building speed and getting creative

I have been trying different designs that I copy from Snaz photo pages. My daughter is 4 and likes it when I paint her EXACTLY like the photo so I haven't been able to do a lot of creative work. I think things take me longer because I am looking and trying to copy exactly but I have really loved the step by step designs on Snaz's site for being able to really learn new ideas and techniques that transfer to other designs easily.

Are you able to work faster if you're just creating and doing it free instead of copying something someone else or you have done? Is it just a case of practice practice practice? I also have a REALLY hard time with symmetry and making designs on one side of the face look the same.

Here are a few I've done but they took a ridiculously long time:





And my friend's daughter who was surprisingly more squirmy than my 4 year old!

I'm finding that once I get over the initial apprehension of a design I'm trying to duplicate and actually attempt it, subsequent attempts are completed faster with each go around.

As far as whether free work is faster than duplications of others designs, I guess that would have to depend on whether the free work is being conceptualized while you paint of it's a design you've already formulated and sketched out in your head (or on paper, what not). I find that when I don't have a set design, I'm hindered by my own indecisive mind and my yet-to-be-tackled fear of making some poor kid cry (I've seen it happen to another face painter). When I've already practiced a design, things flow and I'm able to alter it with speed and ease. My first butterfly took...I'm not kidding, 15 minutes because I couldn't get my had to stop shaking...I was knocking them out in 4 minutes this past weekend (3 if the kid was particularly onery in line and gave me a headache)! I know that practice makes you faster, it removed the element of apprehension that keeps us from weilding our brushes and sponges like the artistic weaponry they are.

Okay, that was lame...but hey, it popped in my head.

I find that even if someone wants it exactly like the photo/like her sister/like the last painting she had (how on EARTH would I replicate that?!), that unless it that girl at a party last week (who looked at the book yet again to see if she could tell what colour my model's sparkles were, so she could match), that as long as it's pink enough/swirly enough/sparkly enough - she won't notice that it's not stroke-for-stroke, teardrop-for-teardrop the same.

I definitely find that "free work" is faster than recreating someone else's designs - everyone paints differently, so some things come easier for some painters than others. That said, if I've been requested to paint something that I've never done before - that may take me a while to get going, and in that sense seeing another version would help - but it still wouldn't be the same!

...really hope that made sense. Haha.

I'm not very good at copying anything exactly, so I can't really give you an exact comparison, but once you start getting a feel for the basic strokes, you will start to make the design your own and it will go faster. I don't think I could take longer than 5 minutes on a design if I tried... I just can't get that fussy about anything... which means half of these crazy detailed designs I just won't even try right now.

Did I ever tell you guys about what happened when I had a little boy ask me to draw a little T-rex on his cheek? By the time I got done with the poor lizard he'd lost his place on the food chain...

Free work trips me up everytime. BUT i've been trying to imagine the most difficult things that a kid can ask for and head them off at the pass. I had a girl (teen) who asked for a fairy sitting on a flower blowing bubbles...I went slack jawed and then used the long line behind her as a scapegoat. I don't even know if I should bother trying to practice that one!

I think that the more confidence you have, the less kids insist on the face being exactly like the picture. I've noticed a definite decrease in that since I've become more comfortable painting. Children smell lack of confidence and have a way of tightening the screws

What I find really funny is how some kids are excessively concerned about paint in their hair. It's not like I get a lot of paint in the hair either. Sometimes by the temple at the hairline. At a party once, I had a little girl stand by me and tell a kid or two, "She got a little bit of paint in your hair"... and it was just a little bit but to her it was noteworthy for some odd reason. Kids are funny!

Regarding cheek art, I just inform people (politely) that I don't do cheek art rather than struggle with trying to paint something that will not look very good and takes a long time to do. I feel better about declining than I do about someone walking away with something that embarasses me. I direct them to my menu board and if they don't see something they like, I suggest alterations, ie, different colors, add teeth, etc. That usually works.

I have come up with two sheets of very easy to draw items that I use for cheek art & that's it. Things like a heart, lighting bolt, bumble bee, lady bug etc..... Iwon't do the really intense stuff anymore as it takes along time to do the fine detailz. I find that during the slow seasons, volunteering to paint at my kids schools/events helps me to maintain my speed.

It really is practice, practice, practice

I too enjoy "artists choice"

Jazzy those are really good!!! Don't worry about how long it took... it will get faster! Part of the process is developing YOUR style - not just copying exactly other designs. You take what you like and what was comfortable to paint and morph it into something uniquely yours!!

I don't have any problems with kids wanted EXACTLY like the photos ... I think it is because I overwhelm them with so many to look at!!

My regular table top display has about 139 photos, My Speed Display (4 minutes or less) has 78... my book for parties has over 150....

They pick one, then when it is their turn they tell me the design and I ask them what colour... paint them - it may or may not actually resemble the photo. I do have my tagline "Everyone's A Work Of Art" on my sign and I think, around here, they know that I don't "replicate" exactly anyway.

I do get kids asking for cheek art and I will do it. But I won't take booking that request it specifically because it DOES take longer for me too.

I do have a display of Arm Art... which is quite popular (included in the displays)

I have had a few requests over the years that I couldn't do... If I have no idea what the creature/character is or looks like! If they have an image I can do it as I can copy what I see.

yeah, if I'm not positive what something looks like, I ask if they have a picture... I can usually do an ok job on a logo or character if I have something to start with. I had one kid ask me to paint a pokemon on his cheek one time and I said the only one that I'm familiar enough with is Pikachu and he said that was the one he wanted... I didn't even remember to put the red dots on Pikachu's cheeks, but the kid seemed happy enough.

I have a lot of cheek art, but I actually like that kind of thing... my unicorn and mermaid are pretty popular actually.

If I'm at a job, where they have facepainting books, I put them away or ask them to do it, since I don't like doing other people work (they are fun to do at home just to try something new, and then making them your own). It also takes a lot longer if I have to stare at a book, and some of them are not the way I paint.

Paint in the hair: yes, that seems to be a big concern for some, both boys and girls. If someone notice I say that they don't have to pay more for that /that is is a bonus (most of the time it works). Plus that is rinse out of the hair as easy as on the face.
I do not take a lot of care about not getting some paint in the hair, I prefer to make something that looks good, because it goes all the way to the edge of the face.

I like doing special request (I would have loved that fairy on a flower blowing bubbles!), but if I know I might have problems with it, I tell them before and ask if they want something else. If it is a logo or a specific character I have no idea how looks, I ask for a picture. Else I let them guide me through. Like: What kind of flower is it? Is the dress red? (leading questions are always good) and so on. Even if the design might not be totally the same as they had envisioned in the first place, they have helped designing it, and are happy =)
I just make sure that I don't put more details in, so it would take longer than a normal full face.

And to answer the question: yes, practice makes faster!

Perry, maybe you can help me with MY unicorn and mermaids then? My mermaid (fortunately I was only practicing) looked like a fish with hair and the poor unicorn looked sort of like a horse with a protrusion coming out of his head an an odd angle...definitely not futuristically beautiful!

Lone, how would you have done the fairy/flower/bubbles thing? In my mind all I saw was complication.

well, my unicorn cheek art is in my album... don't know how much more help I can be with that unless I saw yours.... I can try to crop my mermaid picture so that the model's face isn't recognizable... but her mom doesn't want her pictures online.

I'll try one tonight. The one I did, I promptly wiped away...I didn't want animal rights activists hunting me down for what I did to that poor equine...

In my blog I've posted a couple of times about creativity and designs... if you'd like to read my uninterrupted ramblings!!

And on my free resources page there is a step-by-step Unicorn - it is on the brow, not the cheek.

The links to both are included in my signature.

Thanks Shannon, I forgot about that Unicorn tut, I saw it when I first came here. Have you ever put that on a little kid? I don't know if that would be too much for someone who wiggles a lot.

Only ALL THE TIME!!! It is very fast and easy to do on little ones - nothing on the eyes, quick brushwork for the mane which you can extend down the neck on the older girls.

I tend to do it completely with a brush as it is faster than using a sponge then switching... and not everyone has a forehead like my model in the demo!!

I even...gasp... painted a 2 year old girl with it... she was close to 3 but was little, but wanted the "horse" as she called it...

Lady Jayde wrote:
Lone, how would you have done the fairy/flower/bubbles thing? In my mind all I saw was complication.

Sure! At least would be trying *lol* maybe do one if I find the time =)

my breath will be bated as I wait for your results

No need to wait long