Completely absolutely new to everything ever

A friend of mine has a relative who is hosting a fair and is apparently desperate for a face painter. My friend recommended me, and it's something I'm really interested in, and I've done a lot of regular painting, watercolor mostly, and drawing stuff, but I have no clue where to start. What kind of supplies do I need? How much practice should I get beforehand? I've read I should get a few designs and make like a binder of them? What kinds of designs are popular? Any other advice would be very much appreciated.

if you are good at watercolour, then facepainting should come naturally....the same strokes, pretty much. Can you draw a tear drop? Do you know how to use a wash brush? Have you used your round brush to make thin-to-thick-to-thin lines for zebras, leaves, flower petals?

Oh yeah?

Then this is a cake walk.

Personally, I like to sponge a blended base, and add line work on top...but I also love to paint requests because I am a portrait artist and I love drawing realistic things with reflected light and shadows and high lights....



I practice every day-as I said, if you have worked with watercolour, this is very much similar-you layer the colors from light to dark, and linework comes afterwards, just like in freehand watercolour painting........


my hardest thing to learn was tracing teardrops-in facepainting, outlining makes your designs REALLY POP. so that was the tough thing for me....going back to retrace my tear drops...I practice daily.

What kind of paint should I get? Should I get the cheaper ones, like Snazaroo and other brand x stuff, or are the more expensive ones worth it if I'm not sure this is going to be a regular thing? Should I get a few primary colors or one of those huge pack with, like 3,000 colors? What kind of faces should I practice? Should I offer those little cheek decals, like the little hearts or birds or Elmo or whatever? I have a few watercolor brushes, I think 6, 8, and 10, can I use those and should I get any others?

Dear Mia6b:
First off....
Welcome to the Forum!
Where are you from?

Are you getting paid for this gig?
Or are they supplying the paint?

One very important housekeeping notice: do NOT use brushes for face painting that have been used for watercolor. There are chemicals in water color (cadmiums, pthalates, etc.) that are not to be used on the skin. Children have thinner skin and absorb chemicals at a different rate than adults.
Buy new brushes for face painting.

There are many threads for you to read regarding best brushes, starter kits, best paints, etc. there are many different answers as we are all different types of painters. Like nikkili26, I am a classically trained portrait artist. You do NOT need to be trained as an artist to be a good face painter.

Small cheek art can take me just as long or longer than a full face. Small does not always equal fast. Practice a few basic faces...Butterfly, Tiger, Princess, SpiderGuy, BatPerson, Puppy, Skull and only offer the faces you are comfortable with to start. Use a word board to offer your choices. (It is considered bad form to use other artists' art work as an example of what your art work is offering). You can paint examples of what you are offering on craft foam (Michaels has little craft foam pieces cut out in the shape of faces). Velcro them onto a board or into a book. (Put the heads in plastic, to prevent smudging or keep little hands from tearing them off your board).

Happy painting!

Thanks for the advice and the welcome! I'm from Alexandria, in Northren Virginia.

I haven't been in contact with the actual hostess yet, but my friend said she was offering as much as $150 for "several hours". I don't know how much this compares to general fees, but as an amateur, to put it lightly, and also a teenager who isn't exactly in desperate need of money, I felt is was extremely generous. Apparently they offered to pay for paint on top, but I said I would rather is just come out of my wages.

The main reason I'm doing this isn't really for the money, although I would prefer to spend less than I make, but mostly I just thought it would be fun. If it goes well I would be interested in continuing, but to be honest, once school starts up in a few weeks, I'll be pretty swamped with homework/extracurriculars etc.

If you may not be interested long term, I'd definitely go for a Snazaroo kit.  The Face Painting book by Klutz is sold at Michael's and that would be a good place to start.  They have lots of cheek art and full face designs for you to practice, and the Wolfe paint that comes with it is an excellent brand.  

I would let them pay for your paints though, you could easily spend that $100 on supplies.  You'll need a Snaz kit with the basic colors, a Snaz white for bases, a big Snaz red for Spiderman, new brushes that have never been used for other paints, face painting sponges (you could cut up a car wash sponge, I don't think the makeup wedges work very well), some baby wipes, paper towels, etc.