How many faces can you paint per hour?

I think I'm able to paint about 25 kids per hour, full face designs. Is this a decent amount? Thanks for your input

25 kids per hour, wow that is a lot
I can only paint 10 -12 I am a slow poke

I can do 20 to 25... that's the pretty fast range.... I've done 15 in 30 min before, super quick half faces, but not the way I like to do things.

Have to say I've never even tried to "time" myself before. I just tend to vary what I'm doing based on how long a line I have. I can pretty much do full faces in about five minutes and the rest of it is quicker. Got a festival to paint in a couple weeks - have to pay attention then (cause I have a feeling I'm gonna be slammed) and revisit this thread.

blaizeee wrote:I think I'm able to paint about 25 kids per hour, full face designs. Is this a decent amount? Thanks for your input

full faces she is saying

Some full faces are faster than some cheek art. But yes, I can do 20-25 full faces in one hour (as long as it isn't all skulls *ugh* they take me way too long the way I'm doing them right now). I know that I am considered to be a really fast painter, so be proud BUT also be sure that you are keeping up your quality level. No matter how fast you paint, no one is impressed with junk. I'm sure you wouldn't do that though.

I'm personally more impressed that anyone can keep a kid SITTING for more than 3 or 4 minutes at a time.

That's what the lady said. No way am I that fast. Two minutes per face with less than thirty seconds one face to another.

I've been timed at 1 min 30 seconds for a butterfly. My Fast Face selection is all under 4 min, with most under 2 min. So I state I can do 15-20 an hour but could do more if they all picked the 2 minute designs! But... I am not about the speed. I've picked up speed with repetition and years of experience but if the kids all pick Optimus Prime, the Wolf and the full face Chinese Dragon... my speed will be 10-15 per hour... and that is about what an average speed should be for a pro.

So if you are doing 25 good faces per hour... that's damn good.

I was painting at a holiday festival for the parks department and when my scheduled time to leave came up, they wanted me to stay to paint the last 16 kids and offered to pay me for an extra half-hour. I took the challenge and felt like a machine, but I did it! Talk about an adrenaline rush!

My dream gig would be all butterflys...I can crank them out in less than two minutes, sometimes in a minute or so. It would be fun to see how many I could really do if I had some good line mangement, and the kids all cooperated, did not chew gum, kept their eyes shut, got out of the chair...well, maybe just one gig. I would be a terrible bore after a while, but just to fly through at break neck speed like that would be cool.

I did 90 kids in just over 3 hours last week, that is the best I have ever done. It was all girls, which was helpful, because their designs are easier, and probably half were butterflies, and the rest were princesses, and fancy eyes, so it was quick, quick stuff. Not full faces.

For full faces I am still at 10 to 12, maybe 15 if I am really on that day and the kids are really good models.

I tend to spend a lot of time trying to get glitter on the face. I'm at high attitude and REALLY dry conditions. I can crank out the butterfly but I can spend as much time trying to get a little glitter on them as I did painting them! ARG! I can only seem to get it to stick by using the end of the paint brush. A puffer just won't work here, as the paint dries instantly. It won't stick to my finger... it just falls right off. Every little girl (big ones too) wants lots of glitter. Frankly, I think most designs look better with glitter.

the most i painted was about 20 in an hour...but usually 12-15 I think..

LoriSamson wrote:I tend to spend a lot of time trying to get glitter on the face. I'm at high attitude and REALLY dry conditions. I can crank out the butterfly but I can spend as much time trying to get a little glitter on them as I did painting them! ARG! I can only seem to get it to stick by using the end of the paint brush. A puffer just won't work here, as the paint dries instantly. It won't stick to my finger... it just falls right off. Every little girl (big ones too) wants lots of glitter. Frankly, I think most designs look better with glitter.

Quick tip: If the paint has dried, take your spray bottle and from about a foot away give the face a quick spritz. Not a lot of water! You don't want the paint to bleed, but a little spritz then hurry and use your poofer bottle to apply glitter to the moistened paint. If the paint isn't wet, the glitter won't adhere. Hope this helps!

LoriSamson wrote:I tend to spend a lot of time trying to get glitter on the face. I'm at high attitude and REALLY dry conditions. I can crank out the butterfly but I can spend as much time trying to get a little glitter on them as I did painting them! ARG! I can only seem to get it to stick by using the end of the paint brush. A puffer just won't work here, as the paint dries instantly. It won't stick to my finger... it just falls right off. Every little girl (big ones too) wants lots of glitter. Frankly, I think most designs look better with glitter.

Quick tip: If the paint has dried, take your spray bottle and from about a foot away give the face a quick spritz. Not a lot of water! You don't want the paint to bleed, but a little spritz then hurry and use your poofer bottle to apply glitter to the moistened paint. If the paint isn't wet, the glitter won't adhere. Hope this helps!

Glad I'm on the about same level as you guys! Full faces are faster for me.. After I've done the design a million times, it kind of become muscle recognition/memorization and I just paint automatically! haha.... I always strive for quality! I think my key secret to being so fast is my split cakes Where would i be without them?

I quote 15 kids per hour but I've painted 60 kids in 2 hours 1 time.... I was proud of myself for accomplishing it but hope to never be in that situation again. I'd put out numbers & forgot to remove numbers 41-60 from a longer event I'd done the weekend before. The numbers were all gone before I noticed....

Unless the full faces were all tigers or full-face butterflies, I don't think I could do 20 in an hour! That's seriously less than a minute of painting, minus the time to get the kids in and out of the chair and for them to choose their design! I suppose I could if I HAD to, but who wants to go that fast? It wouldn't be fun and I'm in this for fun or I wouldn't do it!

I quote an AVERAGE of 15 faces an hour (8 full faces, 12 half-faces, or 25 simple designs) because that's what I KNOW I can produce without rushing and affecting the quality of what I paint or the fun factor for me

I am thinking that we are all on different pages as to what we are calling full faces. I am envisioning something greater than the half face mask so I'm not talking butterflies, one-eye designs, etc. just FULL faces like Spidey, full skull, etc. The notion of 25 FULL faces in hour is daunting for me.

THIS is what I call a full face and about the only one I could do in couple of minutes of actual painting... and that's pushing it!

now that is what I am talking about! awesome!!

I think 10-12 kids per hour is my comfortable quota for a birthday. Given the choosing takes time, the designs are more intricate than festivals and there are sometimes late arrivals and gaps in the line ups etc etc. If I do a birthday and there is more kids than expected I either cut the designs and drop details and use a fatter brush with wider lines or extend the booking time. I have done 50 kids in an hour once but it was literally one min max per kid so a squiggle snake, a rainbow, a spider,heart,star, butterfly all small all on the hand or cheek and only 3 colours max each making them basic cheek art and to be honest not a great example of what I can do. I think for birthdays they are expecting amazing pictures and therefor should limit the number of faces to provide nice work. If it is festival style and speed is worth more then I would say no more than 30 an hour and the designs won't be as nice.

i live in a very warm/humid climate and i only tigers , kittens and dogs as full face because its too hot and the literally sweat it off in 20 minutes anyway. I do lots of masks and smaller 1/2 and 3/4 faces. I quote 20 for an hour party and if there is that amount i dont feel pressured or rushed at all. I once did a party who said there will be one or two extra and i said that would be fine but there ended up being 42 children. Stayed an extra 5 mins but did finish them. I dont do glitter gel or bling or anything like that though.

I work average of 12-15 hours a weekend so all of my designs i feel i have done 100's of times (butterflies i think is in the thousands haha).

i also sit while the child stands so no time putting in and out of the chair and if they havent decided ill do the child behind them while they decide. It really encourages the child to decide in a hurry haha

Ditto Blaizeee! I order new paints and I spend an hour cutting them all up. I have a container of paint scraps. I thought about warming them in the microwave and pressing them all into one cake. I think that many colors may just get muddy looking instead of marbled. Has anyone ever tried that before?

squiggle wrote:THIS is what I call a full face and about the only one I could do in couple of minutes of actual painting... and that's pushing it!

Dawnie, you've given me something to strive for... I consider myself a pokey painter, although the parents are always standing there saying "You're so fast" Your tiger is the one I am going to to practice... it is perfect.

I don't know about anyone else, but I sit down painting and I find that what takes up more time than the actual brush work is picking the right brush for the design, preparing the paint, adding the glitter if needed, switching brushes if need, showing the kid their reflection in my mirror, etc... those are the time killers for me.

Thanks so much, Miss Ronnie! Yes, I find this tiger design is super fast... I load orange on one end of my sponge and white on the other end which really helps speed up the base, then the black is done with a #6 really quickly and then it's done!

I color-coded my brushes with colored electrical tape... all my #2's are the same color, then the #3's and so on. Really helps to speed up the process because I don't have to spend time looking at the brush handle. Before I did this I would spend precious time looking for the right brush The glitter is in a pouf bottle so I just grab that and pouf some glitter on... literally 5 seconds. I still do show the kids their faces in the mirror myself instead of having a mirror off to the side at parties... I love to see their reactions, and my mirror doesn't disappear but it does take time. But at festivals, I have a long hanging mirror outside the canopy so they can spend as long as they like looking... really speeds up the line.