Whats your Best time?

I did private party this weekend for 2 hours. I was able to paint all of the kids who wanted to be painted in this time frame. So to make a long story short. I painted about 10 full faces and about 5 cheek/arm in this 2 hr span.

I was wondering whats your best time (mins or hrs) to do the same thing? I think I was slow, but hey...Im a newbie.

Some pix are below. And yes, I can use more practice. Feel free to give advise and tips on painting and my designs. If you see a design you created please let me know and I will give credit. Just means I loved your work.

really like that dragon looks cool. in fact they all look great good job!

Love you faces!

So basically you did 15 different designs in 2 hrs. Not bad when you consider getting them in and out of your chair, a d half the time you are trying to figure out what they want. I had a really big corporate event this weekend, and had a streak of prob 25 girls/women who all wanted the same one sided butterfly. I am sure I was under 3 minutes each on them. Truly, the more you do, the faster it goes, but I think I normally do a 5 minute face, or more with smaller events. And I've painted nearly every weekend for 3 years:)

For bday parties I always say 2hrs, but that's because the kids run around, play games and eat cake. For larger events and high volume events, I have different designs that I offer. For high volume, I have a selection of simple full faces that take 3 to 4 min, works great. For the larger events, my designs take between 4 to 6 min.

I was doing a fund raiser, where I was to only paint the wait staff. Last year it was 14 faces to be done in an hour, this year they ran in 23 wait staff on me, I did them all in 90 min. No one got to choose a design, and only the first two got to choose a color. The guys all got tribals, and the girls were eye sweeps or floweral eye designs. Talk about moving...I think the slowest part was getting them into and out of the chairs, and if I made a mistake I just covered it in glitter

Working 8 hour days at the theme parks, I was taught and had it drilled into me to get all the designs in 5 minutes or less. But now on my own I like to take a little more time.

Wow...the quality is great . . . you should be proud of yourself!

now it's just about practice and getting faster.

10 full faces in 1hr is what you eventually want to achieve...that's 6mins per full face and 2-3mins for cheek art - which I find hard because some fiddly designs take up to 5-6mins. That's why I avoid cheek art and prefer 1/2face or masks.

Keep up the great work!

AUSSIE3070 wrote:Wow...the quality is great . . . you should be proud of yourself!

now it's just about practice and getting faster.

10 full faces in 1hr is what you eventually want to achieve...that's 6mins per full face and 2-3mins for cheek art - which I find hard because some fiddly designs take up to 5-6mins. That's why I avoid cheek art and prefer 1/2face or masks.

Keep up the great work!

Cheek art always take me longer too! I do so much better with "sweeping" brush strokes:)

I don't like most cheek art either. Although, at a party, I had a little boy request an Angry bird! That was fun, plus the dad paid 7 dollars, and tipped me 5 for it....so that helped me like cheek art a lot more that day!

I do mostly cheek art, or small designs on hands and arms. Im still new to full faces n masks. I love the small designs and can churn out pretty quickly actually! I ask kids to pick out their favorite thing before they sit down and I paint it. This has worked at daycares and volunteer events Ive done. I cant wait to get faster with my full faces, they stump me most times!

I love your dragon... mind if I put that in my inspiration file?

Manabanana I borrowed this from Tag body Art site. The tutorial is attached. I will be watching again myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DMVAOam608

HappyVickery wrote:I don't like most cheek art either. Although, at a party, I had a little boy request an Angry bird! That was fun, plus the dad paid 7 dollars, and tipped me 5 for it....so that helped me like cheek art a lot more that day!

I find that cheek is more detailed and takes me longer and the bigger the design the faster. I will try that glitter mistake technique. lol. Yes I will need to practice, practice, practice to get faster. Tomorrow I have day camp with 55 students. I will see how that goes

oh, super cool and THANKS for the link.

Very nice work!! I love the pink spidey idea too!! I've been face painting for 15 years but haven't ever really gotten into full faces. I'm just finally starting to offer them this summer, so it's nice to hear everyone's times. I can do cheek art in my sleep...simple ones in less than a minute (cherries, rainbows, etc), more detailed ones (Disney princesses with eyelashes and the works) in maybe 3 min. I usually tell people I can do 40 faces per hour. But, with full faces, I'll have to figure that out...I don't even know what to estimate yet!

At this past weekend's event I had my assistant keep track of how many faces I painted. I averaged about 20 per hour. Which is 3 min faces........it was free to the public so I made sure I had simple choices up. No cheek art.

Like your froggy Gretch!

40!!!! WOW. I would love to see you in action. Have you even video taped yourself face painting? This question is for everyone also.

I'm about to do my first birthday party this coming Friday and I've been filled with anxiety about my speed (or lack there of). I've had nightmares and tummy aches about it. I'm practicing lots and I've gotten some of my designs down to 5-7 minutes, but there are others I'm absolutely terrified of (more like 15 minutes for some). BUT, I'm excited that tomorrow afternoon I have reserved a friends 10 year old daughter and I'm going to have her time me. Good idea on the video taping, someone recommended that to me recently and I had forgotten all about that! I'm gonna do that tomorrow too =). Then on Wednesday I have posted on Facebook that I'll be home between a certain time slot and I've invited everyone I know locally to come over and let me paint their kiddos for free. I really need to practice that Dragon you did, you did a really good job with it!
Annette-WOW...20 an hour?! I don't know how you do it, I'd love to see a video of that just to oooh and ahhh at your speed!

Weird, I replied to this a while ago but it didn't post! Anyway, no, I haven't recorded myself but that would be a cool idea! Of course 40/hr is a pretty grueling pace with a steady line and only my simplest cheek designs. I'd much rather not push it THAT hard, since I like to add more details when I have time, but my designs are flexible like that I guess. I just got home from a 3 hour "National Night Out" gig I do every year, and this year I took a tally as I went...did 110 kids in 3 hours. I stand up 3 hrs later pretty stiff! I think I'm getting too old for that! ;-) It's a pretty steady stream and everyone gets painted only once. I'd love to be able to offer more intricate designs, and have suggested to my client that they hire two artists to keep the line down. But, now that they see that I can handle every kid myself, I don't think they see the need. It all makes me really want to get into belly painting so I can really sit and put some time and talent into a work of art!! But, that's my most "extreme" gig.

Stacia, don't worry! You'll do great!!! And I don't think anybody will care about your speed at a birthday. They'll be too mesmerized by your talent! Usually the kids who aren't getting painted are having fun playing or doing other activities. It can feel like everyone's just waiting and getting bored, but just watching your friends get painted is entertainment too! Worst case you go over the time you allotted, maybe you don't get paid for that time, but it'll be a learning experience and you can tweak things as you go. If you're terrified about certain designs, leave them out! No sense worrying yourself. Just getting that first birthday under your belt will make you feel SO much better for the next one, and you can introduce a couple new designs at a time. Good luck!!!

Hi all,
Ok I did a school yesterday.
Half eye: butterflies, spidermans, abstract, dragons.
4 hours for about 55 students and staff.
SOOOOOO.... 13-14 designs an hr. I guess I could take off the time where kids were not sure what they wanted and getting out of chair. I tried to have them look at the mirror on the other side of the table so I could start on someone else. Tell me what you think... Well everyone was VERY pleased. I will post pictures later.
IM STILL SLOW. BETTER THE QUALITY WAS GREAT. (TO ME...THAT IS) LOL.