Feeling Rusty

This summer I have not really pulled out my face paints. I was sure that I would be face painting as a side job, but quickly found out how difficult it is to get people to appreciate what you do. Most people do not want to pay for a face painter. They will always think it is too expensive.

I am now just face painting recreationally (expensive hobby) and for friends/family.

Today is the last day of summer vacation so of course, the paints came out. My kids had some friends over and they where watching a movie about a three headed shark. Yeah, not any better than it sounds, but a ton of fun for the kids.

Naturally, they wanted me to paint sharks. I found a picture of a great white shark on Pintrest and went to work. I found myself a little rusty. I struggled more to find the consistency I wanted in my paints. Also, I had a harder time getting my brush strokes the way I like.

All this tells me that I need to keep up with my practice. This will mean more face painting all year long.

Anyways, here are my sharks if anyone is interested...also a little seahorse and my first ever dolphin!!

Leave a comment if  you like my post.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Since I have a couple of face painting jobs coming up I have been practicing as much as possible.

I am so lucky to have such great kids. They sit really still for me and are very patient.

Of course, the easiest place to practice is the inside of my left arm. I practice not just to get faster at my images but to also learn the paint consistency.

Face Painting Supplies

I am not a professional face painter. I have been painting on my children for a while now and even paint on other people's children periodically. I have an upcoming birthday party I am "working." I am really looking forward to this job.

I did a post in the past about just jumping in and painting you children's faces without any fear. In that post, I talked about the paints I picked up at WalMart that got me started. I have moved on a little more into the world of face painting but still do not consider myself a professional. I did want to share with you some of the things I have learned about face paints so that those of you who are on their journeys like myself can share in what I have learned.

The cheap kits sold at Halloween are fun because, if you get them on clearance, they are very inexpensive. I do not like the grease paints. They are sticky, get soft the longer you hold them and are a real pain to get off. Use a little cold cream to help remove the color stain. Halloween kits can also come with the dry paint that requires a little water to activate. Water based colors go on easy. These cheap paints can also stain some: cold cream.

As I have progressed to painting more faces and wanting to do more styles, I found myself expanding my paint supplies. The next face paint brand I purchased was Snazaroo. Snazaroo paints are easy to work with, they come off with a baby wipe and the color pallet was nice. The kit I purchased really let me try out the paints without committing to large quantities.When I received my kit in the mail, one of the colors was broken. Then while putting it away and taking it out, another color popped out of it's place and eventually broke was well.

I began to research buying professional paints. Boy, is that overwhelming. Because I had a prime membership, I stayed with Amazon to buy my paints. I picked up a Fazmataz rainbow split-cake similar to this. (Primary colors not neon.) I found that the color was not very bold on this brand. I used this at the field day for my son and found the colors faded bad. I now use this as my background to some designs.

I read that many professionals use Wolfe brand paints so I purchased a large (45g) orange, brown and red. I LOVE them. Wolfe is bright, easy to paint with and requires only a little to get good coverage. I bought Tag in black and white because they where a little less expensive. Tag is great as well. I know that eventually I will purchase all my primary colors as well as pink and purple in Wolfe or Diamond FX (which gets great reviews), but this will require a major investment.

I hope I didn't babble to much. This post has not been sponsored by any brand or is this post anybody's opinion except my own.

I would love to hear what your favorite paints are or maybe what your favorite split-cake is. I am still learning. I will be the first to always say I am not a professional, but always a student.

I used my rainbow split-cake and my new Wolfe orange.

 

The split-cake makes a quick background.

First Face painting Job

I have my first face painting job lined up in October.

Last night I layed in bed with my mind going round and round on what I would offer, what designs would be fast, which ones would the kids want...that kind of thing. I find it very hard to go to sleep when my mind is still going full blast.

I woke up this morning and decided to practice a few designs.

My 6 year old loves Frozen. I have a feeling she is not alone. I decided to try my hand at Olaf. I need to buy some brown paint for his arms, but I think the one I did came out cute.

 

The line-up will be : Olaf, Hello Kitty, a pumpkin, a bat, a dragon and some hearts. I am super excited.  

I will have to add pictures as I practice the designs I am going to do!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yadi