HA!!! I had quite the laugh today... :)

My daughter and I were going to our main library today, when omg, there is a little "street car" festival going on. So I told her lets go check it out. We get around to almost the end and there they were.... a free booth for face painting. They were using the cheap halloween type paints, and there were 2 people painting. One of the things that I thought was kind of funny (not funny ha ha) was the younger of the two painters, she must of been maybe 14... She was so grouchy, kind of like I don't want to be here, but oh well if I have to... Well they were doing some really crappy paintings.... I mean CRAPPY!!! The only thing I kept thinking was man I am glad its free!!!

I thought about finding the person in charge and presenting myself, but then I changed my mind, something about this little "fair" or "festival" made me uneasy. I know alot of you probably would of talked to the head people, but how would you of handled it? Just curious!?!?

But I had to laugh when I saw a little boy with what looked like it might of been spidey... you could kind of tell the eyes were a little slanted teardropish, and then red with about 2 lines on each side and one on top, and that was it... no lines or u's connecting those lines, it almost looked like war paint... But he was totally happy with it. I thought ok, well then why am I freaking out about what I paint! I am soooooo much better than what these two young ladies were doing, so knock it off, ding dong!!! You see I was laughing at how much I put myself down all this time for no reason whatsoever!!!!! It was really stupid of me to think that I was doing such a crappy job, when I get to see what someone else around my area calls face painting does!! So I have vowed that no matter how bad I think I have done that I will think back to these two poor ladies that was obviously thrown into this, (or maybe they weren't) and say you have done research, you have spent the hours upon hours painting and practicing, and you deserve to call yourself a good face painter.

I wasn't laughing at these ladies or their work, which btw they were using pictures they took off the net to use as their "board"... I recognized some of the pics... They actually were trying to do the 'Tash' style kitty, and it too was coming out pretty ummmmm well... not real great. But I am glad I am not out there actually, because its freakin a scorcher!!!! And I knew my paints would of melted. Ever since we got into the cool air of the library I have been counting my blessings and hoping they have a good time at least!

Ok rant over, I just had to share my epiphany, of my stupidity all this time.
Have a great week everyone!

It is hard to see low grade face painting at festivals when you know how good it could really be! But yeah, I painted for 3 hours in the heat yesterday, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me enough to do that again today!

It's because we know what good fp looks like. Several years ago I went to the Cincinnati Zoo, and remember being in awe of their fping there. I thought it was amazing, and inspiring. Today I looked at their sight to see the prices and there was a pic of their fp on the front page, and it isn't bad, but by no means as good as I remember it to be. That because I now know what good fp looks like. Most kids don't know the difference, they love it, just like I loved my acrylic balloon/rainbow cheek art with glitter when I was a kid.

I remember taking my daughter to the circus a few years ago, and they had what I thought was amazing face painting. Now for the life of me I can't find the picutre of my daughter painted. I wish I could because I always compare my work to that tiger because I thought it was so adorable...maybe my mind just remembers it better than what it really was. I do remember the poor lady painting had to mix yellow and red to get orange so it could (which is a little weird since they only offered tigers), but nonetheless, my daughter and I LOVED it. Really, when I paint, I hope I give someone else the same kind of memory Hopefully, they won't look back at my work later, and think "I thought this was good??!"


Thanks for the story!

I had a similar experience about a week ago. The woman was using the cheap Halloween crayons and for her menu she had pictures on an iPad that weren't even her pictures. It was funny to see her try to pass off these pictures as her own because the final product looked nothing like the pictures. My niece got her face painted by her and it took forever for her to do a small butterfly and flower on her cheek and it did not look like the picture..

Yeah, since I posted this yesterday, I have been thinking about all the people around my area, trying to pass off their face painting as good stuff! I was thinking about last year when my dad took us to Apple Blossum Festival, there was this lady doing face painting, and she had a wooden board with like 6 cheek art things on it, it wasn't that good either. So I went up to her and asked what kind of paint are you using? I had never seen it before. She got MAD!!!! I mean really angry, she had just finished painting 1 little boy, didn't have anyone else waiting or anything. I was asking cuz I didn't want to let her paint my kid with acrylics, but was going to let her do something on one of my kids. She responded with its none of your business, and if you want to know anything else than you can pay for a class and I will teach you everything. I was thinking .... geez no wonder you don't have a line of people wanting to get painted... grouchy old woman. So I told her well no thank you... and just left. I could of totally got into a fight with her, but I dropped it. They had several other free face painting there too... and she had her prices set as for a little dog, it was like $3 a dragon if I recall was like $6. and like I said it was crappy work. Her little set up was a joke too, her "seats" were upsidedown buckets, the board and another bucket with her paints on top and a bottle of water. that was it, oh and she was under a shelter thing that was probably a 10x10.... I was trying to be nice... but after she was yelling at me I just left...

I try to inform anyone using acrylics that its a potential reaction or lawsuit waiting to happen. I don't usually give out my info unless they ask. I don't want them to associate me trying to "put them out of business" so to speak with my business. Unless they ask me how I know this for a fact.

Thank you all for your stories, it makes me feel alot better knowing that I am not the only one that this kind of thing happens to!!!