Yoga for Face Painters

Created: 10/01/2019 Category: ‍ Face Painting Blog Comments: 0

 

 

The new year is about breaking bad habits for me. An often overlooked bad habit for face-painters is our posture and health. We work multiple hour jobs, sitting or on our feet, leaning forward and our kit can be heavy. I can finish a long day and feel like I’m 80 years old! So I’ve teamed up with one of my very best friends, Keira May to talk through you some poses. On top of Keira being a yoga instructor her partner is a tattooist so she knows the trouble spots for working artists. Doing these poses regularly will improve your mobility and keep your greatest resource going. And no you don’t have to burn any incense if you don’t want to.

 

 

 

“Crescent moon (Ashta Chandrāsana)

A good warm up pose and one you can do anywhere without looking too silly! And can also be done seated!

From standing, feet together, raise your arms over your head, clasp your right hand around your left wrist and gently pull over to the right to create a subtle crescent moon shape with your body. Hold for a few deep breaths and repeat on the other side.”

 

 

 

 

Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana 1)

“A strength building beginners pose, the warrior poses give strength and length to your arms and legs.

From standing, feet together, step your right foot back. The back foot should be placed flat on the floor angled diagonally with toes pointing forwards. Bend the front knee, the knee should be stacked over the ankle, if possible, or slightly behind, if you find your knee goes too far forward you can take a wider stance. Reach your arms over your head and look up at the space between your hands. Keep your shoulders relaxed away from your ears and take a few deep breaths in this position before repeating with the other foot forward.”

 

 

 

 

 

Warrior 1 with a bind

“This is a lovely variation of the Warrior 1 pose, it gives a big stretch of the chest and upper arms which can get so tight and cramped up if you're painting all day!

From Warrior 1, bring your arms down behind your back. Interlace your fingers, squeeze your shoulder blades and Straighten your elbows. If you're not able do this with your arms, clasp opposite forearms or wrists, remember to squeeze your shoulder blades to open up your chest.”

 

 

 

 

 

Goddess / Fierce angel pose (Utkata Konasana)

“This is one of my favourite yoga poses! It gives you a wonderful strength in the thighs and upper back. It opens the centre of your chest, which can be very compressed after a long day of painting! It's a very strong and empowering pose. It can be a little difficult if you have a lot of tightness in the hips or weakness in the thighs. But as with all yoga, the more you practice the stronger and more flexible you'll find yourself becoming!

Standing with feet about 3 to 4 feet apart (or as wide apart as you find comfortable) . Turn your heels in so your toes are pointing diagonally out to the sides. Bend your knees and raise your arms. Bending the elbows so your arms are in a cactus shape. Squeeze your shoulder blades  together so you can feel your chest opening. Stack your knees over your ankles and sink your hips low.“

 

 

As they say in yoga, Namaste!

 

 

 

Keira teaches all manner of Yoga classes in the Leigh-on-Sea area and an be found through her Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/keiramayyoga/

 

 

Rosemary x

 

In the essence of busy Christmas parties, this week I have demo’ed my 2018 -3 most popular fast faces for girls. I hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/uLc6n22PWOk



Princess / Snow Queen Crown.
This is super-fast, around 2 minutes including gems and glitter, so it makes a great queue buster! I’ve used blues in this example but it works equally well in any girly colours! I have shown the most basic version that I use on this design, but it is easy to embellish it a little if you have more time.
Products Used
Global fun stoke – Calgary
DFX white
TFPS Short flat 1”
TFPS round #4
TFPS round #2
TFPS aurora glitter
Large Gem

Rainbow Unicorn
2018 really has been the year of the rainbow unicorn, and this design has been a popular one at all kinds of events.
Products Used
Global Fun stroke – Leanne’s Island Girl
DFX white
DFX black
Global Magenta
Superstar 213
TFPS short flat 1”
TFPS round #4
TFPS round #2
Lowe Cornell gold grip #2
TFPS aurora glitter

Floral Eye
This is my ‘go to’ eye design for older girls and ladies. It is fast, pretty, and easy to mix up a little by using different colours for the rose & petals. I love double/ triple dip flower petals, and these colour combinations are my all-time faves!
Products Used
DFX one stroke ‘Posie’
DFX white
Global Deep Green
Global Purple
Global Magenta
Tag Teal
TFPS Angled Brush Large
TFPS small Petal Brush
TFPS round #3
TFPS Round #0
TFPS Aurora Glitter

 

I hope that you have all had a happy (and profitable!) Christmas, and enjoyed the break! Happy New Year everyone!!
Kathryn xx

Silly Farm

USA friends....
Did you know you can get out world famous Pink Tip Brushes at Silly Farm Supplies <3
Heather Green

https://sillyfarm.com/pages/search-results-page…

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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