You KNOW the face painter is unhappy when...

Please... This was a happy place! Can you stop posting pictures of beautiful, sunny, happy beaches?
It's almost june and I'm still hooked to my winter coat......

Oh gosh! Can't believe I haven't read this thread before... Read through the whole thing! I promise you guys have me second guessing every event I go to from now on...

Well, you know the face painter is unhappy when...
I show up 10 minutes early for the birthday party... You aremt there til 30 minutes after our scheduled time. I can't paint any of the other kids that are ONE TIME because you want you child to be first.... You get there and you don't even greet me... I have to stay an extra 30 minutes to fit in every body. Some late comers try and push their kids who said they didn't want their faces painted into the chair... I refuse. She throws a hissy fit. I leave and don't charge you extra....

Btw, the day someone throws up on me... I'm insisting that family pay for the rest of my college tuition... Just ewww.

when the people at the festival look at the set up map and show you where you are supposed to set up and you spend 2 hours setting up your tent and decorating it so cool....

only to find out that once everything is in it's place you are visited by a panicky event coordinator's wife who tells you that you have to move because you are in the exact spot where one of the many bounce castles must be and there is no other place they can be except on your very spot! 

Could the day get any worse?  Why yes, yes it can... as my assistant  (it is VERY RARELY that I have the fortune of being blessed with an assistant) had his $300 cell phone stolen right from under our noses.  

Looks like I am going to have to rub the heck outta that little glass unicorn that Denise sent me....  since the first two festivals of the season were packed with hassles and a huge disappointment in sales.

I can't fathom having another summer season like last year.

Rub, rub, rub....

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - the icing on the cake....   my glasses broke in the middle of it all!  

Last Saturday...supposedly big event @ an Equestrian Park. At least I made my fee back & $20 to spare. Guess I was due for a day like this.
So hot, I needed a sweatband to keep the salt out of my eyes, just while setting up in the morning...NOT a good sign! My young grandkids helped me setup, then were my line manager & glitter tattoo artist, till half-way thru the day, customers were done. Thank God for Starblends! Everyone was sweating & the glitter tarts needed vigorous wiping w/alcohol then wiping with a paper towel in order to stick. When it's this hot & humid, I can't get all the excess glitter off. It looks like a solid mess. I was happy to have a restroom near me & just tell them to go wash it off. Well at least my grandkids had fun...milked a goat...cuddled rabbits (hairy apron still in the wash) & free video games in an air conditioned trailer! Biggest excitement of the day? A pretty big calf, hobbled by a rope & bucket stampeded around about 3 times. As he headed straight towards me, I jumped up with my arms out & herded him away from my tent & table & towards the poor farmer trying to catch him! YOU KNOW A FACE PAINTER HAS HAD A TOUGH DAY WHEN SHE DRANK 5 BOTTLES OF WATER & NEVER NEEDED THE RESTROOM!!! Talk about "sweat equity"!!!

OK, IT WASN'T THE "...GLITTER TARTS" THAT NEEDED VIGOROUS WIPING W/ALCOHOL! LOL   THEY MUST HAVE BEEN @ ANOTHER TENT! It was the glitter tatts.

think positive: all that sweating has the sauna-effect... you probably lost weight and now have supersoft exfoliated skin

Why am I NOT surprised you caught that right away??? LOL, love you & your wonderful sense of humor, Miss Ronnie

Yikes!!!! I think i need a poo & vomit clause! Sending hugs to you all!

No moose in my neck of the woods thank god (I would not have been able to handle that at all!!!), but I have been placed in or near some pretty stinking kitchens over the last 10 years.

But recently I did an evening event where I had two parents screaming at each other in the line over who's kid was first and another parent proceeded to pluck an innocent out of my chair to put their own child instead!!!!!!! I was shocked to say the least. Told the screaming parents to take it somewhere else and made sure the removed child stayed next to me so they were next in the hot seat.

But what are parents like these days!!!!!!!!

Face Painting by Jessica wrote:I got a gig through an inflatable company with a school for fun day... hundreds of kids showed up, one painter, 4 hours....  the event coordinators INSISTED I share my paint with the volunteer helpers, I insisted no.  They took it upon themselves to disperse it anyway.  Needless to say I had to put in an order for an entire kit the next day.  

Thank god for some of the nice painters on here who helped me out

I know this is old and perhaps you have heard this a million times since, but I would have said quite firmly "NO and if you continue to insist, MY paints and I will be leaving." You can always insist that your "insurance/license/etc" doesn't cover other painters and that allowing 'volunteers' to use your gear opens you up to liability...which I suspect it actually does.

A gig like that will *never* result in good referrals or repeat jobs you want anyhow.

My own nightmare is nothing compared to most of these. One pumpkin season there was a new vendor at the patch where I had been painting for several years. They insisted on blaring the most awful, "halloween" songs over tinny, squawky speakers the whole weekend. A few, carefully chosen words into a few specific ears made future weekends much quieter, although the music was still there...but not blaring! I still can't hear Monster Mash without grimacing. That is not a song you're supposed to hear 20 times a day for an entire month!

I've also had the complaints about cost...at the time my lowest priced designs were $1 (this was long ago, at a patch where they were paying admission to get in, I still averaged $60-$70/hr...and full face were $5...my prices are higher now!).

last year I arrived at a church sponsored festival only to be told my "spot" was at the low corner of the asphalt area near the grassy field where the bump & jump kids area was. Fine. No problem. At least not until the rain started. My good location turned into the drainage area for the parking lot. Not 15 minutes into the downpour, I was rolling up my pants legs, removing my shoes, and standing in water half way up my calves. We demanded a better spot but it took the two of us what felt like 20 trips back and forth carting our stuff in the pouring rain. We looked like drowned rats the rest of the day. One of those "why did I think this would be a good festival?" kind of days.

Well, I was unhappy yesterday worked hour and a half, only to be paid fifty dollars, using up $70 of supplies, not including fuel. Did several adults also!did my best to smile, but I was so unhappy after leaving the party, that money went straight into my gas tank....couldn't even afford more alcohol or pink soap. I was supposed to get paid $280....

My most unhappiness point was realizing any cards I handed out at this party would result in expecting to only pay fifty dollars also.ugh.

why were you paid $50 instead of $280?