Super fast face paint designs

Speed is something I still really need to work on. My problem is I am too much a a perfectionist with my full faces.

I have managed to paint at events where you have hundreds of people flying through the doors and you have just a couple of minutes to get team colours on. All I do then is keep my wide brush loaded with a splitcake of the team colours, and then paint flowers, rainbows, butterflies, swirls, and then add a few quick starbursts and dots and a puff of glitter and I am done.

The most I have ever painted has been 150 kids in 90 minutes (I had my Husband there too but he probably did no more than 50). That was pretty epic and in the end I was pretty much just painting a swirl on everyones face with a puff of glitter.

Oh wow. Yeah, definitely don't get down on yourself for not being able to do 45 kids in that short a time... especially with just ONE painter. That's impossible for just about everyone. Next time don't stress yourself and tell the parent it's just not possible. When I first started, I used to get nervous and think that by telling a client that I wouldn't be able to do so many children in such an amount of time, it would ultimately cause me to lose business, but generally they are appreciative of my honesty and agree with me that to it would be best to increase the time they want me. I definitely don't like leaving kids out because of an adult's decision and prefer not to do those gigs with way more kids than there is time, but sometimes you have to. ::sigh:: No one said this job was easy

Hey i am new to the group and have not done any professional jobs, but i have been invited to do one in May. I'm ok for doing girl designs but i need boy designs apart from batman/spider man. Can anyone help me out? Not too complicated though. It's for 5 hours but its at a fate so there will be lots of kiddies!

Caswell Designs FP wrote:I just painted for a school's field day. They hired me for four hours, and the classes were rotating through my "station" every thirty minutes.

I was saddened to find for the first class I was unable to get them all, so for subsequent classes I cut back even more on detail for the quickie designs I was offering.
I had a dragon, princess, puppy, kitty, superhero, flower, snake, scorpion.
Painting at two minutes and under per child, I had an older teacher come up and ask if I could do quicker designs! I said these are my quicker designs!
Well, maybe I could just slap a little heart on their cheeks?
Um, no.
Parents and teachers were impressed, kids were happy.
I was absolutely exhausted.

I know this is an old thread, but that sounds like the exact same situation I encountered at a school I painted recently. Classes were 'herded' over to my face paint station, as in "It's our class's turn for face painting, so now we're ALL going to get face painting", when in reality not all those kids would have chosen to have face painting if it were presented as an option. I painted flat-out like a mad woman all day, and during it all had one teacher pointedly ask me "So what are you doing to entertain the children while they wait?" She looked very unimpressed & completely put out when I politely told her "Sorry, I have no idea about that, I'm just hired to paint"

That is rude of her....maybe she should have been entertaining the kids.

I really, really hate haters. People that LOOK for an an excuse to criticize and find fault with what you are doing rather than empathy for the situation and the inherent difficulties. A REAL WOMAN, a true female, would have seen what was happening and engaged the kids in button, button or got them a coloring page or sang a song with them. She should turn in her lady license.

Agreed Denise! and LOVe your new Avatar!

I know this is an old thread but I have an event coming up that has the possibility of disaster all over it. I spoke with the lady at a design company who booked me for an hour , as that is all the time she has available before a play her company is hosting. There is a possibility of as many as 30 kids so I made sure to let he know that I usually paint 15 kids in an hour so the designs I provide will be simple without a ton of detail. She still booked me and seemed pleased, but I have the jitters.

Sounds like the gig I just did It was yesterday and I ended up getting an extra hour out of it... Suggest starting with the birthday child (host's kids) then continue youngest to oldest. Write #'s on their hands as soon as you get there. Tell them that if they wash of the # they will lose their spot in line. This will deter them from smearing it. Take only your super fast designs! I took Hello Kitty, Rainbow, Cheetah Eye design (big hit), Half Butterfly, Tiger, Spidey Mask, Skull Mask, Facial Wound (big hit), and a few quick cheeky designs like my local teams: Chicago bears, White Sox, Cubs, Green Bay Packers. Also some angry birds since I'm quick at those and they are super popular here. Pick the things you know you can do fast and well. In the end though, you told her what your capable of. She will have to buy more time if she needs it.

Here are my 2 most popular and each takes only 2mins....





Copy away if you like them. The cheetah eye is done with the tag neon one stroke. I use the stick sponge and just swipe it on then I freehand the cheetah prints by just dabbing backward c's...flick out some faux lashes and poof some glitter.(popular for girls of all ages) The facial wound I just lay a base of snaz red then outline in black, drag the 2 colors into each other, then use a number 2 brush to lay "stiches" around it and stipple some blood and smear/flick some in the wound and around...(popular for boys)

Thanks I do believe I will give these a test drive. I figured on, rainbow, hearts w/swirls, flowers with swirls and a butterfly for girls. Spider w/web, monster eye, monster mouth and cuts for boys.... I seem to have a hard time with quick boy designs. I want to do tigers or cheetahs but I still take around 4-5 min for those, so a tiger or cheetah eye would be a great alternative. It is amazing wht I will try to book a weekday gig..

Those all sound like a good idea. I love the cheetah print eye, seems quick and popular

So popular in fact that I get tired of painting it! I start to ask "can I do some zebra stripes instead?" or "can I use this rainbow instead?" nope! They always want it exactly like on my board...even my teenage sister loves it!

LOL I too want to be creative, change it up a bit, they dont like it!

Erica I do I face similar with a rainbow blender and recently went to a glow bowl birthday and every single girl, including two adults picked that face. I literally could I taken my neon rainbow, Wolfe black, stencil and neon green Suzy sparkles only. The girls love it! The boys all went for the tribal eye.

Nikki, Limit your options way down. I would say like 6, 3 boy, 3 girl. Go with faces you are comfortable with. I always go butterfly, the rainbow one stroke face paintedyou posted in the thread, princess crown, tiger, half face spiderman, monster mask above eyes, snake. We also just lay mirrors on the table and direct them there after painting. I hate not showing them but in fast situations it saves time. I have one of these coming up too, we need to do 20 per painter per hour, which isn't too bad. I think we can production line 35, it's still always nerve racking.

Thanks Eva. I think I've decided I will post a pic later

Kelliesean That is too funny!!! Can't stop laughing!! Ty