Young babies!

[reginanewsum]

Had a great birthday party gig yesterday to paint at! It was for a two year old little boy! Well he was asleep the whole time but anyways, I did paint two beautiful babies! One age 6 months old, and the other baby was 8 months old! The littlest ones mom wanted me to paint a full face tiger! I said no way! Too too little but that I would do some roses on her! Well the angel was a sleep the whole time and it turned out perfect! And the 8 month old was awake and never moved a lick! Ahhhh such great babies!  The guests there watched me as I painted the babies, they were amazed, I did the entire painting in less than two minutes and added glitter! But I knew I need to work fast so she didn't wake up! And I was so excited to get good pictures of them for my memory album!

[reginanewsum]

Here is a couple more pictures from the birthday party that I thin turned out well! The little girl was so affraid, so I had to work really fast to get done, so I just used a split cake and did a pincess like design so fast! she was about on the urge to cry, so I just kept talking to her and telling her that she was doing great, and who beautiful she was! you can see the tears forming up in her eyes and you can see she wass affraid! But when she looked into the mirror, she wouldn't put the mirror down! And this next one the snake face! OMG! the boyy was about 12 and moved around in the chair like he was 2! what a challenge it was to get this one done! all in all I painted about 58 kids and adults in 2 hours! Boy was I tired! But the music was great and loud and up beat, so I think I painted to the music! Ahhh I'm gonna make me some tapes to play at outing that are large in numbers! I really flew threw the faces with the music, it was like I had no control over my hands! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

Yikes, you are one fast mama! Can't imagine doing so many in only 2 hours. You have magic hands! Did they make requests for what you should paint or did you just pick it for them.

Well keep working the man who owns Snazaroo US has the World's (Guinness) Record for painting 117 faces (full faces) in one hour. GO REGINA!

[Alison]

That does it - I am going to make some split-cakes.
(All I've been traveling with
has been a couple of Rainbows)

Excellent work Regina.  Thank you for sharing

[reginanewsum]

thank you! Yes they made requests, and I did about 75 percent full faces! my split cakes were my best friends!

[Sherry]

Wow, that's amazing speed!  The designs are beautiful too.   

I average about 10 full faces per hour.  I haven't counted how many I can do at a quick event, when offering my quickest designs, but I know in no way could they match this record!  I'm guessing about 15 - 20 maybe at my super quickest.

[Alison]

I don't like when customers try to get as much as they can in as little time as possible.
It's like they're telling me not to do as good a job as I can.
But i remember once when a camp wanted 'cheek art only' to save time. 
hard to explain to them that some cheek art can take longer than a full face.
Anyway, I ended up limiting what I would offer while I was there - to make sure to hit 60 in 2 hours
(and you can guess - when it was time to pack up, counselors and parents brought me crying/tortured kids who hadn't gotten a chance....  LIke, how can I explain that the Powers that Be don't want to pay for more)

I did nice stuff, and being limited was helpful to my own development.  But there were several times when I wanted to say...."If you only knew how much more I could have done with that...."

[reginanewsum]

In Sept of last year, I did an event called Fun Family Day - it was for the abused children's group, I do four events a year for them,  as I talked before in a post, I do volunteer work for them, but the prosicutors office takes up a donation for me so I end up with about $200 on the average, but last year was a night mare job!  I had an other paid gig at 3:30, so I was going to paint at the childrens event from 12 to 2:30, hurry and leave and make it across town by 3:10 or so, I had it all timed out!  My line was approx 100 kids deep at all times, they estimated that there was over 500 people in attendance that day, children and adults. at 2:00 I stopped and counted back in the line, I told the 20th person, which was a dad that his children would be the last for me for the day, he said, I'm not telling the people behind me they are not getting painted! So I yelled it out! They went nuts on me! I had one mom say "it is your job to stay here until all kids have hada turn!  I said No Ma'am it is not my job! I an volunteering and I have an other job to go do, she said so what! I got .....MAD! held my cool, and started packing up at 2:45. I had a gal, throw her child in my chair and say  "paint her"  I said No ma'am! I must leave, almost had to have a body guard to go!  Left, got my composure back in my car and went to my next paid gig! Completely different! Had a wonderful time at the birthday party, painted, had a little dinner and listened to great music, ended up staying over two hours on my own and just chatting with my new found friends! It just goes to show, if a person isn't paying for your service, they tend to take advantage of you, paid events, gave me more respect! Ahhh life is complecated!

[Sherry]

It is weird how that happens.  I've noticed that too, Gina.  You'd think, since they're getting it for free, that they'd be more pleasant.  I'm amazed at how many can get pushy and downright rude.  I think many are pleased and appreciative, but maybe the rude, demanding ones stand out more.

[Alison]

Oh yeah.  And here's a dillemma that I came into recently.
I was told I could 'charge' 'tips only'.  Day started very nicely - even had one person give me $20 for one simple face-painting.  But by the end of the day, I got bombarded with a Large Extended Family - so big that other people didn't want to wait for their turns and walked away.  Now, this Large Very Large Extended Family was very happy to come upon me.  They were automatically giving me One dollar for each request - things like skulls and, oh, I don't remember, but it was a lot of high quality choices.  took up at least an hour. 

I treated them with the same care that I gave to everyone.  Remembering that my Life isn't just about Money.  That this is a chance for me to practice.  That I would end up with some money in my pocket by the end of the day (um, I guess it was more than my supplies and travel?).  But, anyway, What options did I have for dealing with them? 

[reginanewsum]

Yes the large families or groups, when you see them coming when you are painting for tips is a heart breaker! But you just smile and do your best, I have had this happen and then the whole family walks away! I'm like hmmm! I thought I painted well!  But on the other hand here is a pic of an arm art that I did at a very classie university alumni picnic, mostly dr's and medical professionals in attendance, this gal wanted a flower to match her dress, I was almost cleaned up and ready to go! I said no problem, got up a split cake and brush and did this very quickly! Cause I was tired!  And  she loved it, her hubby loved it, he opened his wallet took out a bill and handed it to me folded up! I said thank you so much, enjoy the rest of your party and your evening! they walkedaway and I looked down into my hand and un folded the bill!  THE BILL! it was a 100 dollar bill! I looked up and I wanted to yell "NEXT"  !  HAHAHAHAHA

[Sherry]

I don't know what else you could do in a "tips only" situation other than try the suggested tip sign and hope for the best.  I try to avoid tips only events like the plague.... unless it's something charitable that I want to give to.  "Tips only" situations always end up where I'm practically working for free.  I've never been as lucky as Gina.      Or probably not luck, but talent!   

[MsMollie]

i know what you mean...the last time i worked for tips, i made about eight dollars!...they wound up giving me money from the church...i don't like to do fundraisers....but you never know.....money is tight for alot of people...when i did the fundraiser at that church a while back, it sort of made me mad when i was there and they were having an auction or cakes and pies and whatever...some of them were paying as high as $150.00 a cake at the auction!...Made me so mad....i wanted to stand  up and yell.....hey What about face painting!....i'm here to help, donate some back to the church"!...they didn't even want to tip me....i don't think i will do that again...at least not at a church event.... :

[reginanewsum]

I have had some bad luck at tip only gig! Worked harder at them, then a paid by the hour gig!  But here is some thing that I am now doing, and it seems to have been working ok pretty well! When I do a volunteer event, I offer then free labor and no hourly wage, but I do ask for a material cost of $25 for under two hours, and $50 for over two hours.  I never used to, but this way if you don't get much tips, you can still cover your materials.  People forget that most of us are trying to make a business out of art.

[Sherry]

Yes, I don't think people have a clue how much money goes into this and since you don't work at this 40 hours a week, the pay needs to be enough to make it lucrative.  I had a customer contact me the other day asking if I could work for a reduced hourly rate for a school.  I told her that I never had and if I got the request, I most likely wouldn't, but for her I would, because I very much appreciated her hiring me when I first started out and recommending me thereafter.

  In my heart I wanted to give back to her, because of how she helped me when I desperately needed to get working.  I really didn't see this as something I wanted to make a regular thing of and I thought I made that clear in my email and yet, part of what she wrote back to me was how happy she was that I'd do it and that it would "possibly open a door to participate in our spring fling next year."     Now I need to think of a tactful way to let her know if the Spring Fling is paying the same, I'm not really interested in doing it.