Today is my birthday. I’m in my thirties; I don’t need to reveal how deep into my fourth decade I am, but deep enough that every birthday hurts just a little more (I mean literally; there are aches.) What do aging aching cookiers do for their birthdays? Cue up all the best NPR podcasts and cookie all day.
Today I am sharing some serious grownup Halloween cookies (because I’m a grownup with grownup aches.) To make these cookies, you must first create and cutout the stencil shapes. The subject here is a skeleton head (it looks orange because it is covered in airbrush color. I tested this out a few times before taking the pictures for the tutorial.)
Place your shape on a fully dry, iced cookie. You will need something to weigh down the home-made stencil. You can use lots of things as weights, but they should not be too heavy or at all sharp. They also should not be round, because they will just roll right off. This sadly excludes most pie weights, which would otherwise be the perfect size and weight.
Holding your airbrush about a foot off the cookie, spray ivory air brush color directly down onto the cookie (if you go at an angle, it will get under the stencil.) I am not at all an expert with the airbrush, but the lines here are pretty sharp. Good enough for me.
Wait until the airbrush color has completely dried before proceeding to the next step (about 20 mins.)
For the next step, you will need black airbrush color, a very fine paintbrush, a watercolor palette (or a dessert plate, as I use), a little bit of patience, and a very steady hand. I prefer painting with airbrush colors because they are thinner and don’t need to be watered down at all but you can also use thinned black gel food coloring for this step.
You can start painting the details right onto the shape, but I am not that good. To paint these skulls, I created a template for myself by drawing in the major details and cutting out the major shapes (here, I cut out the eyes and nose). Place the template over the cookie and paint the eyes and nose through the cut holes.
This will give you enough of a base to start filling in more details, including the lines for the temples and jaw. Next, draw the teeth.
Add lines extending up from the front top teeth and down from the bottom teeth. Add lines around the eyes and chin, which will serve as guides for the shading and details.
Add shading to give it depth and detail.
And here is our dearly departed dude hanging out with his other spooky friends, waiting (now in my freezer) for Halloween:
Snickerdoodledoo 
[…] other trick I used on these cookies was to create a parchment effect with the airbrush, similar to these cookies from […]
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