This jolly Big Nose Santa is sure to win the hearts of your Christmas party guests this year, so I wanted to get his tutorial up in plenty of time for you to practice the simple steps.
Materials
• Skin tone palette (TAG)
• White face paint (Diamond FX)
• Black face paint (Diamond FX)
* Red face paint (Paradise)
• Brown face paint (Paradise)
• Light blue face paint (TAG)
• #4 round brush
• #2 round brush
• Small filbert brush
• Sponge
• Snowflake stencil (optional)
• Cosmetic glitter (optional)
Tutorial
Begin by painting the nose and ears with a small filbert and your choice of skin tone from a skin tone palette. (If you don't have one of these, I'd recommend you get one. They're very useful when doing anything that requires a skin tone. It's much easier than trying to mix skin tone colors yourself.)
Add the white above for the eyes, eyebrows, and edge of Santa's hat. Below the ears and nose, place a white, flowing beard. Over to one side, you'll see that I created a roughly triangular shape in black edged by more white. This will become Santa's black glove and the cuff of his sleeve.
It's easiest to get your white down before painting in red so that you don't end up with pink. Paint the red hat, red shoulders and an arm, and finally a brown bag using either a #4 round brush or a small filbert. (Don't forget the white ball on the end of Santa's hat.)
Once I had my main colors down, I added some light blue in the background. If you'd like this to be darker, however, just use the color of blue that you prefer.
Add thin black details and outlines with the #2 round brush. You can use the same size brush to add your white highlights to the design. If you have time, a few pale blue lowlights to Santa's beard add a little extra touch to the design.
Our last step is to place falling snow in the background. I decided to make some of these snowflakes large and some of them small. You might also use a snow stencil to make it quick and easy. And of course, glitter is optional at the end. Since my husband isn't a fan of being sparkly, we left it out this time.
I hope your Santa is a hit this December!
Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in Elgin, Illinois, and her artwork has appeared in The Colored Palette and SkinMarkz magazines. She services the western and northwestern Chicago suburbs, Chicago’s north side, and the eastern and southeastern suburbs of Rockford. Stop by Clownantics.com to enjoy more of Beth’s face painting tutorials.