Christmas Face Paint Designs with Kathy Alesandria

The holiday season brings an exciting rush of face painting events, from tree lightings to Christmas parties. Professional face painter Kathy Alesandria understands the challenge of creating festive designs quickly while keeping quality high. In this webinar, she shares her favorite fast Christmas face painting designs that are perfect for busy holiday gigs.

Meet Your Instructor: Kathy Alesandria

Kathy Alesandria (also known as Kathy Vergara) is a professional face painter known for her exceptional line work and efficient design techniques. A proud left-handed artist, she brings a unique perspective to face painting education and has developed numerous quick designs that work perfectly for high-volume events. Her approach focuses on creating impressive results without sacrificing speed, making her techniques ideal for professional face painters working holiday events.

Products List

• Fusion Split Cakes (Green palette used for Grinch)
• Fortune Split Cake(Shimmery gold-brown for reindeer)
• Paradise Teal Face Paint
• Prime Pink Sorbet and Cardinal Red
• Marcella Bustamante Half Inch Flat Brush
• Paint Pal Number Four Swirl Brush
• Petal Angled Brush
• Vivid Gleam Avalanche Glitter Cream (with snowflake confetti)

Disclaimer:
For any products mentioned or used by the artist that are not available on our website, we will provide you with an alternative or a suggested brand that we carry.

The Grinch: A Holiday Favorite

The Grinch consistently ranks as one of the most requested Christmas designs, and Kathy demonstrates how to create this character quickly using efficient techniques. She starts with a split cake from Fusion Body Art, applying green paint with a three-quarter inch flat angled brush to create the distinctive muzzle shape that defines the character.

The key to a fast Grinch design lies in understanding his defining features. Kathy emphasizes creating that characteristic muzzle area first, using the back of the brush to fill in quickly. She adds the curved forehead inspired by the baby Grinch, complete with that adorable curly hair detail. The angry eyebrows and scruffy line work add personality without requiring precision, making this design forgiving for painters at any skill level.

For painters wanting to add a feminine touch, Kathy suggests adding a red bow before outlining. She also recommends adding glitter to make the design more festive and eye-catching, particularly appealing for holiday events where sparkle is expected.

Creating an Adorable Reindeer Design

Reindeer designs are incredibly popular during the Christmas season, and Kathy's approach makes them achievable in just minutes. She uses the Fawn and Fortune split cake by Crave, which features a shimmery gold-brown color perfect for creating that festive holiday feeling. The design works beautifully as both a full face and a cheek design.

The technique starts with creating petal-shaped ears, followed by distinctive U-shapes where the antlers will attach. Kathy emphasizes the importance of getting these structural elements right, as they make the reindeer instantly recognizable. She adds a bright red nose using a half-inch flat brush, painting over the eyelids to create a cohesive look.

To elevate the design, Kathy demonstrates blending gold paint with a sponge to soften harsh edges and add dimension. White highlights applied with a Filbert brush create the antlers using three teardrops, though she notes you can simplify to two if time is tight. The antlers can be transformed into candy canes or peppermints for extra holiday flair, and she finishes with carefully placed highlights and delicate line work that adds professional polish.

Fast and Festive: The Holly Design

When speed is absolutely essential, Kathy's holly design delivers maximum impact in minimal time. This three-minute design proves perfect for events where you need to move through a long line quickly while still creating something special. She demonstrates the design on a board, completing it in exactly three minutes from start to finish.

The technique begins with three red berries clustered together, followed by green leaves painted with a Pretty Petal angled brush from Silly Farm. Kathy fills the inside of each leaf quickly, adding a second leaf if time permits. While the paint dries, she uses that waiting time productively by adding white teardrop accents, ensuring no moment is wasted.

The outlining technique showcases Kathy's emphasis on varying line weight, going heavier toward the inside of the leaves and lighter toward the tips. This simple variation makes the design look more professional and polished. White highlights and optional glitter complete this speedy design that works beautifully as both a standalone piece or combined with other elements.

Mastering Line Work and Teardrops

Throughout the webinar, Kathy emphasizes that strong line work can elevate any design from basic to impressive. She demonstrates this principle with a snowflake design, showing how teardrops can be created from multiple angles. Her technique involves applying more pressure on the outside of each teardrop and lighter pressure as you bring it inward.

Kathy shares various teardrop styles including standard teardrops, double teardrops, backward teardrops, and teardrops with hooks or tails. She explains when to use each style based on the area you're painting and the direction that feels most comfortable. Her constant use of her pinky as an anchor point helps maintain stability and creates cleaner, more controlled lines.

For painters wanting to practice, Kathy recommends creating snowflakes repeatedly, as they require teardrops from every angle. This exercise naturally improves your teardrop technique while creating beautiful holiday designs. She also suggests using larger brushes like a number four for speed events and smaller liner brushes for more delicate, detailed work.

Snowman and Christmas Tree Variations

Kathy demonstrates how to adapt her snowflake technique into a charming snowman design by replacing the central snowflake with a snowman's head. She paints the head in an unconventional flattened circle shape, leaving the top portion unpainted since it will be covered by the black hat. This approach prevents paint mixing and saves valuable time.

The snowman receives personality through simple details: dot eyes, a carrot nose, and a smiling mouth created with dots or a simple curved line. The same swirling line work used in the snowflake design frames the snowman beautifully, creating a cohesive infinity or figure-eight shape around the face.

For Christmas trees, Kathy acknowledges they're not her personal favorite due to the multiple colors and brush changes required. However, she shares a streamlined approach using a half-inch angled brush to create elongated petal shapes for the tree branches. Yellow serves double duty as both the star topper and tree lights, while white snow details replace more time-consuming ornaments and tinsel. This practical approach maintains the festive feeling while significantly reducing painting time.

Pro Tips for Holiday Face Painting Success

Throughout the webinar, Kathy shares valuable insights from her years of professional experience. She emphasizes the importance of strategic glitter placement, using products like Vivid Gleam's Avalanche glitter cream with snowflake confetti to add impact without additional time. The opaque white dots in this glitter create a snowy effect instantly.

When working with preteen boys who rarely request face painting, Kathy advises taking whatever design they want and adapting it with Christmas colors. Popular options include mustaches, flames, and sports themes executed in red and green. Her philosophy centers on meeting clients where they are rather than forcing traditionally festive designs.

For managing wiggly children, Kathy demonstrates her technique of keeping one hand firmly on top of the child's head. This hand serves as an early warning system, allowing her to feel movement before it becomes dangerous. This simple safety measure has prevented countless accidents throughout her career.

She also addresses paint application on different surfaces, noting that split cakes and sponges create faster coverage than brushes alone. However, she prefers spraying water onto her sponges rather than her paints, maintaining better control over paint consistency, especially in humid conditions.

Building Your Holiday Design Menu

Kathy's approach to menu design focuses on realistic time management. For three-minute speed events, she recommends limiting choices to ultra-fast designs like the holly. At typical parties with moderate time pressure, designs like the Grinch, reindeer, and snowman work perfectly, typically taking five to seven minutes each when executed efficiently.

She encourages painters to experiment with designs even while working, noting that while not every design will be your personal favorite, strong fundamentals in line work and composition ensure client satisfaction. The key lies in placing focal points correctly and maintaining harmonious balance across the face.

For painters concerned about skill level, Kathy emphasizes that these designs work for beginners through advanced painters. The Grinch's scruffy nature makes it forgiving, while the reindeer and snowman offer opportunities to practice line work and highlights. Starting with stencils for elements like snowflakes builds confidence before attempting freehand work.

Essential Products from This Webinar

Kathy's kit features carefully selected products that maximize efficiency without sacrificing quality. She uses Fusion Body Art split cakes for the Grinch, appreciating the easy loading and vibrant colors. The Crave Fawn and Fortune split cake provides that special shimmery quality perfect for holiday designs. Paradise teal, Prime pink sorbet, and cardinal red round out her color palette for these festive designs.

Her brush selection emphasizes versatility and quality. The Marcella Bustamante half-inch flat brush handles larger areas efficiently, while the Paint Pal number four swirl brush excels at line work and teardrops. The Silly Farm Pretty Petal angled brush creates perfect leaves and detail work. For finest details, she relies on number one and number four round brushes.

The Vivid Gleam Avalanche glitter cream with snowflake confetti serves as her secret weapon for instant holiday sparkle. This product eliminates the need for hand-painting individual snowflakes or dots, saving significant time while creating impressive visual impact.