We got about 6 to 8 inches of snow in Chicago this weekend, so to celebrate, I thought a wintry penguin design would be in order. This little fellow doesn’t mind the wind and the snow at all. He likes it much better than his human counterparts, even if he does wear a hat and scarf. (My husband kindly helped me out with this design, but he wasn’t allowed to smile because icebergs look odd with wrinkles.)

Materials:

• TAG one-stroke split Bluebird
• Diamond FX white
• Diamond FX black
• Paradise light blue
• Paradise red
• TAG orange
• #1 round brush
• #2 round brush
• #5 round brush
• 1/2-inch flat brush

Tutorial:

1. Begin by making the iceberg with your 1/2-inch flat brush and Paradise light blue. Load your brush from the light side of the TAG Bluebird one-stroke split cake. Starting with the top row with the white side of your brush on the top, make several rows of wave shapes at the base of the iceberg.

Load your #5 round brush with white and paint the top of the iceberg white, pulling strokes down toward the bottom of the iceberg.

Add an egg-shape on top of the iceberg with the white.

2. Use the #2 round to add the blocks of color for the hat, scarf, feet, and beak of the penguin using red and orange.

3. Use the #5 round brush to add windy swirls over the eye and just under the eye. I like to add details like this to cheek art, because it’s a quick and appealing way to extend a cheek art design so that it covers more of the face and makes it look more natural, touching the focal points. In this way a cheek art design doesn’t look like a small piece of art just stuck on a cheek and not really connected to the overall face shape. With the #2 round brush, add some dots and snowflakes around the design.

4. Finally, use the #1 round brush to add the black portion of the penguin and online the design carefully.

5. As a last step, use the #1 round brush to add white highlights to your design, and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Beth MacKinney is the owner of and primary face painter for Face Paint Pizzazz in the NW Chicago suburbs. She also writes for Examiner.com as the Chicago Face Painting Examiner.