Face Painting for Fun and Profit

I have been painting faces at parties and festivals since 1981. Then I taught my daughters and husband how to paint faces. One of my daughters put herself through college with her face painting profilts. She now has a B.A. in art. All my following comments are based on being in the business for many years and refusing to be cowed by current paint nazies. And my technical advisor works for a major paint manufacturer in tech support, so I've addressed my concerns to him and he backs me up. Believe me, if I'd ever had a problem I wouldn't be using this paint on myself, my children and my clients. We've had repeat business for over 25 years.

And also, just for the record, you can be allergic to anything. So if you are concerned with any product, whether its make-up from a dept. store or art supplies of any kind, always do a patch test.

Many parents would happily pay someone else to do the facepainting for them. Because when you are painting faces, you don't have time to do anything else. You have to focus on one child at a time. In other words, if you try to be the face painter at your own party, by the time you are done painting faces, your party will be over and you will have missed it.

If at all possible, confine the face-painting table to the outdoors. Children bump into the table from time to time, and sloshing murky water over a white carpet doesn't usually win you brownie points.

Also, the cost of building your own facepainting kit may well be higher than the cost of hiring a face painter for an hour. So if you are only going to do it once, I recommend hiring a professional.

If you still want to take it up yourself, here are some tips:

Get yourself a tackle box to keep everything in.

A good face painting kit needs paints in the following colors:

red

yellow

blue

green

brown

black

white

This is at the very minimum, because you can mix other colors from these colors.

You also need sponges and brushes, a mirror, cleaning wipes, a head band, a water bottle, and paper towels.

You also need a few colors of glitter. A few venues won't allow you to use glitter, so don't count on it to cover up your painting flaws.

I also take some temporary tattoos for those kids with allergies who can't get their face painted or for kids that have to go somewhere right after and can't arrive with their faces painted.

Personally I use and have never had any problems with the same acrylic water-based non-toxic paints made for tole painting. Those work better than anything else I've tried. Take a tole painting class to learn the basics of brush strokes and color mixing.

For many years I was satisfied with using my acrylics and never had a problem. But somewhere down the road in this sue happy nation, a company named Snazaroo came out with face paints made just for skin. These work well and you can google them up. However, I get offended by their 'hate literature' against any face painters that don't use their product. Their pancake type make up is good for sponging on color over a whole face, but I will use their brand only as a last resort, preferring to use the Ben Nye clown white and other colors instead.

Personally I don't do copyrighted face designs like Spider Man. Other face painters do and I say to each their own.

I find painting a whole face easier than painting a tiny little design. If you can't draft some kids to practice on, try painting on your thigh instead. It's the same texture as your face and has a curve.

If a parent wants you to paint his kid's face and the kid doesn't want it painted, diplomatically suggest they come back later when the child is in a better mood. Painting a wiggly kid is hard enough without them throwing a tantrum at the same time.

Keep in mind all these paintings were done in under five minutes at real life events with long lines of kids and parents waiting for a turn. They were not done on a 'model' who sat for an hour or more just so I could get the perfect painting for a book on face painting or to enter a contest put on by a face-paint manufacturer.