When I first started out face painting, I sought out advice from a very experienced painter in my area, whom is now a great friend. Amongst all of the wonderful advice she gave me, I remember she told me that I should eventually be able to paint around 15 faces an hour. At the time, I was averaging about 15 minutes a face! So was quite overwhelmed
at the thought of being able to paint that quickly, and to a good standard. This week’s blog is about how I built up to that number and my top tips for increasing your speed.
Starting off Small
I ditched my book of designs as I knew that by continually looking at something for reference was slowing me down – this was a big step and pretty scary!! But it gives you lots of freedom too – your client doesn’t know what you are supposed to be painting (eliminating the ‘you’ve missed that bit, I want that bit’), you can vary the design as you like, keeping it really simple if you have a long queue or adding in my detail and embellishments if you wish. My first step was to memorise, REALLY memorise 6 popular designs, and really try and nail those designs. I think I chose a butterfly, tiger, spiderman, flowers, Captain America and a princess crown (If I was learning now I’d almost definitely replace one of those with a unicorn!). I painted my Sally Ann Lynch Tried and Tested board with these six designs and took it to parties, ppf jobs and practiced and practiced. Naturally I got quicker and quicker at these designs.
Build Up Your Repertoire
As my confidence grew I began to add in extra designs – so I’d practice at home the basic steps to creating a design, and then add it to my board. And over time, I added more and more, mixing up the design boards completely, taking multiple boards with me, even bravely taking requests for things I’d never painted before and using my imagination for how they’d look on the face – something I never thought I’d be able to do!
Now I generally don’t use a board to display designs on, unless I’m working at a themed event and have been asked to specially design one – I LOVE working a themed event, and the challenge of thinking up new ideas, and painting something other than unicorns and superheros! However- I still revert to my 6- face choice board if I know I really have some numbers to get through. Last weekend I had a 2 hour party with 45 children to paint, one of the parents managing my queue and a very knackered Kate by the end of it!
Utilise Your Time-Saving Tools
We are lucky to have SUCH amazing products available to us now, splitcakes, one strokes, stencils, all of which make our jobs so much quicker. I utilise these as much as I can on busy jobs to help me to be quick. I love to blend out a face and spend time on a design but there is a time and a place!
I try to remind myself not to be a perfectionist if I’ve got a long line or a very busy party, and I think this is really important if you do want to build up your speed. I don’t mean that you should completely compromise on quality, as it would be soul-destroying to turn out work that you hate – but to try and find a happy medium. Focus on high-impact designs that are simple and quick. You have to remember that members of the public are going to be impressed with your skills even if you don’t add on those five starbursts, and the shading, and the liquid bling etc etc.
So to recap:
TOP TIPS FOR INCREASING YOUR SPEED
Use a display board so children can choose their design ahead of time
If you’re a beginning start with a small selection of designs and memorise them
Use one strokes/stencils/splitcakes to get more ‘bang for your buck’
Keep the designs simple, bright and high-impact
Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear any comments or tips you have on this subject. Next week I’m going to starting CHRISTMAS designs woohoo! Using some gorgeous, glitzy products from The Face Painting Shop.
Kate x
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Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear any comments or tips you have on this subject. Next week I’m going to starting CHRISTMAS designs woohoo! Using some gorgeous, glitzy products from The Face Painting Shop.