My insane event 50 kids 2 hours-learning to let go aragh

Ok so I was enjoying Sunday Off- was posting on this forum at the time and cleaning brushes from 6 hour day before, then got a phone call from a local club that there face painter had cancelled. 20min before start of event.
I managed to get there in record time 8 mins pst original painters start time.
So The jumping castle people also havn't turned up it was only The easter bunny me and about 50 kids and 2 hours.
I forgot mirror due to super fast packing time - everyone was ok with that as they were happy someone came. but I was massivly pressed for time
There were alot of the one stroke spiders, roses and butterflys done, to speed it up but managed to get these out as full face in 4 ish min not the best but there were 50 kids and 1 hour and 50 mins was painting and unpacking


he smudged nose etc by photo time
and easter bunny came on stage as I was doing his right eye eye he turned so black mark under neath but given the time can live with that

got 4 mins for that dismal skull and 2 and a half for the butterfly (it annoyed me letting that skull go but sort of didn't have a choice)

and some dolphin stuff with pink bubbles she kept trying to change her mind took up most of the 3 minutes - sigh.
I discovered I cannot paint a 3 min cat It was my fail of the day.

and after it was all over found out they usually have 2 facepainters...That explains alot. Kind of felt ripped of though as they get/got longer per design and don't get through all the kids. so it annoys me - (basically I am jelous becase there cat would look like a cat - sigh)
It was the crazyest event I have done so far and the only one I have photos from as the club got photo release photos signed. so thought I would post.
and I got the ongoing job... but I said not while kids are aloud to pick and choose it insane - next time board or hire another painter as well.

Wow, your super woman well done, now breath and have a glass of wine, put your feet up and wish to god that doesnt happen again!!!! HAHAHAHA

phew, exhausting. Good on you for coming to their rescue. Hope they appreciate the effort.

I've got a scary one (for me anyway) coming up in a couple of weeks. Is it best to have a board with a few choices than taking random requests? There'll be two of us painting......but the organiser thinks possibly 200kids, we'll be painting for 3 hrs.....I mean slapping on paint for 3 hours : ))

Generally painters here don't like to work with boards....specially when working with someone else. Hard to copy someone elses designs etc. This is under my business, so up to me I guess. She'll have a better idea of numbers next week. I said we'll need 3 painters if going to be up around the 200mark.

Oh my.... I had almost the same experience on Saturday! I took a last minute party through our Guild and there was only supposed to be 20 kids at the bounce house party and the mother said that not that many of them will want to be painted... only the older ones would. Well, about 50 kids of ALL ages showed up because they were tag-alongs..... but they weren't there at the start of the party, these families were trickling in. So I had been doing full faces for everyone and that's what the trickling in folks expected, too.

I had no problem staying longer and got paid well.... but jiminy cricket!!!! The mother apologized and said that so many of the kids were not invited and that she thought it was crazy that all her friends and relatives thought it was okay to bring along whomever they wanted and expect to get painted.

i think your designs were well done and look great!

Last Friday I had 45 kids for a 2 hour event. Usually for the school events I have a helper, but he was out of town this time.
My back still hurts from non-stop painting. But I got very good at using my split cakes for leopard faces.

Sue! Poor you! they obviously thought you were a miracle maker and had ten times the talent of those two painters.

I had this happen to me last weekend - 2 hour booking 40 kids.... what.. the...
To all those people who say they do a head count before they start and ask the client if they want to extend the time blah blah - what bunch a phooey.
YOu get there and there are like 5-10 kids - you set up and start painting... the nxt thing you know you can hear what sounds like a LOT of children makeing heaps of noise...... turn around....... looks like 50 kids!!! and at least 25 of them are standing in your line complaining how long it is! GRRRRRRRRR
Then the mums start up - " how long are you here for?" My kids been waiting an hour ( bullshit)...." can another mum just paint flowers on their cheeks for you?" NO.... Can you tell the kids they aren't going to be painted? - NO that's not my problem
THANK_GOD the client decided to pay up at the end when I' d gone half an hour over.... and thank-god this doesn't happen everyweekend.

Chin up Sue and a big pat on the back - your did awesome - the pics look great and 3 mins for a face paint is a JOKE!
Much love babe and Happy Birthday!

It is nice to know that others go through this, and I read threads on even greater numbers here and think WTF? and my back still hurts.

However it all worked out well for me . Because of this I have got the joint zombie promotion that the club is having sponsered by Monster energy drink and the club. -
and scored an awesome deal from them for the future.

Next time I am there for 4 hours, each month and they want to pay me a set up fee (30 mins- wow) even though I told them that It isn't nessesary. they said to call it an incentive then.

I am aloud to give a list of designs-board and change again to a secondary board i.e. spiders, roses, dolphins one stroke stuff. if it is needed and stick to it. also deny any request, if I feel they will effect the line movement.

I got to meet somone high up on Monday handing in the Invoice. I apparantly painted his son. He told me that they don't want to loose me, they have had tremendous difficulty with face painting in the past. and asked me to understand that what happened is not normal, as there are usually other things for the children to do as well. (they had planned to have a jumping castle and craft station person) but everyone cancelled on them - all within one hour.

They just sent me 3 other small local business clients who have booked
and have had enquirys from a few others and another club- I know he sent them as he told them to mention his name, and a few other compliments - LOL.

So I did get hammered but they have agreed to changes, and they said they feel it is important for them to try to convince me to come back - My feelings must have been obvious



@Tash - I am starting to think you get more bait and switches than anyone in Sydney - LOL and thanks for the birthday wish.

@Taradoodles - also agree not an all the time thing as for the designs thanks for the compliments but my cat was deplorable and the hulk could have been renamed green faced child with teeth.

@ Rae sounds like your about to get floged some of the request I did were the cat (which is the worst thing I have ever painted) the hulk, the skull, a few spidermans, a white tiger- base took forever, stitches, fairy masks - which i purposly made look not as good as the butterfly, as I know I can paint the butterflys quicker( the idea by then was to encourage the girls to basically pick butterfly.) a ben 10 alien - child brought a printout of alien for me and a full face mushie monster which the child brought a minisule thing/toy for me to copy.

so the plan now is 2 sets of A4 laminated sheets with a message of some sort about changing if required to basically the simple designs (working on exact wording.) both sets will be avalable to pass around. but one set of sheets will be pulled if it gets bad.
and so you know the fast sheet is litterally going to be stuff I think anyone could copy/do if I have to resort to it it will be a desperation move so simple is the key there. you could make one and not pull it out unless you need too.

I don't know if that helps in your case but I will see how that works next month for me. I am hoping with the new arrangement I shouldn't have to resort to it but after this effort, I am bringing it anyway.

@everyone else thanks all of you, for making me feel better about this as that skull is/was really getting to me, as well as the spiderman lines as They arn't as clean as I would like - it is nice to know that many others have had some "slap paint" fests too.

When it gets down to the last 30 minutes and I have multiple kids still left, I take down the menu boards, tell everyone left it will be a surprise what they get, and then I do a quickie design and a few well placed swirls, maybe a gem, and a starburst and a poof of fairy dust and NEXT. Unless there is no time constraint, I never do my full faces at free event unless they are ones I know I can whip out in 2-3 minutes. Longer, more detailed ones, I save for pay per face.