Sneakadoodle Elf Tutorial Makes Christmas Face Painting Fun

Tonight a friend stopped by for dinner, and we began talking about all the funny things people do with elves during the Christmas season to entertain their children. As a professional nanny of many years, she has had plenty of good ideas for making elves act particularly mischievous, but this little Sneakadoodle elf peeking down from her hair line was a new one for her. Follow the steps below to make your own Sneakadoodle elf.

Materials

• Red face paint
• Green face paint
• Paradise silver face paint
• Black face paint
• White face paint
• Blue face paint
• TAG skin tone palette
• Light pink face paint
• BAM star stencil
• Sponge or dauber
• #5 round brush
• #1 round brush
• Small filbert brush
• Cosmetic glitter (white iridescent)

Tutorial

Begin by painting two eye shapes right in the center of the forehead with your #5 round brush and white. These should be slightly above the eyebrow line as shown.

Fill in the face shape, ears, and neck of the elf with the small filbert brush and the skin tone of your choice from the TAG skin tone palette. It’s a good idea to go around the eyes as well, just in case the hat doesn’t come all the way to the eyes.

Use a #5 round brush to create the white trim for the hat, and then use a #5 round brush to add the center and arms for the shirt with green, leaving room for the suspenders. Also create green stripes going from long to short until you reach just above the tip of the nose.

Add the red suspenders in the shirt and red stripes to the hat with your #5 round brush. Use the same size brush to add a pink dot to each cheek and to create the round silver bell on the tip of the nose.

Use a dauber or sponge loaded with white over the BAM star stencil to make a background of white stars and apply white iridescent cosmetic glitter to them for extra sparkle. Keep your sponge or dauber barely damp or the face paint will bleed underneath the stencil.

Use your #1 round brush to add a slender black outline to your elf. You can give him any expression you like, but I decided to use a surprised look as though he wasn’t expecting to find himself hanging down out of someone’s hair. Outlining the bell on the nose is tricky, so take your time and work carefully in this area.

As a last step, add some white highlights along the inner edges of the drawing here and there. I hope this happy little elf makes your Christmas celebration a little more jolly this year. Happy painting!

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. Stop by Facepaint.com to check out her other face painting blog posts and tutorials. If you’re on Facebook, join the Facepaint.com Challenge Group to showcase your artwork and have a chance to win a store credit for each week’s challenge.