help first time doing facepainting stall

I just found you guys, im in Melbourne. I've just done facepainting for my children and friends, last weekend I was out at my husbands grand final and my daughter wanted her face painted, next thing I knew I had other children lining up ( would only do them with parents permission- to my face, not taking the child for their word ) now ive been asked (through my hubby) to do a fundraising event, and they want to know how much I will charge for a 4-5hr session, just 5minutes down the rd (that's all the details I have on it so far). they said they will provide me with food and drink and whatever I need. but I have no idea what I need at an event, how to setup, what to charge. was thinking about $50-60 hr. I also dont know if I need to get my own insurance ( hubby said I should be covered by them, but I don't know if that's actually possible for me to be covered under the clubs insurance). I have a few months to work it out. I only use DFX& snazzaroo, and am very big on hygiene. I haven't got a lot of pics of my work, but im starting to take some.

Hello!
and welcome to the forum. 

Well doing festivals straight off certainly is jumping into the deep end, but it's totally possible, and you say it's not for a while so you can probably get some practice in before then with a few parties or other events.

So down to business.
Don't do less then $60 to start, as you get better raise that up to $75 after the first year, then up again when you are well established and you have added lots of value to your business.

What you need for a festival:
It's great they said they would provide you with everything you need, so here is what is appropriate to expect and ask of them.
~Table
~2 Chairs
~Tent
~Lights and Power (if you will be working at night or in a dark area)

The rest usually is up to you. Thought I have had events in the past even have their own signs and banners that say 'Face Painting'.

So here is what YOU need
~Paints
~Brushes
~Mirror
~Water Container
~Wet Wipes
~Hand Sanitizer
~Iso

I have a blog post that goes into more detail about these items and also helpful extra items, which you can read here.

One of the big things you'll need at the event will me signage. A big banner that says 'Face Painting' is always great.

As for a portfolio of your work, i wouldn't stress about it, it's easier in the beginning to simply make a section board with written words.

I like this idea of having different ones you can stick on and remove as you want to try new things to build your portfolio.



Colorful, easy, and laminated! Also there is no 'expectation' of what the design should look like, so you can play and paint them differently each time and get more images for your eventual photo display.

If you don't have your own insurance it is possible to expect to be covered under the event, you just have to ask them before hand.

Hope this helped!

thankyou so much forest-fairy im very nervous. I don't know if im fast enough for an event, definitely need practice beforehand. need to time myself on multiple faces.

I dove in with a fair in July, now I'm having to subcontract painters. It's sink or swim baby, Good Luck!

I've only done 2 birthday parties, one was my neice and one was a paid gig. I have however done about 20 festivals. It's definitely a LOT different, usually much faster paced, and much longer hours...but I LOVE IT!! I get what my hubby and I call "carnie fever" where all I wanna do is paint at carnivals/festivals hahaha. I love the challenge, the fast pace, and of course the $$$$ comes in so fast!

I think most of it has been covered. I would suggest to you that you paint your own kids and time it. Then add about 2 minutes to each design (to account for asking the kid what they want, getting them in the chair, and loading your brush). Then figure out how many kids you can paint per hour. Your hourly wage should be a direct reflection on how fast you can paint, as well as how well you paint! If you paint really fast, but they suck..you won't get as much per hour, if your paintings are all masterpieces, but you only paint 2 kids/hr....well, same deal...not as much money. Figure out what you're capable and then charge accordingly.

I figured out an hourly wage based on what the normal ppf (pay per face) rate is X's how many kids I can do in an hour, and then round it down so it's a deal.

For instance, I charge $4 for cheek art and $8 for full face designs (really just masks). I can paint about 12-15 kids per hour at a comfortable pace. So 15 X 8= 120....so I would charge maybe $75-$100 per hour. That would get people to feel like they're getting a "deal" hiring me by the hour over pay per face, then if there are kids that want cheek art or something simpler...the amount of kids painted per hour would be a lot more, which makes it an even better value to the person hiring me. Hope that makes sense? Not sure if this is normal standard but it's what I do!

Thankyou all so much. :-) my daughter is very helpful however she wants 50different designs all at once.Lol.she's very particular and none of them are the same. A friends child who is scared to death of getting her face painted, has never let anyone come near her, one day decided to ask me to do it. I feel really lucky and special, I'm still the only person she will let paint her... A little off topic but wanted to share( she was my motivation to seriously consider taking on this stall) it would be prepaid, told they normally pay between $450-600 &wanted to know what I would charge. With My skill level, beginner-intermediate I wouldn't feel right charging a higher price. This is definitely helpful being on here. I have done 6masks,2 full pirates, zombie and 3 (3-5cm) scars (scars on 2different children)with the extra skin in an hr.

If you're daughter loves being painted that's awesome!  If you want to speed things up, you could pick X amount of designs you want to offer and paint them all on your daughter (time it as well so you know how long each takes) and take a picture.  Print and display these pictures at your setup so people can see exactly what you're offering for designs and what they can expect from you.

This will speed the, "uhm... I want... I want... maybe a... no... hmm..." (the undecided) AND you won't have to worry about someone asking for a three legged pink unicorn on top of a blue and yellow mountain with fire raining down from the sky with the battle of Helm's Deep in the background.

However, if you're being paid by the hour, this can be less of an issue, lol.

lol, 3 legged pink dragon, etc. i've had the "can i get this design on one side of my face, this other design on the other side, and this third design on my arm.". wherupon i have to point out that other kids are waiting in line and i can really only do one design per person.

Lol. The 3legged unicorn, battle of helms deep isn't far off the requests my daughter has had. Haha. Yeah thinking I will tell them other people are waitingand they will have to get back in line if they want another that way it's fair for all who are waiting. What do you tell kids who have run out of room for painting and still want more painted? I had that at the baseball final and it stumped me. They kept going to the back of the line. How many people should I do before cleaning my paints or do I clean them between each person? I generally don't double load,i use splitcakes. Was thinking iwould do up 10-15 cards/tickets then take a break, clean paints&go to the toilet etc. And start again.

"paint isn't made of money!"

i have designated brushes for colors, as much as possible - one for red/pink, one for orange/yellow, one for blue/green/purple, one for brown/grey/black, white linework, black linework, etc. think i got that tip here somewhere?

so less rinsing between colors and paint doesn't get soaked. rinse brushes thoroughly off and on, toss water when it gets a bit muddy looking, clean brushes with 70% isopropyl alcohol if i drop, or need to use for lips (usually use cotton swabs).

from what i have read, i believe the canadian folks have stringent disinfect between each person laws? you can choose to do that for extra cleanliness even if it's not mandated.

jlirie wrote:from what i have read, i believe the canadian folks have stringent disinfect between each person laws? you can choose to do that for extra cleanliness even if it's not mandated.

We have some people here that can certainly speak to that (not me though... I'm a newbie, lol).

That being said, in the US, it's not a big deal... I watched a video about cleaning your brushes from another face painter on YouTube (hoping for some cool tips but I pretty much do the same stuff) and she did a FOUR hour event and only used 4 sponges... and also does not clean brushes between people.

Wanted to be sure since its public not ppl I know... with family and family friends I have used 1sponge or brush for each colours (red&orange I use same brush, same with shades of blue) and simply rinsed brushes with (matesse brush&hand) cleaner-water. But didn't do paints til ifinished with all (8-10 faces) wet wipes. But if I got a different colour mixed in my paint, I would wet wipe that one while next person sat down. Lips I'm using cotton tips, but conflicted between waste of resources & better hygiene. (hygiene always win but I'm looking for a less wasteful way)

several face painters advise not using wet wipes, either on paints or on kids faces, as sometimes the ingredients can be irritating. then people might blame the paints.

if i need to clean off paint cakes at an event, i slop some extra water on the surface with a brush, swish it around to dilute the other color(s), then tip the cake sideways and drain or brush off the water. repeat if necessary.

cotton swabs, of course, can do 2 kids, one end for each kid. some people use several brushes for lips in rotation, sanitize them with 70% alcohol and let them dry between kids.

That sounds like a better idea. :-) thanks. I use baby wipes, but will stop using it on paints. I will let the parents decide if it's ok to use wipes on the child.

lol, clean up your own kid

I have a little container with small cut squares of paper towel, and a atomizer of soap/water mix. If ever i need to clean a kids face I use that. If it's a busy line, or i don't feel like it. I'll spray the piece of paper towel and hand it to the parent "Here we go! Now if i can just get mum to clean the canvas for me."

Then I'll prep my sponge, or paints, or tidy up my work station for a few seconds while i put the parent to work lol.

But yeah not a good idea to use wet wipes on the face. I use them mainly to quickly clean the paint off my hands, or wipe surfaces on my station like the ends of brushes, the area around the paints, lids, cases, or whatever.

"clean the canvas", good line

Lol yeah, I won't do it, will give them or the kid the wipes to do it themselves. Here's the mirror go for it... :-P

It depends on the situation for me, ask to who cleans the child. it's a mom who obviously needs trained--she does it. If it's a cutie patootie who slipped through the crack, I will often do it to get to know them before painting. (Their parents are generally mortified that they didn't notice.)

I got a kid I paint every few months the other night, and after handing mom a wet wipe, mom used it, and generously put it dirty back into my paint case--
not my trash receptacle, not the bin on the way out the door--but next to my paint inside my case. Yuk!

eww!

Yep...kids gets wolfe black kitty next time...

ooh you are so bad!

I was going to make a long winded post about other reasons why i stopped using wet wipes, but instead I made a blog post about it!

Enjoy.

http://lookingglasspainting.blogspot.ca/2014/09/4-reasons-wet-wipes-are-bad-for-face.html

good points there, as with a lot of other things, err on the side of caution with other people's kids. fortunately, i can use wet wipes on my own face without incident.

your soapy water spray reminded me of something, am i safe in assuming you dump it out and rinse the bottle thoroughly after each event?

i have well water where i live, which harbors some non toxic but alive microorganism critters (algae, bacteria?). i had a bottle of diluted soapy water for light cleaning at home, which got all scummy & stringy inside after awhile. major eww..

Both of you have good points. Hmm what about washers then? 20 or so, once they're used rinse off, antibacterial soap&water. End of event chuck through machine...