Child freaked out yesterday

[Sherry]

I had some customers come up browsing my designs yesterday and the mom and her son decided on Ironman.  Most of my faces have some kind of painting on the eyes, so I believed it was expected.  He sits down and asks me if I want him to close his eyes and I tell him yes.  For this reason, I wasn't expecting anything unusual.  I paint out the top and sides of the design and then start down over his left eye.  He immediately starts to freak out, yelling, "my eyes, aah!  she's painting over my eyes!   It burns!  Aah! She's painting my eyes!"

As soon as he started yelling, I had stopped painting, but he continues to holler.  I grabbed a baby wipe and tell him, he can wipe it off, he does and continues to make a scene.  I hadn't even painted over the other eye, but he acts like that eye is burning too.  Craziest thing and I'm worried that all the surrounding people will think I'm putting dangerous stuff on children.  It was awful.  He hops down and when her daughter gets up, the mother, with a worried expression, asks if I can avoid the eye area on her daughter.

We end up doing a simple cheek art butterfly.  All the while, the mom is helping her son pick out a cheek art.  There's no way, I want him back in my chair and I'm even shaking my head no, that I'd rather not.  But they ignore this and here he is again, back in my chair.  I did the batman logo on his cheek.  I've never had this kind of thing happen before.  It was awful.     The only thing I can think of is it was a small town and maybe they're only used to people using acrylic?  I let him know as soon as he started his screaming episode, that it was makeup and not really paint.  That it was o.k., but this made no impression.

[jubob]

On no Sherry that sound awful  I would say over sensitive child 

[MsMollie]

I know 'exactly' what you mean...they all want the paint on their eyes and you tell them what you are doing, but the minute you try and do it, they start to flinch and pull back!....However, if I have any, and i mean any notion that this isn't for them, i will look at the mom and say.."that sure is alot of paint", realizing that I may be cutting my own throat, but I don't care, all it takes is one child freaking out...I am sure that you are very careful with little ones as I am...especially around the eyes....i try to make the little ones designs very simple, whereas for older ones i don't worry about it much.....

I also found that if you cover the whole face with paint....the very best way to remove it is...at least this is what i do and it works wonderful.....i put a dab of lotion on a sponge....start to move it slowly over the face....this loosens the paint really well, as you can see the paint starts to blend together...then i take an old rag or cloth and wipe it away from the eyes....works wonderful!....usually get all of it in one swipe....no scratching the skin....

[twinkletattoos]

oh boy...dramatic much?

What color/brand paint were you using?
I didn't know I wasn't supposed to use red around my eyes and applied it and my eyelids felt like they were on fire. The next day it was like my eyelids were sunburned.

[sparklingfaces]

wow - that's horrible.... how old was he?

[Sherry]

He looked like he was around 7 and I used DFX Metallix Gold.  I really don't believe it burned, because it would have had to burn immediately upon contact and after they wiped it off, I saw no irritation.  He said his other eye burned too and I hadn't even started on that one.  I'll have to post his photo later.  I just got back from my second day at the festival. 

Much better day today, only very hot.  We were all pouring sweat.  Luckily the vendors next to me were super nice and they had an extra fan they let me use.  In fact, everyone at this festival was super nice.  You get to meet the most interesting people at these events.

[Glitterfly Faces]

That sucks.
I haverun into a few kids like that.  Not as extreme. But, I think it's a total attention getter.  Obviously he needs mom and dads attention more. 

I am doing a 3 day festival and I agree about how courteous and kind the people are.
Except....we have this familt next to us that have 3 kids.  They do festivals all over Canada all summer with the kids in tow.  These kids are soooo annoying.  I have done 2 glitter tattoos each.  My partner has face painted them both days.
They keep picking up her balloon pump with balloons and trying to pump them up.
Jumping in our NEW tall director chairs.....begging and demanding for MORE tattoos.  WTF???
Are you kidding me? 
So sad that the parents allow them to bother and bet other vendors all weekend. 
People are giving them a ton of stuff for free to to get rid of them.  They are like cockroaches.   :

[Kristal]

Sherry - you poor thing! How awful. I hope this was near the end of the day!

Glitterfly - If those kids had touched my balloon pump - actually, ANYTHING of mind - Sh!t would have hit the FAN! I am so protective of my supplies.

I had some kids like that my first trade show. I was just starting then, and everything I did was $2. (Ridiculous,  know.) While I would sometimes get $5-10 for, say, a dragon hat (I charge $10 for those now, haha), they would come up constantly and ask if I was doing anything for free, and then 5 of them would come back with $10, get 5 of the most complicated things (my fault for not pricing accordingly, I know), then they'd pop and they'd be back asking for a fix. I know they're kids, but still! Their parents were running a stall down the way. Obviously the painter is a babysitter. One of them ended breaking the glass on a picture frame I had there, because they were constantly touching and grabbing at things and banging against the table...I'm angsty again now, haha.

[MsMollie]

wow....we all learn as we go, don't we??..i volunteered at this festival call the Bach Barn bash...it's for under privledged kids and kids with dissabilities...anyway, for this event, they shoujld have had at least three face painters..there were two of us...and you know, i have never painted so fast in my life! These kids all wanted full faces and masks..not any little stuff...i know it's due to my painted face which they loved so they all wanted the girlie stuff...so i tried to oblige...however, when you have this many kids at an even like this, and they "know' it's free, they all want as much as they can get....of course....however, i had one lady back in the line come up to me and ask me if i couldn't paint something smaller on all the kids, i told her that i was just trying to give them what they wanted....i told her i would change it up..she had been standing in the line for 30 min...don't blame her..sooo, i scaled way down on the butterfly masks...just a dab of paint here and there and a few feathers'.....the kids still liked it, but i told them that i would do 'no' more big full face masks....for some reason,. everyone wanted to be dogs and tigers last night!...duh...anyway, i would have left with a ton of money i f could have collected for them painting i did!...but it was worth it to see the looks on their faces when i was done...I'm learning!!

[reginanewsum]

I understand Mollie!  I used to do the same thing, try try try to give them what they want!  I do a lot of volunteer work, where I supplied every thing!  But this is how I handle it now,  I ask for a material fee. That way I at least cover my cost of supplies.  You can always say $25 or $50 that is more than being generous.  Yes if they are not paying for it, they want it all! Full faces and a design on both arms!  Also legs if they are wearing shorts.  But now I never take out my book of full faces to an event as such.  I have a board of really fast designs.  I offer one eye designs for girls, and a monster mask over and on one eye for boys.  And you know, they look pretty darn good!  Cut down your designs and your offers to go threw the line faster. Like I said they don't care how much it costs you!  Also I too always go to a gig painted up!  But if I am going to only offer small, I paint myself small too. Normally I would do a one eye art design, so the little girls can pick it!   You can take ANY FULL FACE design and scale it down to look good. If they want a tiger, paint some white over the eye in an upward sweep towards the temple, add some yellow on the bridge of the nose and a touch of yellow and orange around the white, blend it really fast, paint in some tiger markings and add a nose.  This can be called a tiger eye design, and it will be a hit!

[MsMollie]

girl, i am learning alot here...thanks Gina...your tips are always so good and i can't tell you how much i appreciate the help....i have been learning to scale down alot...it's so different when they are a paying customer vs. free!...however, if they were paying for this, there's no way i wuld let someone tell me to paint on a smaller scale no matter how long they were in line...thing is, everyone wanted me to paint them...they didn't even want to go to the other line where they were doing little cheek art....didn't matter to me, but obviously it did to those parents waiting....i do see what you mean by scaling down..it doesn't have to be elaborate to be beautiful!...kids are usually happy, no matter what you do!

[reginanewsum]

exactly right!  Scaling down on a design does not mean it will look bad or amature! We are professionals, and we must think out side of the box.  We must come up with designs to give our work the wow factor, but I resently had to give myself a talking too!  yes I chat with myself! hahahaha  I am the type that will go the mile to make everyone happy.  For example, at a pay by the hour gig, I might not look at the clock and paint over an hour longer than paid for just to please every one, some times I lose track and paint for two hours over!  I painted with my friend and painting partner Anna on Friday at a museum from 6pm to 8pm.  5:45 an dad came into our face painting area with his daughter, Anna spoke up and said "we start at 6pm!  He said he would come back!  I told Anna I would have done them! She said no we get paid to paint at 6pm!  At 7:45 she announced 15 more minutes of face painting And at 8pm she stopped the line! We were cleaned up and out of there by 8:05pm! OMG! fast! But I have a hard time doing this, I hate to disappoint any one!  But I am going to start to wear a watch!  This is a really fast design that I do for girls, they love it and it looks like you spend so much time on it but it is probly one of my fasted face paintings for line work!  A split cake loaded very well and all of the design can be done with one load, add some white or black or a color of your choice in some swirls and curls, add a few dots and done in less than 2 minutes! so very fast, and I think it looks better than some of my longer work! So what I am saying after babbling on is,  pick out about 6 boys and 6 girl designs practice speed on them and it will look like you are the greatest artist around, this will get you business fast! And remember to hand out those cards like candy!

[MsMollie]

very nice and i see 'exactly what you mean'...you're the best!

[Sherry]

I had the opposite thing on Sunday.  The were all picking little cheek art for 3 and 4 year olds... cringe.  Or they were picking my most minimal and quick designs.  I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to fill up the time allotted.  Then a little boy came up and wanted the Hulk... woo hoo!  Now that's a design that takes me a while.   Then I got a Spiderman request.  All in all it turned out pretty good.

Kim, it sounds like you were being a big softie with these kids.     Maybe take the opposite approach... no free stuff to unruly, demanding children.   

[MsMollie]

i told one child in line who was throwing a fit that he 'better not' make the face painter cry!...he shut up!..need i say more..lol. of course i said it in a joking way and all the other kids repeated what i said..it was too funny