The dreaded Thomas the Train request

Well this guys rears his ugly head from time to time and I am wondering how you guys politely decline or put a design together.

I try to decline at all costs due to the amount of detail, the fact that this doesn't really work as a full face design and that well, I just HATE the way this character looks.

I have yet another parent for this weekend ask me to do Thomas the Train. I have told her I don't do super detailed cheek art, rather full face fantasy designs that are done mostly with sponges. I have assured her that the boys will love my super hero, monster or skull offerings, but am just wondering what her response will be.

Any good combacks for this dreaded design or design tips on how you have made this one work, would be most appreciated!

You know, I hate painting Him too! About 7 months ago, I painted the most amazing full face Thomas I've ever seen. Took like twenty photos, got home to discover that my camera had broken and the photos were not retrievable. I'm attempted on several occasions to recreate it from memory, but just haven't been able to get it right. I would love to see if someone has a good full face example. He's just such a pain to paint!

ok these arent mine... BUT... Here ya go, from my inspiration folder.

I just did a Thomas party about three weeks ago. Even though it is simple the design is difficult to make look good on little faces. I try to paint arms for more room, but you know, most of the time the face wins out. I paint a design just like above, and I paint one that is the long rectangle view, with tracks that go all the way around the face.

I paint a black train silhouette on my face with clouds and tracks too, usually this helps the kids pick that over the Thomas itself. It is more of a realistic look though so not all kids will want that style.

Here's a full face that Brian Wolfe showed in a class I did.

I saw quite a neat and simple thomas the train face in another thread...looked so simple, just the silver circle but still looked like Thomas!

I do Thomas small & up the arm. The little boys love that he's pulling stuff(sorry no pics).

I now don't hate doing Thomas the train I too tried to avoid doing them......someone on here a while back posted a SBS on doing Thomas and actually Lightning McQueen.

I try not to... I haven't had it requested for face painting as many times as they've asked for it out of balloons (seriously! out of balloons? that's even worse!)... I can usually get away with painting a blue train from the side.

this is not full face but it made the kids at the Thomas the Train party I did happy. It was my first gig and I was so happy they liked it.

Wow! You guys have some great options. I'm really ling towards the wolfe brothers one

I usually pull the "I'm not allowed to paint licensed characters I'm sorry. I am a professional and I can get into alot of trouble if they decide to get nit picky and crack down on us."

LOL Byt keep the ideas coming! I might be able to retire my line! LOL

great idea, gamezgirl

I have all girls, so everything I know about Thomas the train is from this thread right here! To me, it seems like an easy thing to draw (straight simlpe lines/shapes) but a difficult thing to place on the face. the full face is cute, but I would have a hard time putting the detailed parts over the nose and mouth area and making it look right. So I tried a half face instead, offsetting the "Leg" picture from above and used the curve of my eyebrow as a guide for the roof. I have to warn you though, it is a really sloppy copy. I did a super-clean of all my brushes yesterday and I didn't want to have to wash any more!(LAZY) so I did the entire design with one 1/2 inch flat brush.

I like them....makes my job easier..lolol

I have been painting at a Thomas Train event at the Danish Rail road Museum the last tree (soon four) years. It is four days with eight hours of nothing but Thomas Train facepaint. I don't hate painting him, but I am not totally happy with the design. The kids love it. Even with three facepainters we have more than an hours line.

Here is my first "sketch" showed to the museum.


Now the eyes are more like this, but normally the mouth is not so high, only white on the bottom lip.


An arm design:

Clayton (Marvelous Masks) did a balloon Thomas the other day that he posted on facebook.

Okay, so this isn't the greatest pic, but this is a Thomas the Train I did last year. I usually decline that request because it's been YEARS since I watched it as a kid, but this is the son of a friend of mine and he happened to have a Thomas the Train shirt on! So I just painted the Thomas from the shirt.

Sigh. So, I had it again today, the 'dreaded Thomas request'. So aptly named, by the way.

This is the one I can do at home on my arm (it's a little fuzzy as it was dark and the camera wouldn't focus properly)



aaand... this is what it looks like on a wiggly 2yo.

Gamezgirl wrote:I usually pull the "I'm not allowed to paint licensed characters I'm sorry. I am a professional and I can get into alot of trouble if they decide to get nit picky and crack down on us."

LOL Byt keep the ideas coming! I might be able to retire my line! LOL

Funny...I use the exact same line for characters like Thomas, SpongeBob, Dora, Sleeping Beauty, Lightning McQueen.... etc. Thankfully no one has ever called me on it by saying, "But what about that Spiderman you just did on that other kid?"....

If it's a character I don't have from memory I tell them if you have a good picture except for SpongeBob because I wouldn't want him to suck the intelligence out of a beautiful intelligent child. Basically I'm not happy unless it's just like the cartoon and it takes forever to get him right. Thomas if they ask I paint my regular black train but make it blue and their happy.

Oh, man, where's the love for SPongeBob?.... many people on here have made comments about him. I must be in the minority 'cause I absolutely love the darn cartoon....seen everyone one of them and find them really quite funny. I discovered it back when my son was a baby and found myself watching them just for my own entertainment... I think of SpongeBob as a wide-eyed innocent child who sees the world and everyone in it through rose-colored glasses and I think the other characters represent the rest of us in this world... jaded, hardened, greedy, clueless, etc....
I just realized how silly I am to use this space to defend SpongeBob but I'm going to post it anyway.

Miss Ronnie, that's how I view SpongeBob too; although I admit I absolutely abhorred him before I had actually watched the show. Now I think it's funny. There are so many worse cartoons out there than SpongeBob.

You are so right about that... I mean, so many cartoons about machines being human-like to fight the bad guys....

I only have tried the Thomas cheek art, I will have to upload the pic of it later