I don't think I am a newbie now! lol

Well the festival was last weekend and I am still recovering, I think we did about 200 faces! At one point I was painting on my own and had a queue of 12! but most of the time the max it was about 4-5. It was a huge learning lesson, Funny how the designs looked so different between the 3 of at the end of the weekend! There were a few things that we didn't expect
1/ the parents at our elbows with cameras and one even filmed on their ipod, I took a step back and nearly bowled them over!
2/ Parents of younger under 3 insisting that they wanted face painting and they were bawling their eyes out!
3/ Parents arguing that under 3s can have face painting
4/ Parents checking out your paints and wanting to know what they were (we used mainly tag and some Face paints australia)


we only had 1 complaint about a kitty and one girl coming back saying her mum said she needed more glitter! So for a first time I think it was pretty good. We made a good profit too which was a bonus as we were really there to promote our kids party venue, which worked so well. We even had a booking today! So I am so super happy! I was secretly really stressed about it! Oh the stall also looked fantastic, we used our lime green adjustable bar stools from our makeup room at the venue and we stood. I have no sore back, feet were a bit sore last night but fine today.

Here are some pics of our work. The designs are not originals from us though! But they are our photos from the event. MM not a good kitty cat there, my 9 year old daughter took the photos, they were much better than that one!

Actually the more I look at the photos, I think my daughter photographed the worst for the day! Or maybe I was delirious by then from sunburn!

Congratulations, jazzah!!! You have done your first festival!!! It's exhilarating, isn't it?!

I don't completely leave out kids under three... (sometimes they hold more still than 12 year olds)... Many times the parent will tell me that the child has been painted before and had no problems with either the paint on the skin or the holding still. You can always offer to paint their arm instead... or in warm weather you can paint a cute little chubby thigh! Sometimes you can only get a little heart on them and they've had enough...

There's nothing wrong with the under 3 policy, but I personally don't adhere to it. I won't paint a baby at all... the other wee ones I judge on a case to case basis.



This little cutie-pie just turned two and sat still beautifully for the paint process...getting her to hold still for the camera was a whole different story. That's not a pose; she was moving all around and just happened to throw her hands up and I managed to snap the picure right then!

I have a 1yr old and painted him for the first time the other day.. This only worked when he was holding a giant lolly pop though.. My first try before the lolly pop, every time I would paint a line he would wipe it off.. I didnt leave it on long either, I did the same simple tribal eye on my oldest son 7 and I just wanted a couple quick photos... I have painted as young as 11 months and that was a tiger face... He was still for the base and half the lines.. I have faith in my paints not to harm any skin, but I really stress to parents that even though I will paint a small child there maybe some skin irritation and if they cant talk they cant really tell you its bothering them... I havent had a problem to date with any skin irritation on anyone I have painted...

Nice work, congrats!!

Well done on your first event! Sounds like you had a very successful weekend.

I have to agree with the others though... is there a reason you don't paint under 3's? I hate seeing upset kids, I will paint who ever will let me, and the fact that they were crying meant they were old enough to understand what was going on. I usually warn people with smaller children that we may not end up having any success, and usually only offer a simple quick face. I have been painting my 3 year old since she was only just 2 and she is the best model ever. I couldn't imagine turning someone like her down. Just my two cents worth

All the best with your next booking!

The 1st festival is always the toughest. Hang in there!

I'm not too fussed about how old the child is as long as they are in on the whole thing.
My first festival gig (4 days) left me mentally disturbed...
This mother asked me to paint her child (estimate 8months old) but she wanted a butterfly over the eyes, i was hesitant but she insisted, so bub was sort of ok for the first eye but then got grotty so i thought i'd just make it a one eye butterfly, but this lady insisted i did the other eye too and held her so tight even thought she clearly didn't want her face painted, so i just did a quick, rough job. I felt like reporting her to welfare.
And low and behold she turned up the next day and lined up for the other painter I was working with and the same thing happened again.
So now i say to people I will only do it if the child a)wants it and b)sits still.
And if i ever see that lady again i will tell her restraining her child in that manner is not on!

No matter how old, my rule of thumb is once the child pulls away and cries AT ALL, i stop and firmly tell the parent i cannot paint anyone unwilling. Period.