Aloha from Maui

Hi everyone, what a great forum.  I've been reading for a few days now, what a great group you are.  everyone is so helpful and happy to help one another with your experiences, lots of artists won't/don't share.  I can't say enough about your giving spirits.  

should I stay away from snaz as it doesn't do so well in the heat and humidity?

Would you suggest I buy some design books for reference or continue to study you tube clips?  

just starting to research I am a bit overwhelmed at the hundreds of designs and paint out there. I need to, learn at least for now, a handful of designs I can do well and fast.  I can practice when I have no kids around on anything sorta slick? glass, laminate surfaces as well as watercolor paper?  

trying to narrow down what designs and colors do I start with? maybe the better question is what don't I need in the way of paint and what designs won't I do?  

in reviewing your threads I think I need:

Wolfe White, Black this is for base make up and line work as well?  or do I supplement another brand for line work?

Tag basic color set. Neon rainbow set.  
and or?
Paradise kits Tropical and Pastel

rainbow cakes in several colors.  some iridescent or metallic. should 4 bars do the trick?

oh and a great gold and silver  and some glitter.

I should buy from one company two at the most to avoid overpaying for anything to terribly much>  I am guessing the above list might be 150 dollars or so?  

I will be doing this along side my ceramic business, I do sculpture and pottery.  I want to be ready with some great quality art work before I start.  I know I have many hours of practice ahead of me.

thank you all so much for all your help and wisdom.

with much aloha, Vikki

Welcome to the Forum, vikkilynn!
If you ask different painters about their paint, brush, glitter preferences and design basics....
you will get a different answer for each painter.
Snaz is excellent for bases, and both Shannon Fennell and Perry Noia excel at their usage.
EVERYTHING turns gloppy in the heat and humidity right now. I have TAG, Diamond F/X, Wolfe, Kryolan, MAC, FAB & Paradise that is all melted in this heat on day 17 of an 18 day stint. I have been coping by not dripping in too much water. Wet brush, wipe on towel, dip in paint, mist brush with water if too dry. It is slowing me down, and I prefer to be slower with better teardrops.
Basics requests:
Butterfly
Princess
Tiger
SpideyPerson
BatGuy
Skull
Blasted Rainbow Unicorn Mask That Takes Too Long
(Oh! Did I say that out loud?)

Happy Painting!
PS. I couldn't answer your pricing questions, as I live in Canada, and we use Maple Syrup, Polar Bears & Moose as monetary units.

Lisa thank you so much. good to know that snaz will work as well as any other in the heat. your list of designs are great thanks! we have funny money too, fish, poi and taro!

Hi Vikkilynn and welcome to the forum. I can't add much more than what Lisa (fesspenter) has told you accept, yes be sure to do as you've been doing and read/pke through this wonderful forum. I'm on the East coast of Canada and we use cod tongues and cheeks as money. lol Best wishes and can't wait to see you progress.

thanks Stephen lol, who knew the world had such great currency!

I think Stephen is making that up.

No, I swear its true. Two tongues equal a pint of maple syrup.
If our banter doesn't convince you ( Vikkilynn ) that this is the forum to belong to, then just read through some of the threads. Honestly, not everyone here is as simple minded as I am. lol

4 Litres of Maple Syrup, one Ptarmigan, two Polar Bears and the singing of the Canadian National Anthem will buy one large Kryolan Interferenz cake.

Ah Lisa, now I'm really going to mix Vikkilynn up.
A 30g Wolfe White Essentials cost me - 4 poutines and 6 double doubles. I was going to sing the anthem, but they gave me a discount when I promised not to.

 I should to move to Canada, I'd love to sing for my paint kit.  I sound a bit like a nails on a black board but I should be able to at least get a brush or two for my efforts.  Or like Stephen they will give me the paint if I just stop signing!

Welcome  

Welcome,
I'd say in North Carolina, you pay in moonshine and country songs, but I'm not as creative with my writing skills.
But with what everyone else says, some simple eye designs for girls, little swirls, stars, and hearts are always a big hit for the older kids. and boys like tribal. zombies are a big hit too, or any super hero type thing.

Hi and welcome.

You asked about Wolfe White/Black and their use for bases vs. linework. I like them best for linework. I have some Kryolan or TAG that I use for bases.

You also asked about where to buy (one place or multiple). The advantage of buying from one location is that you are only paying for shipping once. If you buy from multiple stores, you will have to pay for multiple shipping. I'd really recommend the Face Paint Forum Shop (there is a colorful rectangle above that will bring you there).

I agree with Kris about buying from one location. Though I would love for you to be a customer of my company (we are one of the largest Wolfe retailers in Canada), I can not recommend the Face Paint Forum Shop highly enough. Their pricing is excellent, the shipping is fast, I understand and by supporting them you are supporting this wonderful forum. A link to the shop should be near the top of each page. Look for the rainbow coloured box and click on it. I know they will serve you well.

thank you all so much. I did buy a few things yesterday. got a sampler of snaz and some base white and black from tag. I will look at the forum shop and see what else I need. I think supporting this forum is a great idea. thanks again for the warm welcome.

whooo hooo just had a little shop in the forum. thanks

Aloha mai, e Vikki!

Nice to see someone close by on the forum!

I started off with the Wolfe pallette that came with a book about facepainting. Then I went to our BFC at Ka'ahumanu and bought some Snaz which I was really disappointed in. So I bought a whole kit of Wolfe paint from an online shop. Since then I've started to work with Paradise, Tag, and a whole lot of Arty brush cakes.

Supposedly Starblends are good for our heat and humidity over here! I guess we'll have to see!

Aloha no!
Jen

Aloha, had no idea BF would have face paints. good to know. I did get a small snaz for a sampling, good thing I bought some tag and other products

Our Hawaii friends: Just curious about face painters over there.
My husband and I were in Kauai for 3 weeks in April...I didn't see one face painter anywhere. I took my own paints and was practicing on my legs and arms by the pool and people (tourists) were really excited about it. The hotel was missing out on an opportunity to have a facepainter, that's for sure! I thought about writing to Marriott when I got home to encourage them to hire a one, but I really wondered how much face painting was going on over there due to the constant heat (tho my paint held up very well for the hours I was by the pool...but I don't know how the pots of paint would do on a long day under a tent.)
I haven't been to Maui for a couple of years, so I don't know if any fp'g is going on there...but I thought Lahaina and Ka'anapali Beach area would be a lucrative areas...
So are there many facepainters working in your area now?

OH!  Welcome to the forum! isn't it great here?!
 
btw, VickkiLynn, you might like to add Maui in your bio, it helps when you have questions, because sometimes the answer depends on your location  

AND I forgot to ad this: A lot of us newbies (and sometimes not so newbies  ) post pictures over in the "New to Face Painting" section to start with, then branch out from there. There is a "Show and Tell” #1, 2, 3 and right now "Show and Tell August 2013 - ?"...love to have you!    (and most everyone is shy to start with, but don't worry, it is VERY supportive!!) We always look forward to having people new to the forum join us there!

As a person who has uses Snaz almost exclusively, I personally like working with it.  As far as I know, it is the easiest paint to remove, and is the only face paint that comes with a toy rating for safety purposes.  It is completely hypoallergenic.  So it is a great paint for young kids, IMO... or even older kids that don't want to spend too much time in cleanup trying to scrub the paint off their faces at night.

That being said, Snaz is very reactive to water, and as such, blends well... which makes line work very problematic when using it.  the colors tend to be more muted (less bold) than other face paints on the market as well.

I have to agree with the post above, as a base, it is great to use, it's easy removal should help in the removal of any other face paint brands you choose to layer on top of it.

Although I haven't played around much with them yet, I've heard that Diamond FX and Wolfe FX make the best black/white cakes for highlighting and line work.  I've also heard that Diamond FX is easiest to use when cutting your own rainbow cakes.  I've recently acquired some Diamond FX paints, so I'm going to be playing around with it here in a bit, but I still plan on using Snazaroo as my primary base in most cases.

thanks again everyone.  I should have all my supplies in a few days.  can't wait to give them a try.  

Valerie the beach would be great places to do FP, however businesses using the beaches are heavily regulated.  the state has even cracked down on wedding vendors.  But the beach would be a great place to do a birthday party or just some free FP for the advertisement.  I was thinking perhaps the church groups and PTA's would be a good spot.  We do have a county fair but the booth costs are very expensive.  it might be however a great thing for us Maui FP to get together and do!  maybe with the 3 of us it could be doable.  we would have to be way ready for the crowds though.

I guess it would probably cost an arm and a leg to get a 'booth' along that beach area too (like where I've seen 'sunglass people' set up.)  I was just wondering if any of the hotels would hire people to paint the guests/children. Maybe when you all get more established you could approach them...just a thought.
Isn't there some sort of 'festival' thing in Kihei at the top of Lipoa St (I think) from time to time? or maybe only once a year? where they have craft people come.

Sounds like you have some good ideas already on where to look. I guess I thought too much about face painting possibilities while I was over there   so here I am inflicting my beastly ideas on you
 

It's so nice you have all found each other on the forum and you can possibly share ideas and have jams...and maybe share the cost of a county fair booth like you mentioned

I would love any ideas. the hotels are a great idea. I will look into that when I get home. there are lots of hotels, I am sure one or two would like a face painter, or I hope so. I just checked the fair booth price for this year (too late, it happens in a few weeks) but for the 3 days it is 1100 bucks ...yikes

vikkilynn wrote:I just checked the fair booth price for this year (too late, it happens in a few weeks) but for the 3 days it is 1100 bucks ...yikes

That's a pretty steep price... if it were me, I wouldn't even consider that unless I knew I had at least 3 (total) face painters and could guarantee a decent amount of foot traffic. At a good event, I've cleared (grossed) more than $400 in a day personally (before expenses), and that was with 2-3 other painters each also pulling in about the same... and although you 'could' still turn a profit at those rates, it wouldn't be much of one. I expect turn around for you would be better than for me, just because of your location alone, you should have a greater density of potential clients.

Splitting that booth cost 3 or 4 ways would make it look a lot more attractive and viable.