and the colour of your choice for the petals, colour in the flowers. Once coloured, you can use black ink to outline the flowers and really make them stand out.
Rainbow Cheetah/Tiger Animal Print
Another super colourful, full body look! For this one, we also recommend using the Groom Professional Airbrush for the easiest application.
This look is a bit of a two-in-one. One side has tiger stripes, and the other has cheetah spots (scroll through the photos to see both). You can either do one or both patterns, depending on your preference.
To achieve the cheetah spots, you will need to create a circle stencil using a gentle sticker or tape, such as medical or masking tape. You can apply the tape to your own skin first to remove some of the stickiness. Create circles of varying sizes, and apply the circles to the coat in a randomly dispersed pattern. These will leave you with negative spaces to colour in at the end.
Moving on to the base, you can start by applying your colour in sections, gradually working your way around the dog. Using a wide range of colours will help to achieve the rainbow look.
Once your base is complete, you can remove your circle stencils to reveal the negative spaces. In these spaces, fill the circles in using a variety of colours. Then, you can take your black ink and draw a C shape around the larger circles, and a full outline on the smaller circles. Repeat this on all circles to achieve the cheetah spot look.
For the tiger stripes, you will apply the base exactly the same, except this time you don't need to worry about creating negative spaces. Once your base is complete, you can add your stripes by freehand using your black ink. Its as simple as that!
Expert Designs:
Marshmallow Twist
This look requires a combination of coat carving and colouring. The colouring of this look is relatively simple, however it's the coat carving aspect that bumps this look into the expert category. We recommend using the Groom Professional Airbrush, and a pair of curved or straight shears.
You will need great scissor skills to carve out indents into the coat to create the illusion of the body twisting. Once you have scissored your outline and created your shape, you can use the Groom Professional Airbrush to add the desired colour to the coat.
Full Body Scene
Full body creative scenes like this one can be a little controversial, as it's not everyone's cup of tea. However, it is undeniable that this form of creative grooming requires a lot of skill. You will need to be comfortable coat carving with clippers and scissors to create the base artwork, which is then filled in with colour using an Airbrush. This style of creative grooming is often seen in Creative Grooming Competitions around the world.
We hope these looks helped inspire you to create your own masterpiece!
Have a look you want to share? Email us your photo to support@allgroom.co.nz or tag us on social media!