Would love some honest opinions and feed back

Hello everyone!

I recently joined this forum and have been having a great time reading and learning from everything everyone is posting. To start off I am NOT a professional face painter. I consider myself I talented amaturer. (Hopefully at some point I can actually get some pictures to upload).

As head of fund raising this year for a club I belong to I am in charge of our booth at a 2 day festival in August. To liven things up and to hopefully have a more profitable booth this year (and to keep myself from being board) I have decided to add PPF face painting to the mix. I have been working on my painting(with much help from the tips and inspiration here) and have been sharing my work with friends on facebook.

Many of them with small children who pay for face painting regularly are encouraging we to charge what would be a professional rate. I'm extremely flatter but am planning on charging slightly less. I am trying to remember if there were any other face painters there the last few years but honestly can't remember.

Sorry for the book. My questions are: Should I charge what people are telling my the painting is worth? If I do and there are other face painters there will it cause a problem since I'm not a professional, i.e. will I be stepping on toes? If by some wild chance people are actually impressed enough to want to book me for a party, should I have cards ready?

I really don't want to do anything that would be looked on as unethical and would love your feed back.

You don't say where you are, RobinMP. Different areas vary so much and we are an international group.

I'm a professional, and at our our church bazaar in a moderate income part of suburban north Texas, I charge $5 for a full face and $3 for a cheek design. No up-charge for glitter.

Fake it till you make it baby!
Don't put yourself down.
Charge what others charge and take cards with you.
Vista print is offering free cards atm.

Do NOT talk negatively about yourself.
If they compliment you smile and say thank you!

Besides, as long as you are not using poster paint with lotion..... you are probably better than half of the people that have ever painted their face

Thank You FlashM

I'm in Massachusetts, and the fair is in a moderate income town in the center of the state. I was thinking the most I would charge would be $5

Thank you Melinda,

I actually recently invested in a DFX essential pallette along with some split cakes and irridesent glitter. LOVE the split cakes. I've done one stroke for close to 20 years so finding out that it could be used for face painting really boosted my learning curve.

Go for it Robin, you have to at some point, and 5 is a good starter price. I would worry too much about the other fpers until you actually have to deal with one. Luckily thus far the ones in my area have been pretty cool, I started charging 5 also.

BTW, we love seeing examples of one stroke ideas....hint hint hint

Hmm... If you have been paid for a painting, then I'd say you are a professional. And I'd say charge what the market will bear, not what you think you are worth. Artists are much too hard on themselves. Go get 'em!

I agree with Jennifer, the typical label for a "paid" face painter is indeed a "professional" So there you go! If you are being paid to paint, then you are a professional

It took me several gigs before I started realizing people are happy with my work. They will pay more for it! I just did a birthday gig and my rate was only for $50 and I walked away from it with $105...the $5 was from another Mom that wanted to tip me

Thank you all again for your feedback.

On the spur of the moment (at about 9:30 pm last night) I decided to volunteer to face paint at my husband's lodge BBQ today. I will be putting out a tip jar for donations. All the money, minus a small amount to cover supplies, will go to the fund they have going to replace their rug.

I am planning on staying for about 3 hours. I figure this will be good practice for me plus it's in the same town as the festival in 2 weeks so maybe I will get a chance to paint them again.

Wish me luck, I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

YIKEs!!

I agree, charge what you're worth. If you've made money at it, been paid, you're a professional. The less you charge, the more the public will expect to pay low face painting prices. I've had to work really hard to convince my town to pay higher rates since there are so many $1-$3 painters out there. They do pay once they see what I do. I'm now charging $5/$7/$9 with some major up-sell items(bling & glitter gel).