How do I learn quick designs for festivals?

I'm a brand-spanking new face painter. I'm completely sucked into this hobby and hope to make some "fun money" doing this on the side. I really admire everyone's work I've seen on this site! Have my first 2 paid birthday parties this month. I aspire to paint at craft fairs and festivals in the fall. I've been practicing pretty detailed full face designs. What is the best (and free if possible) way to learn quick designs for festivals?

The quickest designs are ones you already know and are good at. I think theres a topic in this forum about top girl designs and boy designs so you can pick what you like and practice them. For me the Butterfly for girls and spiderman for boys I do them so much Im faster than usual. In my experience if you let people pick off the top of their head or from online it'll take you forever because you don't know how to do it (:

I just posted my new boards on this thread:
http://www.facepaintforum.com/t11506-starblend-ideas

I think the consensus is you should pick 12 designs and get really good at them and then work up from there. The parties I'm getting asked for the most are Princess, Jungle & Superheroes. I had one that was Garden party and that was fun but it was mostly princess stuff with flowers thrown in.

Don't try to do contest faces at a party, they are too detailed. Keep to designs that take about 5 minutes because there are constant interuptions at parties and when I try to bling out or go crazy I spend way too much time. Get good at the basics and Wow them.

D.

Hi Denise
What have you used to actually colour your board? Do you use starblends and facepaints or some other normal paint for artwork (not facework lol).
Thanks for your help!
Stacey

The animal board is all Starblends right on the board and then sealed with hairspray. Lasted me a year. The painting still looks great but the board got faded over time. One the girl and boy boards it's a mix of face paint and Starblends.

for me, my FASTEST are my tigers....I don't know why, but i'm extra quick with them.


I lay down 3 bounces on the nose and eyes in white, 3 bounces on the forehead and cheeks in yellow, and I pick a color of the kid shirt and bounce that around to blend...


dip my brush in black, a #6 leow cornnell 700 series round, and coat the nose, a line, curve up the lips for a muzzle, and a few stripes.

done.

literally takes me 2 minutes if my kit is already open and set up.




I don't know why it is so much faster than everything else, maybe because I think it is so cute...

my most famous face, requested at every party and event, is the pink kitty...takes even less time.a bounce of white, a bounce of pink, a few black lines, and i'm all done.



what I've learned (though admittedly I am still new also) is that as long as you have good line work-good control of your brush strokes, all you need is some background colors....your lines are what add the details.


when i'm painting the lil teenagers on my block, I sponge on any color, and doodle a few lines and it comes out fantastic for 2 reasons-#1 the colors match their clothing, so it is already flattering. #2 my linework.

When I work, I try to avoid designing with lines I am not too great at. if the design calls for a swirl, I will put my own creative twist on it with a tiger line that I KNOW I can do well....and vise versa...

i'm not great at tear drops, so I will substitute a swirl. of course, i'm much better with teardrops these day, but that's not my point...



my point is this:customers don't know what YOUR VERSION of the final product is going to look like.so master the basic principals of the designs and then ADD YOUR FLAIR.


for me, my spiderman is also very very fast.but I do it MY way.

if you check out that design, almost every painter does their own version of spiderman....
it is easy for me to draw that eye shape, but others end up with a triangle.do you think the kid or parents care?no-because the colors are right-white eyes, red skin, black lines.