full faces

Hi =)
I'm Natalia and I would like to have some help..
I'm new in the face painting world, I finished my classes the last week, and I don't know how to start.
For example, yesterday I was facepainting in a solidary event, for free, and my paints was soo simple and I was so nervious =P
I want to know what to do you in a birthday party with 25 kids and 2 hours.. Do you do smalls paints or full faces? 'cause I'm painting a full face like 20 minutes, it dosn't work..
So when you paint them?

I would like to know that, thank you for your help ^^

There have been several threads about fast designs with many pics and examples. Just read through the older posts and you will find many answers. Good luck!

Found this one, just under your post:
http://www.facepaintforum.com/t7312-60-kids-4-hours

No worries, you will get much faster with lots of practice. In the mean time, simplify. And practice every at every opportunity you can create!

Good luck!
Summer

20 minutes for one face? That's way too long for a pro.

If you are going to charge people, and expect to make some money, the longest it should take is about 10... from there you pick up speed with practise.

Can you show us what your 20 minute full face designs look like? Maybe you are trying to being too detailed?

For a beginner professional (good enough to charge people) the general consensus (and FACE standard) is under 10 minutes for a full face, the average is 5-7 minutes a full face which would be, more or less, 10 per hour.

Less than that... really is not what most would consider a reasonable output.

For birthday parties, as an example, I book two-hour packages but limit them to 15 faces and charge more for additional people if more show up. I can paint a lot faster than that but birthday parties are the "fun" jobs where you can get super detailed and add lots of flash. That would be 8 minutes a face BTW.

On public gigs I try to keep my timing to 4 minutes or less. It has taken a long LONG time to get my speeds down like this though...

Face painting is a volume job, the more you paint the more you make (this works for hourly as well as PPF) so I would say you need to work on speeding up to be able to do at least the basic faces in 10 minutes or less.

Now, 25 faces in 2 hours? That's a little less than 5 minutes each... most pros would be able to handle that. Some kids want full faces, but many will opt for the simple stuff too... so it all would work out.

If you can, only paint what you know you can complete in 5 miniutes... until you can get more practise and build up your speed to an adequate level. Simple eye designs, muzzles only for dogs and cats, etc.

My biggest help is to make designs your own. I'll take a design and either simplify it or change it enough that I can do it in 8 minutes (my cut off because I decided I wanted to make a dollar a minute or better.)

So, I decided I wanted a sugar skull on my design board. I tried it with simple flowers and rounded and painted teeth...didn't work. I went about 12 minutes, I was shocked. So, I looked on the internet for a simplified version of a sugar skull and found one that wasn't simple, but used a spider web instead of flowers and I KNOW I can do spiderwebs faster and you don't need a brush change (compared to doing flowers and outlining) The photo also used "stitch" teeth instead of skull type teeth.

So I tried it and it went about 10 minutes so I cut out the different colored petals around the eyes and just painted loops. I was able to attach a jewel at the tip of the web and apply glitter around the eye color and do it in 8 minutes.

Now all of this took about an hour to paint and repaint but now I have a sugar skull that I can do in 8 minutes (and I like it better.) I can always add stuff later as I get better but it's a real design that I can do and I don't have to look at a book and it still looks good.

Do this with the popular designs (there is a thread on the forum about the popular designs) and practice until you have them down. Make them your own.

Good luck, I'm in the same boat. I'm finally buying a practice head so I don't have to wash my face so much!

D.


First finished skull with flowers and teeth


Second version simplified. They can choose any color of eye.

That's am EXCELLENT example Denise!!! That is how you get your speed up and keep the customers happy.

Thanks Shannon Hoping someday I'll be able to do a full sugar skull in 8 minutes! I actually ended up liking this one better, it's simplier but more feminine than the first...which is what I wanted any way, a girly skull.

D.

Speed comes from lots of practice, and from memorizing your designs so that you can paint them without even thinking about them. For a new painter, I imagine a lot of time is spent choosing a brush, looking at a picture, deciding where to start on the face, and going over things multiple times until it "looks right". These are all things which will become second nature to you with practice and experience. After painting for a while, even new designs can be broken down into the same basic elements and done quickly as muscle memory takes over.

My suggestion would be to make a menu board with 6-10 faces on it, and practice those over and over until you can do them in 5 minutes or less with confidence. Once you have them all memorized, you may start adding more designs to the collection. This will keep your speed up.

Also, keep your work area orderly so that you know exactly which brush you need and where it is. Know when to STOP. A lot of time can be spent messing with a design long after it looked nice. Too much time spent on small details is not efficient. Go biggest impact in smallest amount of time.

Oh thank you so much for all your answers.
Yes the fact is that I'm perfeccionist and I spent much time with the white base for the skull.. Maybe I'll have to try with another white make up, 'cause for example with orange or red I haven't got trouble..

Thank you for your good advice Denise, and yes I will have to practice a lot
Thanks =)

keep working on your sponging then, when practising. Sponging most of your design quickly and just doing a few little outlines here and there is how you get everything fast. Spider-Man is a 3-4 minute design because it is almost all sponging.... a scary skull is 6-8 minutes because of all the shading and colour changes and detail.

Every time you practice, before you start working on specific faces, practise sponging for a bit, teardrops for a bit, swirls for a bit and maybe tiger stripes.... then go into working on the basic faces that every painter needs: Spider-Man, puppy, tiger, butterfly.

Denise, Angie & Shannon: I'm pretty new @ this & just found this thread.
Everyone gives such good advice on FPF but since speed is what I;m working on...this page is invaluble to me. BTW, that skull is just what I needed Denise. Hope you don't mind me using it?

Sure, I'd love you to. I'm still working on speed too. I (hopefully) have a big fair coming this early summer and I'm excited to see how much better I can be than I was last year...especially at PPF speed = money (and shorter lines!)

D.

When we paint at the corn maze, we have to be as fast as possible so we came up with 10 designs that we memorized. I had my team practice those 10 designs over and over and over until we could do them in 3 minutes or less. That's pretty much the only way to get faster... PRACTICE!

For example, this design used to take 10 minutes, since it involves gluing a gem, etc. We practiced and practiced and now can do it in under 2 minutes, including gluing the gem and lipstick!

It takes practice, I used to take ages... I'm a perfectionist too. Practice on yourself, it's difficult and takes coordination but well worth it. Practice the same design over and over until you can do it it about five minutes, my first tiger took about 15 minutes, I can now do it in 5.

Good Luck!

Practice, practice, practice.

I take my photo albums of all my work to the birthday parties. They can pick from any of them. I can do them all in 5 minutes or less. Some parties have 10 kids and some may have 25-30 or more. Depending on the amount of kids and time they booked me, I will either slow down or speed up my work accordingly.

The parties that I have 25-30 kids or more, I may have 2 full faces, 10 half faces, and 10 eye designs and a few cheek or hand art.

I also have all my supplies in my FatMax. I know where everything is so I can stay in the zone.

I totally agree with the memorization and practice. You will be so much faster if you aren't having to figure out HOW to paint a design WHILE you are painting the design! Perry, BTW your avatar reminded me to tell you that you have converted me to Snaz for Spidey. Red, white, and black are the only full-size snaz I have in my kit although I do have lots of small sizes of the other colors - sparkles are nice.

While 20 min a full face is long for a pro - it boils down too long to make money at. That speed is ok for someone like yourself just starting out. Don't sweat it you'll get faster over time. Twenty minutes is not uncommon for bookings with custom faces i.e, Recently I worked for a corporate client booked 15 models and 3 advanced painters and 20 min per face was allotted for full face art. Right now just try to cut you time in half.

As for painting the same art - it is very individual some are faster at repeat faces some at a new design every time. Only you can figure what it best for you. That said if you were in a speed painting class with me I'd say stick to what you know.