Pull back the person's hair so it is out of the face. Dip the top half of one side of a high density face-painting sponge into a container of gold-colored face paint. Rub the gold paint on the person's face until it covers the forehead, nose, cheeks and chin. Leave only the skin immediately around the eyes and mouth unpainted.
Dip the bottom half of the sponge into pale yellow-colored face paint and apply it around the eyes and above the eyebrows. Ask your subject to close his eyes, and paint his eyelids pale yellow as well. Apply the pale yellow so that it goes about 1 inch below the eyes to the tips of the cheekbones.
Dip the top half of the other side of the face-painting sponge into rust brown-colored face paint. Apply it the the left and right sides of the forehead, cheeks and bottom of the chin. Use it to add depth and shading to the face.
Dip the bottom half of the unused side of the face painting sponge into white face paint and apply it to the upper lip area, between the upper lip and nose, so no flesh-colored skin remains on the person's face.
Dip a face-painting brush into black face paint. Draw a curved "v" beneath the nose that extends around the nostrils. Paint the top lip black and create curved lines on either side of the top lip that curl upward toward the "v" to create the mouth of the lion. Paint a thin line extending from the bottom of the "v" down to the top of the upper lip. Draw six dots on either side of the line inside the white area between the nose and upper lip to give the impression of whiskers.
Draw an outline in black paint with the brush around the eyes with outer corners that slant upward. Add small lines around the perimeter of the pale yellow paint and sides of the nose to give the impression of fur. Outline the bottom of the lower lip in a thin line of black paint.
Clean the brush and dip it into the rust brown color. Add vertical lines on the forehead above the eye detail for additional shading.