Face painting is a beautiful art of painting done on the faces of the theyyam with dark dyes. Face painting is a form of grooming that requires a lot of skill. Red, black, green, white and yellow colors are mainly used for face writing. A brush for painting is made by crushing the rind of the coconut. Colors are prepared using vermilion, manola, black ink, turmeric powder and lime.
The face writing is done by the face writing artist sitting at the head of the tea tree who is usually lying on a coconut tree. Different Theyas have different types of face writing. For Theyyam like Potan Theyyam and Gulikan, use pre-prepared face mask instead of face painting. The artist is not used to paint the face of the theyam like Muttappa, on the contrary, he looks at the theyam in the mirror and paints it with his hands. Theyyas, who have a more raucous appearance, have the practice of tying eyelets made of velvet along with face painting. Such theyas can see through small holes in the eyelets.