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Christmas Face Painting Tutorial

Sometimes You Need a Little Magic

We survived Halloween 2018! I didn’t take on quite as much work as I usually do this year, and it was lovely to be able to spend some of the evening with my family, so it was a successful one all round for me!

 

This week I want to talk about magic. Face painting has the potential to bring genuine magic to a child, and yesterday I experienced this in the most amazing way. I’ll be honest. I’ve been in a bit of a ‘funk’ recently… I’ve got a lot of stuff going on with my extended family, I have a 16 month old who seems to need around 5 hours of broken sleep per 24 hours, I’m in my annual ‘post-summer blues’ period, and I’ve been really busy with work. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been working away and painting my very best wherever I can, but on some level, I’ve been coasting.  I had a super busy Sunday planned, including a venue dressing (we also provide balloon décor / event balloons) so I was up until the wee hours on Sunday morning preparing balloons, and then up at 6.30 am to do the rest, then spent a few hours dashing around delivering and setting up my venue. In-between times I was up several times with the baby, and was properly exhausted. I left the venue at 12.30pm and was to return at 3pm to provide face painting, with another job in-between. When I was on my way back to the 3pm job I honestly felt like crying in the car because all I wanted to do was get home, and unwind / sleep! When I arrived I was greeted with about 5 times more people than I expected, the room was packed and there was no room for me to set up, other than a small space by the doors, which wasn’t ideal. A queue formed while I was setting up, and I (and my set up) was constantly getting bumped into / jostled around with the crowd. Things weren’t looking great for an ‘easy’ job. But… the music was good, the vibe was great, and I got stuck in and was getting through the queue at a good rate, and was happy with my work. Around an hour into the job, a little boy sat in my chair. He was quiet, shy, and his mum was there to help him. She explained that Darragh, 7, (not his real name) was a huge fan of the movie ‘Mary Poppins’ and asked if I had any suitable designs for him. His request was leaning towards having a flower on his cheek, like the one on Mary’s hat. I could have painted a simple push petal flower on his cheek and sent him on his way, and to be fair, he would have most likely been happy with that. But I had a quick think, and offered to paint Mary’s actual hat, with the little flower and berries in the centre. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t amazing work. I didn’t even ask for a photo at the time because it was just ‘okay’ and because I didn’t know what was about to unfold- it was just another ad hoc, un- practiced, slightly dodgy painting.  However, he was THRILLED. He immediately transformed into Mary herself, in every way possible. He had a helium balloon on a ribbon from one of the tables (which under normal circumstances gripes me a little as its ‘ruined’ one of the displays!) but for Darragh, this was not a balloon. This was Mary’s magical flying umbrella, and he was MARY! He floated around the room greeting people with ‘Good Day Madam / Sir’ and visited me several times, asking if I had any ‘unruly children’ who needed a good Nanny, and demonstrating how he could remove that giant invisible coat stand from his imaginary bag. The whole thing was magical. Mesmerising. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and I honestly felt so privileged and blessed to have been able to bring that magic to his day. 

You know how it goes. There are the children who look in the mirror when you have painted them, nod, and slide off the seat to go on about their business. There are the children who smile, thank you and say ‘I love it!’ before going on with their business. There are the children who hang around, interested, asking questions and in awe of what you do… appreciating the art, and really enjoying the experience... but sometimes, there is genuine magic. It’s that magic that turns a potentially stressful or difficult booking into the best job in the world. I left that booking like a different person. I was full of the warm and fuzzies, and feeling so incredibly lucky to be able to make a living from some paint, some experience and some ‘hocus – pocus’. Mostly though, I feel so blessed to have been able to create something that transformed a shy little boy, into his idol. He WAS Mary Poppins yesterday. He had the hat, the umbrella, all of the invisible accoutrements that make Mary Mary, and he was loving life. He won’t forget that feeling for a while, if ever, and neither will I. There has been some learning in this for me. I’ve never painted a Mary Poppins hat before. I knew before I started that given the queue, the jostling, the time pressures, my mood, this was not going to be anywhere near my best work.  I could easily have said ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a Mary design, how about a superhero / dino / dog?’ and none of the magic would have appeared. We all want to be at our best, demonstrating our skills on the little human advertisements wandering around the venue, sporting our best, well refined and executed designs, but sometimes, stepping out of our comfort zones in a pressurised situation, is the absolute best thing we can do for our own growth and development. 

Today I feel like my funk cloud has cleared. I’m inspired, am aware of how lucky I am, and I want to do this again and again. And again. I have the best job in the world.

 

I guess the moral of this story is that we should embrace the hard jobs. Pretty much like life itself, that’s where the growth happens, and the inspiration and the strength comes from. It’s easy to walk into a dream booking, paint lots of happy children, feel good and move on, but there is the potential for this magic at every single job and we should be actively seeking it at all times, maybe even more so where we don’t feel particularly happy.  It’s what makes the job properly worthwhile. It’s where the real job satisfaction lies, and it’s where the ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ happens!

 

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Tips To Dealing with Difficult Customers

My Top 5 Tips To Dealing with Difficult Customers
By Jane Harding
Hello everyone! Welcome back... who saw my ‘Pennywise’ tutorial on The Face Painting Shop YouTube Channel? Did you like it? I hope you found it helpful. If you haven’t seen it, ‘Go check it out!’

Today, it’s all about those dreaded difficult customers!
We’ve all been there, doing our best and still we seem unable to please some people. First off, let me tell you, sometimes you can try everything… including the tips I am going to share now and it still won’t be enough!
I say, do your best and then ‘Let These One’s Go’, don’t dwell on one person’s bad experience. If you have provided the best customer service possible and they are still not happy, it’s probably more about them than you… move on!

So what do I know about dealing with difficult people?
Well, in my former life/career, I spent almost 20 years working for the Local Authority and can safely say I have had my fair share of ‘Difficult’ Customers/Clients (whatever you want to call them).
IMO, there is nothing harder than working with/engaging/building relationships/and changing the behaviour of people that didn’t want you there in the first place! I have been trained to my back teeth in every counselling approach, lone working practices, dealing with aggressive people, managing risky behaviours etc. etc. So, I would say I have some knowledge on the subject.
Ultimately, it all comes back to good customer service, being fair and professional.
Here we go…
MY 5 TOP TIPS TO DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS
(Could also translate to ‘difficult situations’)
1. LISTEN
The thing I find most common in “difficult customers”, is their need to be listened to. Just listen to them, let them get out what they need to say and then try replying with something like, “I hear what you’re saying”, or “I’m sorry to hear that”… keep in mind; you are not agreeing with them, you are just acknowledging their feelings. On a psychological level, just by doing this, they will feel you are taking them seriously and that’s all most people want. Especially when people get agitated and angry, these simple sentences can help to calm things down. STAYING CALM is probably the most important thing you can do. It’s very easy to rise to (or ‘mirror’) another person’s emotional level, but think of this in reverse. If you remain calm, they are far more likely to ‘mirror’ your emotional level and meet you back down there, and subsequently becoming much easier to manage.

2. FIND OUT WHAT THEY WANT
Customers that complain, tend to be angry and want to let you know about it. So, once you have LISTENED, don’t be tempted to be defensive or begin to offer explanations (they will only see this as excuses) and it’s most likely going to just escalate to an argument. It takes two to tango! Instead, get straight to the point… try saying something like, “I’m sorry to hear that you are unhappy with……., What would you like to see happen now?”, A question such as this in itself will appease most people, this is because you are showing that you have listened and that you are indicating your intent to make it right. I have always found that 9/10 people will say, “I don’t want anything!”….. NOTHING?! That’s what you’ll be thinking. After all that, they don’t want anything!! They literally just needed to vent, and whether you agree with them or not, ask yourself, ‘Is it worth getting into this argument?’. The damage they could do to your business if you decide to give a counter argument is much more damaging than your need to have your say.
The way I look at it is; my business is everything to me. This person is a customer (also important), BUT they are not someone I hold dear to my heart, so it doesn’t matter if they have a different opinion to me or if they think I am wrong… I know I am right and I am going to protect my business first and foremost.

Oh… and that 1/10 person… well, they will tell you what they want! Maybe they want a discount or refund? At this point I would use one of my counselling techniques, which in a nut shell would be as follows. Paraphrase everything they have just told you into something short and sweet like, “I am hearing you’re not happy because..… and you would like…..”. (It’s very important to start that sentence with “I”) This helps on two levels, one, you are proving you have listened and taken on board everything they said, two, they will think you are considering their request.
Now that doesn’t mean I am going to give them what they want, that would depend on a lot of things; i.e. What the issue was, was I in the wrong, do they have a point and what are they asking for? If I was actually in the wrong, hypothetically let’s say I double booked them and couldn’t get cover. Personally I would give them a full refund and apologise profusely! I might ask if there was anything else I could do to put my mistake right… id consider a discount for their next party or possibly offer to provide a 1 hour face painting experience for the birthday boy/girl and their siblings if the children were very upset or disappointed.
However; If it was a customer kicking off because I refused to paint a child under 3 at their party and their friend was upset, I would apologise (for the upset) but advise, unfortunately I am not in a position to offer a discount, as I have already provided the service I was booked for and calmly point out, that I can see they ticked the box on the booking form to say they had read my full T&Cs and that they do clearly state my policy on age restrictions.
Or, if there was another issue not covered by my T&Cs, I may offer a partial refund, if I felt this would prevent any escalation or negative impact on my business.

3. BITE YOUR TONGUE!
This is much easier said than done, but ultimately this is business… when you think of it in those terms you are less likely to take what people say personally. It’s when things are taken personally that we are most likely to react defensively. Your first instinct should be to protect your business and you do this by providing excellent customer service. So avoid at all costs, engaging in an argument with a customer, even if they never book you again. Who knows who might be watching or hear what’s happening. This is how bad reputations start, even if you were absolutely in the right, it won’t look that way from a distance. I stand by the fact that ‘word of mouth’ is your best source of advertising, so present yourself in a professional manner at all times.

4. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
You may feel what I am encouraging you to do is ‘panda’ to people or ‘let them get away with treating you badly’, but I am really not, I reiterate, its business, try to shift your mind set to see it as ‘managing a situation,’ rather than the former. Here’s an analogy for you; if a child is having a temper tantrum because they have been told ‘no’, implementing ‘planned ignoring’ is the best behaviour management strategy and it’s important to remember, you are not ignoring the child; you are ignoring the behaviour! If the behaviour receives the desired response, the behaviour will continue. If the behaviour does not receive the desired response, the behaviour will cease. It’s the same thing here, you won’t get anywhere arguing back, or giving explanations/”excuses”… you need to be the bigger person, let it go and ‘Manage the situation’.

5. STICK TO YOUR GUNS!
I know what you are thinking, and you’re right, it’s not ALL about letting things go; it’s actually the age old saying of ‘choose your battles wisely’. Some battles you won’t win, so there’s no point escalating it out of all proportions, let them go. BUT sometimes we have to stick to our guns, i.e. for Health & Safety reasons! Let me tell you a story;

Once I was working at a PPF event when a grandad brought his grandson (6-7yrs) up to my chair. He climbed up; all appeared well, he had a big floppy fringe so I proceeded to put a hair band in his hair as he wanted Spiderman. As I did this, I revealed a forehead full of crusty chicken pox! You know it… my stomach dropped… I was going to have to turn this child away and possibly really upset him. But that’s life!
To give you the best example I can, here’s the basic transcript of what happened;

Me: Oh! Have you had Chickenpox?
Child: *nodded*
Me: Aww, I’m so sorry but that means I can’t paint you today.
(The child didn’t appear bothered at all)
Grandad: (In quite a stern tone) Well he’s ok now, he had them last week, they’re dried up!
Me: (In a calm tone) Yes, I see that, but unfortunately that doesn’t change my policy, I’m sorry about that, but I can’t paint him today.
Grandad: (In a defensive tone) They aren’t even contagious now, they are dried, he’ll be fine.
Me: (Still the same calm tone) Yes, I appreciate they’re most likely not contagious, I’m aware they are most contagious before the spots even develop. But unfortunately I am not in a position to put another child at risk or contaminate my kit.
(At this point I notice the people waiting in line start to pay attention and I began to feel the pressure to just back down and paint him, thinking they probably think I am being ridiculous!)
Grandad: (Very sternly, said something along the lines of) Well he’s going to be upset because he wants to be Spiderman
(yep, he tried to guilt me into backing down!)
Me: (to the little boy) I am so sorry I can’t paint you today, but I will be here again another day, so next time I’ll paint you to be anything you want.
(In all honestly the boy didn’t look the least bit bothered!)
Grandad: (whilst taking the boy down, in a frustrated tone) Come on… she won’t paint you and then continued to grumble as they walked away.

As he did, the next child’s grandad came right up to my face and said, “Well Done”. He went on to say he thought the other man had been very naughty asking me to paint his child, he also said had I have backed down they would have left the line… he took my business card.
In all honesty I believe if I had reacted to this situation by snapping back, being overly defensive or used a different tone of voice, this would have gone on much longer, the man would have caused more of a scene, people would have most likely left the queue and the man probably would have complained to the manager of the event I was at.
As it was, he left without a fuss and someone took my business card.
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Face Painting Hygiene

Lets talk about Hygiene by Kathryn Craig

Created: 29/10/2018 Category: ‍ Face Painting Blog

Hi everyone! By the time you read this you are probably in the midst of the Halloween madness, knee deep in latex and fake blood! I hope it’s a lucrative period for you all, and look forward to seeing the amazing faces that you have all created!

This week I am going to talk hygiene. Everyone has their own ideas about what best practice means for them, and as there is no actual official rule on what we should and should not be doing when it comes to working, it is ultimately up to each individual painter what way they choose to do things. I will freely admit that it’s a bug bear of mine, and as such, my practices may seem extreme to others, but for me, it is about taking all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of cross contamination, and reduce the chances of being the reason that someone becomes unwell or suffers a reaction from work that I have carried out. People are covered in germs and bacteria, none more so than children, so it’s not possible to completely eliminate this from face painting, and that’s not the aim here. The aim is to reduce any risk as much as is practically possible, while still being able to work fast, and efficiently, and doing what you feel is right for your business.

Let’s start with your kit in general. I deep clean my kit after every day’s work. For me, this involves wiping over every paint surface, container, cup, stencils and poofer etc, giving my brushes a good clean and machine washing my sponges. I use a fresh towel and tablecloth for each job. It really doesn’t take that long... maybe 30 minutes on average, and for me, it’s crucial that I arrive at every job with a clean kit. I have had many parents / clients comment that they are pleased to see that my kit is clean, and this is one of the things that sticks in client’s minds and makes them remember you when it comes to booking entertainment for their next event. We have all seen photos of horror-kits online, or in real life, and it genuinely baffles me that any parent would allow their child to be painted by products that look so unsanitary. It’s also about taking pride in your work, your working environment and your tools. I love my kit. I invest heavily in it, and I want to look after it – my livelihood depends on it after all!

 

Paint

Did you know that all of the paint products that we use have a limited shelf life once opened? For most paints, this is 12 months. After this time, they should not be used. You can find this information on the label as shown below.  While our paints do contain antibacterial agents, these are designed to delay any mould growth in damp paint, and do not kill viruses / prevent cross contamination. After 12 months, these agents will not be providing the protection from mould growth that they previously would have, and therefore the paint is likely to be less sanitary than before.  I’ve talked about repotting before, and mentioned that I keep a note of all batch numbers and expiry dates. If you repot your paints, it’s a really good idea to do this, so that you can keep track of what expires and when.

 

Brushes

Jane posted a fab blog post recently about how to clean your brushes between gigs, so I’m not going to talk much about that, and will instead focus on on the job hygiene practices. Face painting water gets mucky. There is really nothing that we can do to eliminate that due to the amazing array of pigments in our paints, but there are easy steps that can be taken to ensure that your brushes stay as clean as possible during a job. Rule one… never leave your brushes standing in water. It damages the bristles, the ferrule, and it leads to cracking flaky paint on the handles... never a good look, and a perfect breeding ground for nasties. Personally, I operate a 3 cup system, and while it took a little getting used to at first, it works well for me now, and doesn’t slow me down at all. The first cup contains water, and is used as a first rinse. The aim here is to get as much paint as possible out of the brush. The second cup contains water, and a brush sanitiser. I use Brush Bath by Silly Farm, which is 100% organic and smells divine. You only need to add a few drops to the water, so it lasts for ages and it will not damage your brushes.  My third cup contains only water, and is only used to rinse after the second cup, or to load a fresh brush. I can work a long and busy job, and the water in this cup stays clean throughout as it is never used for a painty brush.

 

 

Sponges

So...the great sponge debate! There are two very different schools of thought on this. Lots of painters use a ‘one sponge per colour’ system, where the same sponge is used to apply paint to lots of faces, before being washed.  Alternatively, others use a ‘one sponge per face’ system meaning that sponges are not used on more than one face before being washed. Personally, the idea of sponge sharing doesn’t sit well with me. While I am sure that no one is painting over open gaping wounds, or visible infections, it is important to remember that the majority of infections are contagious before they are symptomatic, so there is usually no way of spotting that someone is brewing up something you don’t want to share! Also, just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean that it never will, and if you are ever in a situation where a client has raised concerns about infection or reactions, you need to be able to prove that you work as safely as you possibly can. I want to minimise any risk of cross contamination and therefore I can’t get past the knowledge that I could be passing cold sores, conjunctivitis, impetigo, chicken pox or God knows what else, along a line of little people. Also, I don’t want those things in my paint, or on my hands if I can avoid it! I have loads of sponges, (I tend to cut regular face painting sponges in half which instantly doubles my stock!) and I have 2 mesh bags – one for clean, one for dirty. My sponges come out of one, are used, and go into the other, where they stay until I wash them after the job along with my towels and tablecloth. I add a laundry disinfectant to the load to ensure that they are squeaky clean before being reused. Interestingly, I have noticed that reusing sponges seems to be more common in the US than the UK, and can only assume that this is because there are a number of high profile American painters who do so. Again… this is a decision that only you can make, but it is important that you research both techniques before deciding what you are happy with. I have had parents comment that they are pleased to see that I do not reuse sponges, and that alone is a good enough reason for me to have a single use policy. Clients notice more than just the end result of our work!  Any professional face and body painting organisation that I could find all have a ‘clean sponge per face’ criterion in their working guidelines, including FACE – The International Face Painting Association. There are also some regions within the UK where individual councils have constructed a policy on safe face painting practices and again, any that I could find online all stated that sponges should not be used on multiple faces. Some countries like Canada have super strict rules on face painting that mean that even brushes cannot be reused without being ‘properly’ cleaned.

 

 

Hands

It’s not just the kids who are walking buckets of bacteria… we are too! Our own personal hygiene is important also, and where possible, I always wash my hands before setting up my kit. I carry antibacterial hand gel to use between faces, and (now that I’ve mostly ditched my baby wipes thanks to Nat’s campaign) I have a clean cloth for my hands. I can be a kind of messy painter, especially on long and busy jobs and I think it looks bad to be painting and handling face, brushes and sponges with painty hands, so a quick wipe between faces really helps.

 

Workspace

People see messy and think dirty. While your table itself is unlikely to get dirty during a job, it may (if you are anything like me) become untidy during a busy gig. Don’t be afraid to take a few minutes to do a quick tidy. I usually allow the next person into the chair and tell them that I am just going to have a quick tidy up. I’ve never had anyone complain about that, and it’s good that your clients see that you are making sure that everything is clean for them.

So there you have it. It’s pretty simple! Start with a clean kit, take steps to keep it clean and safe on the job, and clean properly when you are done, and you shouldn’t go too wrong.  If you wouldn’t accept it from a MUA working on your face, then it’s not ok to expect your clients to accept it from you! If you are interested in reading some more opinions and experience about hygiene, I posted a poll in the Face Painting Shop Tips & Tricks group on Facebook which has had over 200 inputs from other painters on how they manage cross contamination risks.  It always good to see what other painters are doing and why, so feel free to have a read and add your own comments!

Kathryn

 

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Face Painting Kit Essentails

Kit Essentials-cake paints

This week I thought I would continue my ‘kit essentials’ series and talk about my essential cake paints to take on a face paint job.This is pretty much all the cake paints I’ll take on a general paint job, but if I have a themed event I adjust my kit accordingly. I don’t like to take much more paint than this out with me as I use a lot of rainbow and split cakes, and it also helps keep set up and break down times to a minimum.

So this is my set up of my cake paints. They always come out in that order, and then they go back in the bag in this order! I keep the black and white next to the water and arrange them in colour order going away from the water with UV’s on top.

DFX White: Ok, so I’ve tried a fair few whites, and for me, this one comes out on top. I use it for both linework and spongeing on the job. HOWEVER for private appointments,I prefer to use white or very pale foundation (The Stargazer one is fine). It feels much nicer on the skin and takes paint well on top, and won’t sweat off as easily as a painted base.

DFX Black: This is my go to black for on the job. It’s great for line work, and blends out really nicely, and, like the white, I have tried several other blacks, and have come back to this one. However I am yet to come across a matter black than Mehron Paradise Black, which I use a lot for body painting, and for things like skulls and zombies on private bookings where you want more than just linework.

DFX Metallic Silver: Ok, if I’m honest, I don’t use this a lot, but it is useful to have a silver in your kit. I use it for the odd bit of outlining, or if someone wants a robot or something, but mostly, it’s there incase I need to mix it with a flat colour to make it shimmery.

Superstar Glitter Gold: This is such a beautiful colour. I love the softness of Superstar paints, and I love the pigmentation! I have tried a couple of other golds, but since I came across the Superstar Glitter Gold, I haven’t gone back to any other gold paint for face painting.

Global Pearl Baby Blue: This is such a great colour! It makes such a great blue tiger (combined with Cameleon Victorious) as well as the base for my galaxy design, and is great for outlining things like butterflies.

Mazz x

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Diversifying Your Business: running workshops

Diversifying Your Business: running workshops

 

This week’s blog will talk you through how to earn money through diversifying your business; in particular, teaching children’s face painting workshops.

Kids love to be painted but they love painting themselves even more. From the 4 year old who instantly becomes Hulk with a muddy-green, watery face to the quiet pre-teen, carefully creating her festival design, face painting is magical to children, especially for those who aren’t encouraged or able to get painty or glittery at home.

 

If you choose to run a learn to face paint workshop I guarantee places will fill. Here is my guide to making your sessions a success, based on my own experience and my training as a Primary teacher. Choose the best time for your workshop. After school and weekends are too busy for most families and the Christmas holidays are already an expensive time of year. Half terms and Summer holidays are perfect.Keep the sessions short, children finish activities at different speeds and you don’t want kids sitting bored for half an hour. Have extra activities for early finishers.Make a list of rules and email them to the parent or carer so they all know the expectations regarding health and safety, allergies, behaviour etc.

 

Make sure you have enough resources – kids like to gouge their way through your paints. I use snazaroo rounds cut in half and joined together with another colour to make cheap, effective rainbow cakes. Don’t throw away any of your old face painting brushes, give them a new lease of life – make sure kids have access to a flat and a round and maybe a petal brush too. Sponges, water pots, towels for spillages and that’s your lot. If you want to ramp it up a bit grab some glitter guns, stencils and bio chunky glitter.

If you’re teaching older children, teens and adults, the Training Tried and Tested boards by Sally-Ann Lynch are perfect. Younger children like to take their work home with them so cut up large squares of baking parchment and draw felt tip faces on.

Keep your teaching pacey and simple but have stretching tasks for the more able.

Invest in sturdy stand up bathroom mirrors so they can paint their own faces if they want to.

Consider making up some mini kits that the children can take home.

You can make up little samples of the products used in the workshop so they can practise their new skills. For Halloween my mini kits contain samples of wax, blood, zombie skin and siliglass. Charge for these, they’re not freebies! Wrapping a bow around the box them makes them attractive too. If you use business cards, pop one in each kit.

If the workshops are profitable why not offer ‘family’ facepaint workshops, gore and sfx or teen only sessions? Above all else have fun, enjoy helping others and don’t forget to take lots of photos to use for Marketing, you’ll want to do it all again next holiday…

Is this something you already do? Leave a comment and share your top tips and experiences, I’d love to hear from you.

JONI NETTLESHIP

FACE PAINTING BY JONI

www.thefacepaintingshop.com

 

Penny Wise Makeup Tutorial | The Face Painting Shop

Face Painting Kit Essentails

When I first started thinking about writing a post about my kit essentials, I was going to do the whole lot in one. I then realised that actually there’s too much to say to cover all my kit essentials in one post, so I’ve decided to break it down into various categories, and this week, I’m going to talk about brushes.

Good brushes can make a huge different to your work, and the way that different people get on differently with different brands of paint, is also true for brushes. I think if I was going to break it down to my absolute bare minimum on the job for face painting, I could get away with using just 4 brushes: Party Xplosion Round 5, Pink Tip 3/4 inch short angled brush, Pink Tip Flora 12 and a Toothbrush. I do have some other brushes that I absolutely love, so I’m going to talk about those aswell, but the ones listed above are the ones I’m going to focus on.

Party Xplosion Round 5
 
This is my favourite brush. Ever. In the world. The bristles are really flexible which makes it really versatile. It’s brilliant for things like outlining,  tear drops, tiger stripes, scars and scratches, and really fine lines. I actually have 3 of these in my kit so I can have them on different colours at the same time. I did try the Party Xplosion round 3, but I didn’t really get on with it because the bristles weren’t as flexible, and I haven’t tried any of the other sizes to compare, but this brush is life.

Pink Tip 3/4 Short Angled Brush

I really struggled with one stroke until I tried this brush. I had been using a flat brush but this one gave me so much more control, it’s great for so many things! I mainly use it for roses, butterfly’s, feathers, eye designs and sugar skulls, but I know a lot of people use theirs for so many different things!

Pink Tip Flora 12

I discovered flora brushes at a workshop with Erica Wafford at Body Craft Festival 2017! I had been really struggling with flowers, and straight after the workshop I went to buy the La Corneille Flora 10, and completely changed my body paint design for that day to incorporate the flowers. A few months later, The Face Painting Shop did a video about their new large flora brushes, and I immediately bought the Flora 12, and I absolutely loved it! It gives more of a rounded petal shape to the La Corneille, and it’s slightly smaller so I find it’s better for face painting. They work really nicely together, but on the job I tend to go for the Pink Tip every time.

Toothbrush

Ok, so it’s not very versatile in terms of different strokes, but I absolutely love using a toothbrush! One of my favourite designs to paint is a galaxy, and to create all the stars, I use the toothbrush with a variety of colours over a dark base (I find uv colours work best for this). It works great for creating eye masks, and blood splatters, and is a great tool for your sfx kit too when using alcahol paints.

Dagger Brushes

When I started using dagger brushes, it was to improve my one stroke roses, I never even contemplated using it for anything else! I no longer use it for roses but do use it to create petals and tear drops, and now we’ve been blessed with the new Triangular Dagger Brush!

Big Brushes

I love myself some big brushes! Until this summer I was using foundation brushes for body painting when I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Mark Reid signature 30, and I have to say I absolutely love it! I also have the Pink tip base brush, but I prefer that for use on the face and use with one strokes to create flowers and caterpillars. I also love my 1 inch short angled brush! It’s great on adult faces, but I find it’s just too big for childrens faces, which is where the 3/4 inch short angled brush comes in. I also bought myself the Da Vinci 14 brush this summer, which is brilliant for body painting linework, and like the Party Xplosion brush, the bristles are really flexible and you can get a pretty good variety of thickness of strokes from it.

Small Brushes

The last 2 brushes I want to talk about today are both pretty new to my kit, but I love them! The Pink Tip Flora Rounded 1 has a great fine tip, so you can get really precise linework out of it (it’s also what I’ve used for all of the writing on the boards in the photo’s) as well as great teardrops. The Small Flower Brush is also really lovely for smaller petals and little embellishements.

So there you go! A run down of my essential brushes and what they do! I hope this has been useful, I know everyone works diferently, and I would love to know what your favourite brushes are, so let me know in the comments!

-Mazz xx


Paint used: DFX white
Global Magenta
Global Dark Blue
Superstar Petrol Blue
Superstar Yellow
Paradise Red

Global Tokyo
Global Bali
Global Sydney
Nats Gold Edition Blue Wren
Nats Gold Edition Red Fox

Sally Ann Lynch Training Tried and Tested Black Practice A4 Board

www.thefacepaintingshop.com

A Beginners Guide to Face Paint & Brushes

A Beginners Guide to Face Paint & Brushes, Jane Harding

Are you just starting out in the world of Face Painting?

Do you ask yourself any of these questions…

What is the best paint to buy?

What brushes should I get?

Then this is the blog for you. I am going to run you through a basic guide of what I think would set you up well to get out there and start painting, without breaking the bank!

Disclaimer: I am in NO WAY an expert or claim to be, these are just my thoughts, based on my experience of buying and trying paints, brushes and various brands.
It’s important to remember, everyone is different, what works for one may not work for another, but my hope is that this will be helpful to at least a few people who are just starting up and have little to no experience in the big wide world of face painting.
IT’S A MINEFIELD OUT THERE!

Firstly let me say, in my experience most people thinking of starting a face painting business, already own some kind of paints and brushes. If this is the case for you, then as long as your paints are reasonably new (I wouldn’t recommend using half worn paints, which you’ve been using every Halloween since 1999!), you’ve used them appropriately to avoid cross contamination and they are FDA/EU approved, then you should be fine using what you have for now. Top Tip: Check the back of your paints; it will indicate how many months you should use them for once opened.

So, depending on how new you are to face painting, I’m sure most, if not all of you have heard of Snazaroo. I often hear parents in my line chatting to friends about the Snazaroo they have at home, so I know it’s a brand that hobbyists and beginners tend to try first. Most of us started out using it; probably because it was easily accessible years ago, most Fancy Dress Shops sold it and you could trust the brand was safe.
Basically, what I am saying is, if you have a selection of Snazaroo colours that you are wondering if you can use, then yes, you would be absolutely fine. They are FDA/EU approved, a perfectly good paint.
But, if you are looking at trying other brands and not sure which to start with, then what I will say is; I have found I like a lot of different paints, some more than others and some for specific uses. Paint is a bit like Marmite, what one person loves, another hates! So it’s not really a case of me saying “…… is THE best paint to start with”, because it’s just not that simple.
It’s exactly the same with brushes… a real personal preference. On one hand we are so lucky that we have such a huge variety to choose from, but on the other, it’s a bit of a minefield, especially when you start out and have never heard of some of these brands.
I remember finding a split cake by ‘TAG’ for the first time and I had no idea if it was good paint to buy, I felt like I needed someone to just say, “These are all excellent quality paints that many professionals use and would recommend”, to reassure me I wasn’t wasting my money. It was almost like a foreign language, I had no idea what things were! For example; if I said to you, my partner Mark owned a Giggle-Pin Winch for his Land Rover Defender, you probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about or whether that Winch was good or not!? That’s exactly how I felt when looking at face painting supplies. NB; Giggle-Pin are the best winches on the market! :-b But you only know, if you know!
In the beginning I didn’t know where to look or who to ask for this advice. Obviously now I know about things like; this Blog and all the great support groups on Facebook, including ‘The Face Painting Shop – Tips, Tricks and Questions Group’ where there is a world of knowledge and people willing to help out and offer suggestions.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/927565127253696/?ref=br_rs

 

Later on I’ll give you some lists of the paint, brushes and brands that I think are great (I know that’s what you came here for!), But Top Tip: I would also HIGHLY RECOMMEND you find a face painting course or local JAM, as these provide a great opportunity to meet fellow artists and have a nose about in each other’s kits and possibly even ‘try out that brush’ you’ve had your eye on for the last month!!

Wait… What’s a JAM?!
OK, I’m sure this will get covered in more detail in future blogs, so briefly… a JAM is; a get together of Face and Body Painters. They give you a chance to meet like-minded people, watch some demos, play with your kits, have a cup of tea, eat some cake and sometimes buy painty goodies!

 

ANYWAY… HERE WE GO… FIRST UP… FACE PAINTS

If you are looking to invest in any new paint when starting out, I would certainly recommend investing in a good Black and White. This is because black and white are going to be your most used paints, they are generally used to add detail and highlights to every design, so finding a good one will be of great benefit to you. You’ll find better coverage and crisper line work that will make your designs pop. I can’t tell you how much better my designs looked, once I found a black and white that provided that for me. Now before you jump in and click ‘add to cart’, I would suggest initially getting the smallest size available, usually 32g. That way, if you don’t get on with that particular brand, it won’t take too long to use up before you can try a different one. Top Tip: Once you have found a brand you like, I would definitely suggest buying the larger pots (45 or 90g) as they are the two colours you will use the most and it’s much better value for money.

My personal favourite Black and White Paint is DFX Essential, I know these are popular with a lot of face painters, although I’ve been hearing a lot of great stuff about Face Paints Australia White recently so I have just ordered myself one to try out. Top tip: It’s always good to have a backup paint in case your favourite one is out of stock!

I am not going to get into the differences in ingredients for all the brands today, as I assume you want to get to bed at a decent time… but it is worth pointing out that some brands are wax based and some are glycerine based. I am sure there will be a future blog about the differences of the ingredients and how they perform.

As for solid colour paints, there are so many and TBH I pretty much like them all! I personally use a lot of Superstar (FAB in USA); it doesn’t need as much water to activate as some other brands and you’ll find it quite soft in consistency to others. This is something I particularly like about it, but I know this is the reason that others don’t get on with it… so Tomatoe/Tomato! Just FYI, another of my favourites is Global colours.
Top Tip: I think the most important thing to look at when choosing your solid paints, is what shades you like. Every brand has slightly different shades, so choose the colours that you love.

ONE STOKES/ARTY CAKES/SPLIT CAKES/RAINBOW CAKES: If you are anything like me when I started, I was completely confused… what’s the difference between all these ‘cakes’?! So here you go…
One Strokes & Arty Cakes are basically the same thing. They are all in the smaller pots approx. 1inch wide in a variety of stripy colours for you to swipe your flat/angled brush across, to produce beautifully blended colours in ‘one stroke’.
Split Cakes & Rainbow Cakes are the larger pots that you can swipe a sponge across to produce the same blended colours over a larger area.




It’s exactly the same principle with these colourful little pots of joy, every brand is slightly different, you will no doubt have a preference as time goes on, but ultimately choose the colours you love and that will fit well with your designs.

So here it is… (In no particular order) the list of brands I think are pretty great and you can’t go far wrong with:

Diamond FX (DFX)
Global Colours
Superstar (FAB)
Face Paints Australia
TAG
Mehron
Kryolan
Party Xplosion
Cameleon

AND FINALLY…. BRUSHES!

 I perhaps shouldn’t be trusted with giving advice on brushes, as I am a self-confessed Brush Addict! (Please don’t judge me!)

 

Firstly, don’t feel the pressure from seeing other people’s huge brush collections… *Who? Me?* you don’t need that many (That’s what I keep telling myself! Lol)
Personally I have built up my collection over time and in my defence, I have a selection that I use on every job, then I have speciality brushes for specific designs I paint, that make it easier and faster for me. I also have duplicates so I can have a dedicated brush for black and one for white etc. and then, I have a stock pile of my favourite brushes in case one should break or get lost or be discontinued or… you get my drift!
I also have a mixture of brands, none better than the other; I have just found through experience, there are brands of brushes I like for different techniques and that I produce better work with. It really is a case of trial and error. This can obviously be expensive, so I refer you back to my top tip about training and JAMS.

Are you still with me? Hold on in there, we are on the home stretch.

If you were wondering what specific type of brushes to buy when starting from scratch, here’s a good selection of what I think would set you up well to produce a wide variety of designs.

Liner Brush – Great for delicate swirls on eye designs or super fine whiskers
Round 2 or 3 – Great for line work (Top Tip: x2 so you have one for black and one for white)
Round 5 or 6 – Great for tear drops and thicker line work
Flora – Great for petals (if you can, get a couple in different sizes this will add interest to floral designs)
Filbert Brush – Great for filling in larger areas and for bigger tear drops or monster horns
Flat and/or Angled 1/2, 3/4, & 1inch – Great for one strokes/arty cakes. These are available in short or regular length bristles. Everyone has a preference, but I personally found as a beginner I had more control with the short bristles. I now use a mixture of normal and short. Again, initially I found I had more control with the angled brushes, but I now use flat and angled depending on what I am painting.

And last but not least, here is a list of brush brands that I absolutely love and would recommend trying:

The Face Painting Shop Pinktips (I am not just saying that because of my blog, they honestly make up the majority of my brush collection!) – I pretty much love all of them!
Loew Cornell – (These are my go to line work brushes)
Sillyfarm Paint Pal – (I Love their petal, drop brushes and Cameron Garrett range)
Mark Reid – Signature #4 & #6 are my go to tear drops and dots brushes
Princeton – I found these hard to find, but I have a couple of their angled brushes I absolutely love
Natalee Davies – My go to butterfly brushes
Da Vinci – Love the handle shape of these, lovely to hold and paint with

And that is it my friends! I do hope some of you found this helpful… let me know in the comments your thoughts and what paint or brushes you love. Not forgetting, if you have any questions on anything I have mentioned then please ask away.

Thanks so much for reading… feel free to give me a like or follow on my social media pages below to see what I’m up to, my recent work and updates.

Jane x
www.thefacepaintingshop.com

Facebook.com/daisyjanesfacepainting
Instagram.com/daisyjanesfacepainting

Get Your Halloween On…..

Get Your Halloween On…..

Whether you love it, or hate it, the Spooktacular season is on its way!  I thought I’d write my second blog about my top tips for getting through those few crazy weeks unscathed.  Halloween is probably our busiest time of the year, and the earning potential in these few short weeks is huge!!  To maximise this there are lots of things you can do….



Boost your Bookings
If you are still becoming established, or want to ensure that your diary is nice and full over the Halloween period, now is time to start drumming up that business! Make sure you’ve got some fabulous spooky designs that you can use as examples (and have permission to use them) – if not, now’s the time to start turning friends and family members into skeletons, zombies, witches, etc – and it’s time to get your art out there!  Use social media to advertise your business on local community groups and ask for people to share and share again.  Contact play centres and local businesses and try and think outside the box - lots of companies get involved in Halloween now -hairdressers, nail bars, any public-facing businesses.  Approach these with your knock-out spooky designs and a professional email and see what they say!


Managing your bookings
When the bookings start flooding in, whether you base yourself at home, or are mobile - it’s essential that you manage your time well.  Better to do the legwork now, than in the midst of all the craziness!!  So:

• Know how long each design takes you, and allow an extra 10-20 minutes for a quick intro,  any time you run over and taking payment at the end.
• Get a deposit- or booking fee, no booking fee= no appointment!  I always take 50%.
• Ask for photos of the type design they would like.  This is REALLY important.  In this day of computer generated images, filters and airbrushing we may need to aherm ‘manage’ a clients expectations.  ‘No I’m afraid I can’t make you look like an airbrushed picture of Taylor Swift, but yes I can do a ‘corpse bride’ design with a two special fx wounds..’
• Send a contract with every booking, and in that contract stipulate that if that client is late then they may not get painted – remind them politely to be on time in the email too!

In the contract also include removal instructions so you don’t have to run through this on the day, plus your cancellation policy etc.These little time saving measures will allow you to fit in an extra person or two each day = more buck for your bang!


Pricing
My main piece of advice on pricing is DON’T SELL YOURSELF SHORT.  You are a skilled professional, who can create amazing looks for your clients.  Decide on your prices and stick to them -  believe that you are worth every penny of what you are charging (I know, this isn’t always easy, but it’s something I’ve learnt to do).  I never negotiate with people that try and haggle with me over prices – I just honestly tell them that I understand if they go for a cheaper option but that we are worth every penny.  Don’t forget to take your travel time and costs into consideration,  and as per usual parking etc.


Networking
If you haven’t already, now is a great time to reach out to your local network of Professional Face Painters, either through social media or just by picking up your phone and calling them!  My links to the other face painters in my area have proved absolutely invaluable, we are able to share jobs around, reach out when we need cover, and at busy times of the year -like Halloween-get together and support each other when only another face painter knows how you feel!!

So, that’s it for this week – I hope you can use some of this practical info to help you on your way to prepare for the Halloween season.  Next week’s blog is going to cover some of my go-to essential products for Halloween,  and will include a step-by-step using some of the gorgeous products in my bloggers box from the fabulous Face Painting Shop.

See you then!

Kate xxx