Owner of FacePaint.com, Blake Cabot, was joined live on Zoom and Facebook by talented face paint artist Pam Kinneberg who showed us some amazing winter face paint designs! 

Winter Design #1: Frosty Snowflake

The first design I'm going to do, is the one I have on myself, so you can see it in person, and this is meant to be a really quick line buster. It could be for a boy or a girl, and it's a really quick and easy design to do, so let's get going!

I'm going to start with using a 3/4" flat brush from the Art Factory, and I'm going to be using the Kraze Sea Wave Domed One-Stroke. I love this one because it has a little purple included with the blues, so that gives it a little bit of added depth and dimension. So I also have the full sized one, but the one-stroke is great and works really well for this design, so we'll start with this. These one-strokes are also domed, as you can see the middle part is raised, and the ends go down a little, so that the water doesn't create a hole in the middle of your one-stroke, so that's a really nice plus to these.

I'm going to load my brush back and forth. What you want to do is start from the corner of the eye with the white in the corner. When I do it on the eye, I kind of start with my brush angled, and then I turn as I go, and then I go up, so that the dark paint remains on the outer edge. And you just kind of twist the brush around and go up. I ran out of water there a little bit, so I'm going to load again. And you want a nice little curve on the end of it there.

As always, doing this on a practice board, is slightly different than doing it on your face, as these practice boards aren't exactly the way a child's face is - they're a little big larger. But, you get the idea and they work really well. So I'm just loading my brush again, and make sure I have enough paint, and then I'm going to do the stroke along the cheekbone. Typically, this blue/purple, will be coming down to the corner, so I'm just going to fill that in a little bit. Then, I'm going to go from the corner of the eye, and I'll go up, and then turn it down in one fell swoop. You're almost making a funky S-shape.

I'm going to take one of these Mehron Hydra Foam sponges (orange sponge) and I love these for stencils, so I just sprayed the sponge with water and then I'm going to load some Kraze FX White on it. I'm also making sure the sponge is not too wet. So you rub it over quite a bit of times, as you can see, just rubbing it over the paint, it gets sort of tacky. And I always test it on my hand, and that's not too wet.

Then I will use this stencil, which is a Tinks Flower Diva Stencil. I'm going to position the stencil right where the curve is, up near the eyebrow, and I'm not going to do the whole flower, I'm going to do just part of it. I'm going over the stencil with my sponge, and you can also spray some glitter on top, and then there you have your first stencil. Then I'm going to do one more down at the bottom of the design. Again, I'm only going to do a portion of it. I line it up so that the blue meets right up with these two top petals. Tap the sponge over it, and make sure you get all the little nooks and crannies, and then I'll spray that with glitter.

I always keep one of these really funky unicorn brushes in my kit. The kids always comment on this - they want me to use this on their face. So it can't really be used for paint, but what I use it for is to remove all excess glitter off of their faces if it's gotten everywhere, and they think it's the greatest.

It takes some time to learn how to practice on a board. I did struggle with it for a while, and like with everything, it just takes practice. It IS very different than painting on skin. The paints go on differently, the stencils go on differently, but you CAN learn after repeated practice, you can learn to do it correctly. And these particular practice boards are my favorite. They work so much better than any practice board I've ever had. So if you don't have these Svetlana practice boards, I'd highly encourage you to get some.

Now we're just going to do some line work. I'm using a #2 round Blazin Brush by Marcella and I'm going to use the white again. There are only just a few lines that we have to do on this one, but one of the things you need to remember on this design, is that there is an imaginary line that goes from the corner of the eye to the end. The corner of the eye will have some dots and stars, and the end of the eye will have a straight line. From that straight line, I'm going to do a teardrop down to the corner of the eye. Then I'm going to put another teardrop that crosses over it and goes down to the corner. Down at the bottom of the design, I'm going to do another little curved teardrop that goes to the center of that flower, and then you'll follow the curve going up, with another teardrop. Then I'll do three little teardrops that go into the outer corner of the eye.

At this point, I'm just going to add some glitter and we're done! What I use for loose chunky glitter is this Global BodyArt Face and Body Paint. It's like a gel and it's really sparkly. Then I take a little flat brush, dip it into the gel, and this will act as my glue for the loose glitter. I'm going to use this blue glitter and just dab it right on where I put the gel on. To finish it off, I'm going to use the Silver Liquid Bling and I'm going to put little dots at the end of each of these little points on the ends of the flowers. I go out from each petal, and I do three little dots.

Winter Design #2: Pine Cone

I'm going to start on the next design, and it is a pine cone design. So it's something that you see around in the winter. It's going to have some snow-type stuff on it.

This is just going to be a side design, it's not going to be a full face design, so I'm going to give some color to the eyelid area. So I'm using one of these petal sponges. I like those for the eyelids because this end has a really narrow point and it doesn't get all over this part, and it keeps you from getting it too messy. I'm going to use this split cake, and it's called Mermaid Pixie Rainbow Cake. You can also use another one, and this is a Kraze Nebula Split Cake, which is very similar, but I'm just missing some of the blue in here, because I've used this so much.

So I'm just rubbing across, getting all of these initial colors. I'm going to avoid getting the purple, so I've just got the blues and the greens on. It takes a little bit to get some of the white on - you have to really get that in there. Then I'm just going to sponge that on the eyelid. Once we have that, we're going to do some pine tree bows. Again, I'm going to take this 3/4" Art Factory brush, and I'll use this split cake that I made myself. I used it last time on my webinar for Christmas designs, and I'm using it again. It works really great for pine bows. I like the fact that is has blue in it, so it's not just green - it gives it a really nice look to the greens when you have blue in there.

Before I do this part, I'm going to take some of this FAB Dark Brown and make the branches of this pine bow. I'm going to put one above the eyebrow, one to the side of the eye, and one underneath. I'm loading my brush up again with my own split cake, and to make the pine branches, you just hold your brush straight up and down, and I have the darker color in this center, but you could do it either way. Then you just go down that center line. It's not perfectly even, you can move your brush back and forth and make them at varying lengths. So I've got one side, and then I go back in to the other side.

I've got this part now, and I'm going to let it dry. There I've got the start to my branches, and I'm going to load one more time with my one stroke. What I'm going to do for the final step on these pine branches, I'm going to go down the center, and put needles down the center. One thing that is good to do, is to make sure that you have your light color. I want to pick up more of that light green, so I'm going to reload it so that it works better. Then you can see what the tip of the needle is like.

Again, these practice boards they don't work like the skin, so this is just a little more difficult getting this correct on here. But if you can see, that center part looks like the needles are coming towards you. So I'm going to do that to the other branches as well.

Now we go to the pine cone. And this is where I want to show you how to do a really simple, pretty easy pine cone, and it looks really realistic. I'm taking a Mark Reid #4 round brush, and I'm going to load it with white, but before I start, I'm going to quadruple load this brush. I'm going to load it with white, with FAB light brown, with Superstar Berry Wine, and with FAB dark brown. So I'm loading it with all of these colors. When you do that, before you begin loading, spritz the colors with water to get them a little wet. You don't have to get them really wet, just a little wet.

Then I'm going to continue by loading my brush completely with white so I've got the whole thing loaded with white. Once you have your brush loaded, I take a sponge, and I just drag the end of it along the sponge so that I remove some of the white off the tip. Then, the first color I'm going to load it with is FAB light brown. I want it to go up at least halfway up the brush. Then I'm going to take a little bit off the brown, and load it with the Berry Wine, and that goes up about a fourth of the way. Lastly, I'm just going to load the tip with the darkest brown.

You're going to start on the tip of the pine cone, not fat end. This is going to be an upside down pine cone. I'm going to press down, and that's your first little pine cone petal. Then I go down, and then on the other side. As I get towards the bottom, it's widening out. On the bottom, I double tap my brush, so that I create a wider drop. So that's the first part of my pine cone. Before I do the center part, I'm going to do a couple more things on these pine branches because they are now dry.

So I'm going to just do a couple of additional branches. I'm going to load my brush with brown again, and I'll do some sort of squiggly branches. I'm going to vary the pressure of my brush to create squiggly, organic lines. I'm going to start from the corner, go up, and go out like that. So it's sort of like a real, organic, natural branch. Then I'm going to do the same on the other pine branches. These look better on my other one, but this'll have to do!

The other thing about these boards, is that they don't dry very quickly. So it's hard to put colors on top of colors on these boards because it takes forever for these things to dry. So I'm going to reload my brush in a quad load again, and I'm also going to spritz my cakes so that they're ready.

So let's do the center of this pine cone. I'm going to do it something like I did on these pine branches, where I go from side to side, and then in the middle. What I like about using that Berry Wine in there, is that it just gives it a nice added color rather than just all brown. It's a really deep, rich color.

Then I'm just going to put some of those pine cone looking like petals up on my branches. At this point, I have to reload my brush again, and I'm going to add a few of those pine cone petals to my branches. I'm going to load my brush with the Superstar Berry Wine, and I'm going to add some berries to my branches. I'm going to do varying berry sizes to make them look natural, because in nature, they're not all the same size.

Once we have this part down, we're going to put a little bit of snow on the pine branches. To put snow, I just make little dots sporadically on the ends of these branches. I try to make them very unstructured, so it's not like it develops a pattern. Then I'm going to put some highlights on these little berries to make them pop a little bit better.

If you have time, you know how pine cones have a little bit of a sharp pointed end to all of the little petal things? If you want, when you have your white paint brush out, you can go in and just give them a little point.

I'm going to take this Liquid Bling, it is sparkle white, and on top of these snowy areas, you're going to put some of this Liquid Bling. So it's going to be dimensional snow that sparkles in the light.

Winter Design #3: Jack Frost

I'm going to use a 4" round brush. I always carry this in my kit, and it's a Dry Rouge, Youth Red and a kabuki brush. And so this is super easy to use to give rosy cheeks. Then, take your white paint, and we're going to do something really fun!

I'm going to start right above the eyebrow, and make it look like there's snow on the eyebrows. Almost as if snow has fallen and has accumulated on the eyebrow. And I wiggle the brush around a little bit, so it's not a smooth line. Then, do the other eyebrow, but don't do them both identical. Then you're going to paint a snowy mustache, and again you bring the sides down, like it's an icicle coming down. Then do the other side, and it doesn't have to be identical.

Then I'm going to add a bit of shadow using Kraze FX Light Blue. I'll just add that to the undersides, so that you're giving that shadow. Then I'll take a snowflake stencil, and load some white onto a sponge. This is a BAM Stencil with these individual snowflakes. I'm going to put one right above the eyebrow, and another one by the cheek. This is a great boy and girl design!

Products Used in the Webinar:

3/4" Flat Brush from The Art Factory
Kraze FX Sea Wave Domed One-Stroke
Mehron Hydra Foam Sponge
Kraze FX White
Tinks Flower Diva Stencil
#2 Blazin Round Brush by Marcella
Global BodyArt Face and Body Paint Glitter
Silver Liquid Bling
Silly Farm Mermaid Pixie Split Cake
Kraze FX Nebula Split Cake
FAB Dark Brown
Mark Reid #4 Round Brush
FAB Light Brown
Superstar Berry Wine
Dry Rouge, Youth Red
Kabuki Brush
Kraze FX Light Blue
BAM Stencil

Pam Kinneberg Q&A

Q: What are your favorite cakes for Christmas?
A: I don't really have a favorite cake for Christmas yet. I'm still looking for a favorite cake.

Q: Is it easy for you to design using practice boards, or do you use other methods?
A: I use a combination. When I come up with designs, I first go to the web, and I find inspiration from artwork and illustration. For this, I was looking for winter-inspired things. So this is what I created - things that capture my attention when I'm looking for art. So I print them all on a page which inspires me to do different designs. Then, I draw it out on a practice sheet with a pencil typically, before I start practicing on a practice board. Sometimes, I don't even go to a practice board, I practice it on my own face instead.

Q: How much do you use bling on the job?
A: I don't use bling on the job at all, unless it's a pay-per-face event. When it's a pay-per-face event, then it's an add-on to my designs. So they have to pay an extra amount of money to have a piece of bling. But on my regular jobs, when I'm paid to come to an event, I don't use bling then, simply because it's not added in.

Q: I have a hard time using glitter. Sometimes I press too hard, and too much comes out, or I don't press hard enough?
A: I totally get it! One thing that I learned when I was in Mark Reid's class, it takes practice to learn how to do these without getting a big glob out. A really great idea, is to get one of these (Liquid Bling), and just write PRACTICE right on it. And you would only use that one for practice. So you practice putting glitter on in a lighter application, and fill your arm up with glitter. Then, when you're done, you go over the whole thing again, and suck the glitter back up. But just keep practicing, and keep the bottle at an angle.

Thank you again to all who tuned in to this webinar, and a big thank you to Pam for these amazing designs! Stay tuned for more webinars!