News From First Gig

First of all, I went as Felix the Cat. I am going to try to post a pic.



The concensus of the managers at work was that there would be about 30-40 kids showing up, but there were 130. Keep in mind that this was an even that was 2 hours, from 3pm-5pm. There was another event in town that started at 5pm, so it cleared out promptly at 5pm. Needless to say, not all 130 kids got painted, but I would venture to say that I had at least 80 that were in line. I am new at this. Parents were on their cell phones calling others to come up there because they were offering free face painting. The deli manager, who is a wonderful cake decorator (and air brush decorating) just jumped in and started helping, which threw me off because those are my paints and I really hated it, but she did very well at flowers and small butterflies. It just threw me off my game. I don't think though that I even looked up for those 2 hours, just looked at the kids in front of me and painted. I don't even think I remembered anything I have learned. A teardrop? What is that? I knew I wasn't doing the best I could do, but you know what? The parents were saying it was GREAT and the kids were loving it. I didn't do any of the Halloween stuff I practiced, except 1 skull, just butterflies and princesses. My managers thanked me about 30 times and said I blew it out of the park and I was hired again for next year, and why didn't I have business cards for the parents? I don't even have a name for my business yet, let alone business cards, but people will remember this for awhile I guess. I better get cookin' on the business end and continue practicing. The worst thing that happend was a little boy knocked over some water into all of my paints and we had to take some time to clean it all up. What a mess! Oh, and we were so busy I didn't get to get any pics of my own.

Oh, yeah, this pic of me was taken after my shift at work, so some of it is smudged and I didn't paint my lips black because I knew I would be drinking water and stuff during work. The kids loved it and the little ones said, "Mommy, she's funny!"

Way to go! Sounds like you rolled with the punches and are on your way to a rewarding career!

Good for you! If you do book next year, make sure to inform them that as a professional, you can't have anyone "helping" with your supplies...maybe suggest that they hire two people to accommodate the crowd? It's a great feeling when you pull off your first gig...then it gets a little addictive...beware, you've opened the can...

Sounds like you did great! Also reminds me of my 1st gig at the air show 5 yrs ago(including the spilled water in my mini snaz kit
I still on occasion have kids knock over my paint brushes.
Tear drops on demand comes with time & if kids, parents & the people that hired you are happy, that's all that matters!
Congrats!

Congrats on surviving - nay, triumphing - at your first gig!

Thanks for all the support. Like I said, they were expecting maybe 30 or 40 kids. A few years ago, they would have had a station for the kids set up in every department and the kids would have been diverted all through out the store, but this year, all they had was me and decorating cookies, which was right next to me, so the line seemed to never end. The turnout was so overwhelming they said that next year they will go back to more activities for the kids, which will make less kids in line for face paintng at one time, (I hope). I don't think anyone could have expected me to paint that many kids in 2 hours. If I painted 80 kids, that is less than 2 minutes per face. I was up front with them and told them it would at least take 4-5 minutes per face. Oh well, everyone seemed happy and that is what matters.

Kudos to you - I bet you are on cloud nine! I like your Felix the cat face. Now that you have some designs down, you can paint some friend's children or neighborhood kids and take pictures of them as you develop new designs for your portfolio. I scrapbook, so I made a small, 8 x 8 book with my designs in them and embellished the pages with a little bling to make it fun.

You might want to make a release form and have the parents sign off on it for photos for the portfolio. Also, I started painting on my nieces, nephews, and my own children for practice. Usually there are some willing souls in the family who will do it. However, I now have to bribe my boys with $2.00 a face as they are DONE with being painted by their mom. LOL

Good luck to you in your business endeavors!

well done! that feix looks great!

Well, I've had a few days to think about it and I really do appreciate everyone's feedback. I am definitely going to speak up about not having someone else just jump in and use my paints. This lady did a really great job, and the kids would have had to wait a little longer to get painted, but she did not know about things like, no red near the eyes and things like that. If she had put red on the eyes,and some poor child had a bad reaction, it would have come back on me and there would be no welcome back to do face painting there anymore, and word would get out for people not to use me because of that. I just chalk it up to lessons learned and go on, but I just cannot get that scenario out of my head, it could have been disastrous. Also, she could not do the designs I was doing or any full faces like I was doing, and some of the kids went in her line, got a little flower or rainbow and wanted back in my line but I just couldn't let them get painted twice because there were SOOOO many of them. It just ended up not being very fair to the kids. This is where I work everyday and I do not want to make waves, but they are going to have to do some things differently next time, have some more things for the kids to do to divert the lines a little so that they are not all waiting for face painting at the same time. I will also have to put on my sign that I do not paint babies because someone called the store and complained that we would not paint her 8 month old. That one is beyond ridiculous.