Christmas Elf Painting Tutorial | Step-by-Step Acrylic Tutorial for Beginners

In this post, you’ll learn how to paint a cute Christmas Elf in this easy step-by-step acrylic painting tutorial for beginners.

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👉 Want to host a paint party with this tutorial? Here is exactly how you can set up a fun DIY paint party at home.

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Christmas Elf Acrylic Painting Supplies

• Tracing Paper
• Carbon Pencil
• Sketch Pencil
• 8″x10″ Canvas

Paints

• Red Acrylic Paint
• Blue Acrylic Paint
• Yellow Acrylic Paint
• Mars Black
• Titanium White

Brushes

• 3/4″ Flat Wash Brush
• #10 Filbert Brush
• #0 Detail Round Brush

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Christmas Elf Acrylic Painting Steps

Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to paint your very own cute Christmas Elf face.

Step 1: Paint in the Coat and Hat Stripes

With your flat wash brush, mix together equal parts yellow and blue to make the color green. Then load the color onto your brush and paint two 2″ green stripes on the top and bottom edges of the canvas. This will be the coat and top of the hat.

Step 2: Paint in the Skin Tone

Mix together yellow and red with white. This will create a lighter skin tone for our elf. With your flat wash brush, paint a large centered block about 6-8″ wide, making sure to leave 1″ space between the red and skin tone blocks.

Step 3: Paint in the Eyes and Nose

With a detail brush dipped in black, add two circles for the Elf’s eyes and fill it in. Make another larger circle between the eyes to represent the nose.

Step 4: Paint in the Mouth and Cheeks

With your detail brush, paint a wide smile spanning across his face.

To add blush to Santa’s cheek, mix together white and red to make pink. Then, lightly brush on the blush under the eyes with a filbert brush.

Step 5: Outline the Trim

With your detail brush loaded with black paint, outline the entire Elf face, hat, trim, and laugh lines.

Step 6: Paint in the Hat Tip

With your filbert brush loaded with green, paint an upside down triangle on the top right portion of the canvas to represent the tip of the hat.

Then, with a rinsed filbert brush dipped in white, paint a circle at the tip of the triangle to represent the hat trim tip.

Step 7: Outline the Hat

Step 8: Paint in the Trim Embellishments

With your detail round brush dipped in white, create a few trim embellishments on the Elf’s coat, making sure to make a series of “U” shaped curve.

Step 9: Add Final Details

With your detail brush, add a few final details like the eye highlights, to create an extra jolly hint.

Step 10: Step Back and Admire your Work

Christmas Elf Painting Tutorial | Step-by-Step Acrylic Tutorial for Beginners