What do you all wear to paint events?

Hello,

New to painting as a business(have not actually started yet) and have done only as volunteer at church, school,ect.

I am wondering what types of things you wear as a costume, or do you just wear casual clothes as according to the weather. I would appreciate you telling me this.

Blessings for a great weekend

Evelyn

Hi Evelyn...I guess it would depend on your own style or what you want to your company to represent...For some on here it's clown's..fairies etc.
There is nothing wrong with casual,, but obviously nice and tidy.
I've been looking at a work outfit myself at the moment.. I got Tshirts from vistaprint with my logo on the front but now I find them too big and square they are not very feminine looking and I dont enjoy wearing them.
SO my plan is to get a couple of really beautiful skirts that I can wear tights or thermals under in winter and still look presentable..I am going to find a Tshirt I really like and get something written on it.. I do like the look of the silly farm ones..(they even have aprons and burets..cute as) and I thought I may try some fairy wings as well.... Trial and error I guess..I wish I would get everything right the first time ..it would save a tonne of cash!!

Hi Evelyn

At first I tried to do the "non-clown" clown costume thing - I wore a clown type costume with stripped socks, put my hair in pig-tails with feathers, and other than the tiny red nose tip on my face I wore very little makeup.

Later I ditched the clown dress and tried using regular clothing as a base and added ruffles and appliqué to shirts or capris but kept the stripped socks, feathered hair, and red nose tip. I called this one my "I'm not a Clown, I'm a Colorful Character" phase. LOL

I've finally given up on the red nose tip and stripped socks and now wear black jeans or pants with any red shirt and a black barber's vest (great apron!), and to top it all off I added a black fadora that I jazzed up with sparkle and feathers. No matter how hard I try I just can't get away from the dang feathers. LOL

This seems to work great for me because 1) I'm not really a clown or even good at clowning type stuff and 2) it's easy to maintain and more comfortable than all that other stuff. The cool part is - if I'm painting several days in a row - I have enough red and black in my closet that I don't have to wash my 'uniform' every night.

I think that if you want to be 'just an artist' then wear whatever is comfortable for you. Just remember that some colors are harder to stain then others - which is why I went with black pants and a black apron.

visit my gallery for my year-in-review photos. I can't believe that I used to wear a clown dress with a giant pink fluffy tutu under it... LOL

http://www.facepaintforum.com/gallery/Personal-album-of-DeannaB/Personal-album-of-DeannaB-cat_u2812.htm

Depends on the gig and time of year.

In the winter (October through April!) I wear a white turtle neck under a decorated vest (have several - long zip-up ones with applique) or seasonal sweater with black slacks.

In summer: Outdoors I wear a long-sleeved white shirt with UV protection, what I call my painting pants (combat style with lots of pockets), a hooded vest, and depending if it is very hot a hat (baseball or Tilley). Indoors I wear bright shirts and my painting pants.

Birthday parties I dress to the theme. I have a selection of superhero, dragon and skull shirts for boys, and bright coloured shirts and jacket for girls... AND, for extra charge will dress in costume (but I don't advertise this... just fine print on the website!)

I've been meaning to get bowling shirts in black/turquoise for years... just haven't got around to it.

Shannon Fennell wrote:I've been meaning to get bowling shirts in black/turquoise for years... just haven't got around to it.

Hmmmmm bowling shirts... now that's a thought.

I struggled with this - I don't do costumes, it's just not me. I like to look professional and I prefer black. At festivals I funk it up a bit. At birthday parties its more smart casual, at henna parties its prettier. Add to that that being in the Snowies the temperature fluctuates ALOT, like market the other day started at -4deg celcius and finished at about 16deg celius. I've settled on this little jacket as I can dress it up or down and wear it over tonnes of layers or just a tank top. It was either that or put my business name on a million tops- its good as well because its on the outside so at multiday events I don't have to wash it between unless it gets paint on it

Obviously, I do the clown thing... It's a lot of fun, but if you are not going to BE a clown,please don't dress like one. I mainly say that because 1) you must always be "on".. You can't go pee without being stared at. 2) when they look at you in clown, they make judgements about all clowns based on you. 3) it takes a lot longer to get ready and maintain your costume.

If you do want to be a clown, there are lots of great resources out there to help you. If not, I would pick something basic and bold with your business name prominently displayed. I like the bowling shirt idea or golf shirts.

I made some color aprons to wear. I also made a color shirt to wear when I do balloons

I have a real idea in my head of the image I want to project. Eventually I would like to get golf shirts / polo shirts done up professionally. But for now, I've come up with the shirt below. I just bought it at Wal-Mart, and bought some of that iron-on transfer stuff that you print with your ink-jet printer. I know it won't last too long - the transfer will crack and peel eventually. But the shirt cost me $12.00 and I got 3 sheets of transfer paper for $5.00. So altogether it cost me about $15 and I think it looks pretty professional. Especially since at my last gig, I set up with my back to the crowd, so they could see what I was painting - and see my shirt!



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Isabelle I love the shirt but 'oh my' white? I could never keep it clean.

I love the name too - Had I thought about my name carefully I would have used Face and Body Art instead of just Face Painting.

Haha, my bad habit is wiping my hands on my PANTS - so I wear black slacks with it! I like the crisp look of the white, and I think it'll be cooler in the hot summer than black.

Thanks, I am SOOOOO happy with my name! Of course the "Fab" part stands for Face and Body but no one ever gets that, LOL! We also have an airbrush setup and are getting ready to do airbrush tattoos soon (getting the hubby involved ), that's why I went with it that way.

I am still working on my 'uniform'
At the moment I am wearing a funky colourful flowy skirt (which never ever shows up paint because it is so colourful) and I usually wear that over black tights and with a black t'shirt (I am in the process of getting my name printed on them). I also always wear a big black funky flower in my hair, and will occasionally wear green wings.
I am also working on creating a fairy outfit, which I can wear if I am asked. My hope in the costume is creating a character little girls love and 'have to have' at their parties. I am not planning on doing any additional fairy stuff, just sprinking fairy glitter on the kids etc while painting.

Im a costume girl, I have a pirate, the ever popular fairy godmother, and a witch. I may have another character to fit the theme of the event though, I cosplay so I have lots in storage, just not chractrers most people would know.
I have done a party or two now, and I just wear jeans and a shirt. I never thought about getting a logo shirt or just 'glitzin' up my normal wear. Great idea!
Let me see if I can get the images to work for my godmother, its my personal fav.


wow, Im frumpy in this one! wrinkled to. this was a party I painted at, when I first finished making my costume. I still like it.

Ooo airbrushing. Another fun thing to do, I want to try out the glitter tattoos. They look pretty to. Not sure I would have time, or even how far this 'attempt' at making a business is going to go. Im just trying to paint, I just like to do it.

I love that logoshirt idea. I would want a colored shirt, maybe orange. I like orange. Im to clutzy to wear white! =0) All these advertising things! I just finished my website a while ago to, with a lot of pictures missing because I forget to take them. I got a free banner just a few weeks ago from vistaprint when I got my business cards in. Ah man am I wet behind the ears.
Thank for talking with me!
~T

When I am not in full clown I also have a funky hat and a matching tye dye shirt with black capri pants.

It depends the gig, time of year, etc. Art settings I wear something artsy. Sometimes silly & sometimes business casual. Corporate gigs are often slacks & a white button up shirt. If it's mid summer/outdoors & one of our beyond humid days I'll wear a skirt(knee length) and a tank.

Thanks to all of you for answering the issue with such diverse suggestions and I really enjoyed and appreciated the time you took and it seemed that others also latched onto some of the ideas and suggestions. How wonderful it is to have this board to share ideas.

Thanks again friends.

Evelyn

Hmm... I like the Fabtasitc shirt! I actually have some of those iron on inkjet sheets too... time go go find a suitable shirt!

So many great ideas here! I am a newbie to face painting but for the one park event I did, I dressed neat and casual in jeans and a short-sleeved black tee. Over that I wore a bright yellow apron my mom gave me a few years ago that I never quite knew what to do with until I became a face painter. It has "Celebrate" embroidered on the front with cupcakes and fireworks, and the fireworks light up and flash! The kids love it, even in the daytime.

Here it is:
http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/Dining/Pier1ToGoProductDetails/tabid/977/CategoryId/905/ProductId/7360/Default.aspx

Sparklyone, that is really really cute!!!

Fabtastic wrote:Sparklyone, that is really really cute!!!

Thanks! I think so, too, and the kids really love it. I like how it gives the kids a little something interesting to look at while they're being painted.

So many great ideas!

I wear black jeans or capris and a black shirt/sweater and a black apron with my company name embroidered on it in white with black sparkly tulle sewn around the edges to look frilly.

The good thing about an apron is an apron is all that gets messy, not my clothes.

The all-black look is a professional one and besides - it is slimming! LOL

oh I must tune in to say that the apron is really cute to! Apron with springy hair soudns like a fun way to represent facepainting! Must get a 'wig' at dragoncon this year. Yay!

Oh your lucky you can waer black, I glow in the dark and black just dosent work with me. I look like a corpse, which wouldnt be bad for halloween gigs. =0)

Our "uniform" is white shirt on top, black capris or pants on the bottom. I always wear my hair up, and attach cute big colorful flowers. Since I'm "Amy Bee", I have several that are black/yellow/white combos with actual bee decorations. I wear a bright yellow apron on top so that I have pockets for my cell, tissues, hand sanitizer. I like that I'm in FP gear...it helps me with my party persona!

I posted this in another thread recently but it's on topic here too so I'm copying & pasting.

While I loved the professional look of my original outfit, I felt I looked sloppy fairly quickly because I have a bad habit of wiping my hands on my pants. I do always have a towel with a damp end that I wipe my hands with regularly but I can't seem to stop wiping my fingertips on my pants. And with black slacks, light coloured paint smears look yucky.

So I designed the perfect apron for myself. It has a wraparound paisley skirt so no matter where I wipe, I'm covered all the way around. It has four pockets in the front (two layers of pockets, you can see I have my hand in the front one on one side and the back one on the other side and it is stitched down the centre to make four). It closes with velcro so it is adjustable to be bigger if I wear a heavy sweater under it. I figure in the summer I will wear shorts under it and it will look like a cute little dress. I haven't attached my logo yet, but I am going to make one on a white background and attach it to the chest area but make it removeable so that I can take it off before I wash it. That way it won't crack and peel the way my shirts did.

The pattern and fabric together cost me $28, but if I make another one it will cost me way less since I have the pattern already. Although I altered it so much it is hardly the same pattern, LOL!! And I can probably go with cheaper fabric next time, I used twill and ducking for this one. With those fabrics it is nice and sturdy and should last me a long time. I splurged a bit on this because I wanted it to be my dream apron. I'm so happy with it!!!




I may make another one and leave the bib section off completely, and just make more tshirts to wear with it. What I really wanted it for was to wipe my hands on and to have pockets for money.