Display board or No display board??

[bdowns]

I did my first festival this weekend(avatar is pic from festival) and I was able to talk some other local painters to allowing me to join them for the experience. They had their display designs and I agreed to work from that as well I could do my own thing just keeping with their pricing.. So heres what happen... I got stuck doing nothing but butterflies.. I almost feel like Im ANTI-Display board.. I wouldnt mind having a portfolio on a table for people to look at, but would like to do different designs on faces..

I met another painter a few weeks ago and she does not use a display board or display any designs at that.. You walk up, sit down and she starts painting.. what you get is what you get and not one person left unhappy. shes really good too..

Now I have 3 more gigs before the end of the month and all solo... And 2 are free events (tip jar only!! as I am brand new to face painting I wanted seat time and exposure, I gotta do what I gotta do to get established) I just dont want to get stuck painting the same thing over and over, I need practice but I want to practice everything..

For paying events, like the one coming this weekend, I was thinking of just having a sign saying Designs and list my 3 prices... I have a pretty nice professional looking set-up (I can fake it...LOL) Is it enough? Thoughts please??

[a face painting mom]

I have done both, but I always have some kind of signage that shows some examples and attracts kids to the tent. You do have a lot more freedom when you don't paint from a board, but the down side (for me) is you spend a lot more time talking about what the child wants you to paint, and sometimes, it is not really the best thing, like a little girl wants her butterfly to have colors you know will not look good together, or wants pink glitter on a green butterfly...something you just would rather not send out to walk about. It takes me a long time to suggest that they come up with something that will look better. I have not ever tried to just have the kids do what I want...I am not sure that would work for me, but it sure would be fun!

Do what you thing will work best for you. I would love to be less tied to my board, but it really works well for me.

[Taradoodles]

you could always do the word list to. that way you can create and use the childs fav color for each design. like $7 mermaid, spiderman, princess crown, batman, zombie, butterfly, pumpkin that way you can do what you want i dont know your pricing, so you do it how you want. but word lists I have used before to, one place I work with always insists on a board with pictures so I make it for them.

[Stacia]

I started out with a word board, I downloaded a bunch of fonts that matched the designs and printed the whole list of designs out in the largest size that would fit on a piece of paper in my printer, mounted them on card stock individually, and stuck them on a foam core board. I used velcro so I could change them out when/if I wanted to.

There are pros and cons for having and not having a picture menu though, after trying both ways I feel (for me anyway) that the pros outweigh the cons for having pictures. Some days you'll end up painting mostly butterflies either way. I think the pictures draw more people to your tent and encourage parents to be willing to pay more for your work. I've overheard parents say "Oh, this is expensive, ooohhh, but look at that cute XYZ design!!!!" and they wait in line and pay my "expensive" price without complaint and even ask about my hourly rate for a party.

[Noella]

I like having pictures - then they have an idea of what they are getting (and I know I can do it). When I find myself tired of certain designs, I add more designs.

[artyfacesbyluz]

For me, pictures are a must have, I use to have a menu with just 1 price, this weekend I tried my new menu with small eyes, butterflies and Bling mask, The whole year I've been offering hair color and hair tinsel with only words and never done one, and now I did 4 because the pictures in my new menu, parents tell the kids the buget from what they can pick, I made this saturday $60 dollars over my new menu, I am so happy with that, and for those "tip jar" events you should have a special menu also ( see michel's fast designs, she painted them in a board). Pictures sell more than words.

[debranewmanart]

I printed out face templates, 4 to a page, that someone on here made...they are awesome.
Then I drew the designs with colored pencil...going over some details with Sharpies for a brighter color.
I then shrunk the pages down on a copy machine....cutting each so they fit in the pockets of a pocket calendar like teachers use.
I also used clear packing tape to "laminate" each one so they would last longer. Works great! I can switch out pictures and prices in seconds.
I also have kept the original drawings in a notebook which the customer can look at as well.

[a face painting mom]

I have been toying with the hair idea too. My daughter got a feather put in her hair a few weeks ago, and she does tattoos for me. Had two people ask us if we could do that, one stood in her line waiting to get a feather! I know that there is a market...but I think they need to see it!

[MeeMee]

Some people are good a judging a person's personality and others aren't. Me, if I think a cute little girl would make a pretty princess, she probably want a snake. Or if I think a 4 year old boy would want a spiderman, he wants a skull. So I have a picture board. Takes the guesswork away.

[HappyVickery]

I like having a board so people can the quality of what they will get. In my opinion when people see words they only notice the $10 price tag. When they see pictures they ignore the $10 sign and have to have blah blah blah. It also lets the parents tell their kid which price range to pick from, which limits their choices and makes things faster for me.

I don't like spending time asking what they want. It takes way to long because they feel the need to look at all of my paint colors. I will ocasionally ask what color they want their butterfly to be, but I do it before they are in the chair while I'm waiting on the previous person to pay. If i've got a long line, I just paint it like the picture. No complaints either way.

If I get totally sick of a design, I take it off the board and replace it with something else. That way I don't get stuck in a boring rut. For butterflies, I don't think I could get by with taking them off the board if I wanted to, but luckily those can be painted tons of different ways so it keeps things interesting

[a face painting mom]

Happy, I so totally agree about not asking them what color when they can see all the paint, it adds an instant 60 to 90 seconds to their time! I have tried just asking if they like pink and purple or blue and purple (it seems they all want purple as the second color) then I can pick a split cake that will work.

I was doing quick designs at a school, and the girls kept asking for "highligher" and it took me a while to figure out that they saw my DFX neon split and it resembles highlighers for books and notes...I wanted to put it away, becasue they would say "I want just the yellow and the blue" but they have green in between...took too much time to try and explaine that. I finally just hid it.

[HappyVickery]

I love that they called it Highlighter!!! Too funny!! My favorite request from yesterday was a little girl that said I want Red, Organge, Blue, and purple! I thought it would look terrible, but I did it any way lol Blue and purple split on the top, and orange and red on the bottom. It actually looked really good! I wish I'd gotten a picture

[Criss]

High lighter! I do a tiger on my daughter with neon yellow and pink (where they blend it turns orange) and my daughter calls it the highlighters tiger It's her fav design

[a face painting mom]

Cool Criss, I will have to try that, I do able every combo of tiger you can think of, but not that one, it sounds GREAAAAT!

[bdowns]

Thank you thank you thank you... I must get started on my board..

[Perry Noia]

I find that without a photo board, I end up doing MORE of the same old thing because they ask for what they got from another face painter... I have some very unique designs on my sample pics and they are very popular because they are different. That being said, I don't usually use sample pics at private parties because it is just too much to set up. I also agree that pictures help to draw people into the tent at ppf... Glitterfly and I have tried doing festivals without pics up and found that it really helps to pull people over when we put up the picture banners.

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