Sanatization of SPonges, brushes, paints....HOw To?

Jon - The short answer to your problem is do NOT charge $25/hour.

The longer answer is involves the fact that 99.9% of us will refuse to do a gig the way that you have described.

Part of being a professional is teaching clients how we want to be treated and the safest methods for the industry. We've all learned (although it can be hard) how to say "These are my rates and these are my terms". And the terms you are describing are not in-step with what most of us are willing to deal with.

If I'm painting a free event with over 1,000 people, I'm DEFINITELY charging my full rate. Additionally, I'm doing a MAXIMUM of 30 kids per hour (although I'll usually tell the client 20) of fast face cheek designs. Part of being a professional is MAKING the time to take care of your brushes and paints and create a design that doesn't just look like something that any teen with a brush can do. Stars and hearts are great, but if they look too simple, people will think that you are just a volunteer hobbyist.

One of the things that you'll find is that if your designs are amazing and awesome, you'll be able to book a private party for $75+ per hour. You teach those in line that your art, skills, and material is valuable.

I recognize based on your posts that you want to paint frequently and produce amazing art. And unlike charcoal drawing, you can't just go buy a new sketchpad in order to get more practice time. But, that being said, you de-value yourself when you work in conditions that don't allow you to showcase that being a face painter is an art and entertainment -- not merely an excuse to slather a one color, crooked heart in under 10 seconds on a wiggly 7 year old.

I wash my sponges by hand in a bucket. First I squeeze all the paint out and rinse a few times. Then I add dish soap - Dawn or Gain and real hot water. I squeeze and squeeze to really get the soap in, then squeeze and rinse over & over until it all runs clear -I don't want any remaining soap/suds in them. I don't use alcohol. AFterwards, I squeeze them in paper towels, then lay them in one layer on clean paper towels to dry overnight. My brushes I swish over and over in a cup with hot water and soap. AGain rinsing and rinsing till it's clear. Then i shape them and let them dry.
Martha, that was me who used the hair gel to shape brushes back into shape. But rinse it out thouroughly before painting kids, even though hair gel is gentle...I'm always paranoid about leaving soap products in my sponges or brushes. Some of the dish soaps are antibacterial also.

PS, I forgot this...I only use one sponge per kid. If I have different colors I might use a few per kid, but I only use sponges once. That includes for using split cakes. Brushes I use on multiple kids. I keep 3 small buckets of water and between touching my paints, I swish one, two three, then get fresh water for another color from a cup of fresh water I keep...by the time it gets to the cup, it's pretty clean of what was on it. But I don't alcohol my brushes while painting.

tamarielpaints wrote:Jon - The short answer to your problem is do NOT charge $25/hour.  

The longer answer is involves the fact that 99.9% of us will refuse to do a gig the way that you have described.  

Part of being a professional is teaching clients how we want to be treated and the safest methods for the industry.  We've all learned (although it can be hard) how to say "These are my rates and these are my terms".  And the terms you are describing are not in-step with what most of us are willing to deal with.

If I'm painting a free event with over 1,000 people, I'm DEFINITELY charging my full rate.  Additionally, I'm doing a MAXIMUM of 30 kids per hour (although I'll usually tell the client 20) of fast face cheek designs.  Part of being a professional is MAKING the time to take care of your brushes and paints and create a design that doesn't just look like something that any teen with a brush can do.  Stars and hearts are great, but if they look too simple, people will think that you are just a volunteer hobbyist.

One of the things that you'll find is that if your designs are amazing and awesome, you'll be able to book a private party for $75+ per hour.  You teach those in line that your art, skills, and material is valuable.  

I recognize based on your posts that you want to paint frequently and produce amazing art. And unlike charcoal drawing, you can't just go buy a new sketchpad in order to get more practice time.  But, that being said, you de-value yourself when you work in conditions that don't allow you to showcase that being a face painter is an art and entertainment -- not merely an excuse to slather a one color, crooked heart in under 10 seconds on a wiggly 7 year old.

That's EXACTLY how I feel at this point.  I got into this because I loved all the wonderful art I've seen, but with these huge events I feel like I'm a machine just slapping the same thing on people over and over.  I'm not even outlining designs anymore... that's how fast they're wanting me moving people through the line.  I once mentioned maybe have people flip a coin, one side they get free face paint, other side they get free promotional item from them.  Their response was "well they all get free promo items anyways...".   Now they want me doing glitter, and at the last show I had to bring this nasty hair coloring spray.  They paid for both the glitter and hair spray, but I felt pressured to lower my standards even more since now I was doing those for people as well.  

The people at the shows were all happy with the work I did, but at the end of the night I just felt like I had been slapping $ 0.03 sticker tattoos on people.  Here's example of design I'm limited to now, they had me get rid of Spiderman... had me get rid of big flowers.... had me get rid of the easy two color Punisher skull... no butterflies... no cats... pretty much no design that will take over 2 minutes, that's including the time it takes for next person in line to step up and tell me what they want and for me to load my brush.
This isn't makeup done by me... but this was what they had me pushing for 4 hours... and 4 other designs like it.


Just not sure what I want to do now.  I'm starting back to college in January so won't have much time for gigs.  I still need insurance and a TON more brushes if I'm going to be doing big shows.  Just not sure I have the money, or heart, to keep doing this.  Oh... guess I should mention I already work full time outside of face painting lol.

maybe the problem is you are a slow painter?????

just because you have less than 2 minutes to sit them down and get them painted, doesn't mean you can't still get something nicely done?


but like I said before, I would never agree to such a low pay, because it doesn't even cover my basic costs.

and you don't have insurance?!!

my mind is blown......




insurance is $200, and you can most likely get it for less than that.


we ALL work full time outside of facepainting.most gigs are on the weekend, so it doesn't even interfere with a normal weekday....



my advice-get your speed up.raise your price.and get insurance.

hold some higher standards....if you don't have time to rinse a brush and dip in alcohol and let it air dry....then just guessing, but you probably aren't taking the time to maintain a professional appearance to your kit as you blast through those lines...

you have to build the habit of cleaning as you go.

I'm not knocking your speed either, just being honest.that is 30 kids in an hour...that's not really asking too much...especially with the limited designs...that eye you showed, I can do that in 20 seconds...literally a swipe on the eye, 5 swipes down...and a quick dab of glitter.
maybe give them the mirror as the next kid sits down...still, nowhere near 2 minutes...and while i'm getting the next kid settled in and ushering the last kid to the side, my brush could be soaking in alcohol and ready to airdry for the next person.

Jon -

I don't think you would need 200 brushes. Let's say you have 50 brushes. After using each brush, wash and dip in alcohol. Set aside to dry. By the time you are running low on brushes, the first ones you washed should be dry and ready to use again.

I would also encourage you to raise your rates. It seems unlikely that you could even cover your costs at $25/hour.