So, you’ve decided to undertake the wonderful art of face painting? It can prove to be quite an adventure and satisfying for the artist as well as the customers. As in any other venture, just be sure and do your research of all the aspects of face painting. Insurance, taxes, supply costs, booth costs, travel costs, investment cost, time consumed in the actual painting, prices to charge, advertisement and so on.

One summer our church members decided to hold a fall festival. When considering what I could contribute, I decided upon volunteering my services as an artist. Little did I know how popular the face painting booth would prove to be! For two and a half hours, I painted face after eager face. Sometimes the kids would stand in line over and over again, asking me to paint on their hands when they ran out of room on their faces.

I allowed some to contribute their own ideas about coloring and design, which proved to be quite helpful and drew them even more into the experience. I finally had to begin turning them away in order to wind it up and begin clean-up, painting long after the other booths had stopped being active. While this adventure was a charity event and loads of fun, it does prove the need for enforcing limits on your time when deciding to use face painting as a profitable business.

Two valuable lessons I learned were: Limit the amount of conversation between you and the participant during the actual painting and learn to control your brush. If you make the child giggle, you may have to start all over when your brush strays and smears paint in an unwanted area.

Make a picture chart of the drawings and colors you are able to offer. Know how long each drawing takes, maybe charting the easier pictures on one area and the more detailed pictures in another. You may want to set up the drawings as to what category they fall into. Be sure your colors on your chart are similar to the actual colors you are able to provide.
Some simple ideas for face painting young children are:

Flowers, bunny, sailboat, turtle, spider, duck, butterfly, ladybug, dinosaurs, ghosts, cross, puppy, bear, kitty, fish, alien, dolphin, fruit with faces, facial expressions, names, flags, clowns, feathers, birds, street signs.

You may want to include sparkles, pastel colors, glitter gel or rubber stamps and stencils, and stick-on jewelry to accent your art work. If you want something more simple and quick to apply, try temporary tattoos. Although not your own personal artwork, these are still a form of art, and there are loads of them on the market. All you need to apply these is a bowl of water and a face towel.

Should you decide to get more adventurous with your face painting, you may want to try face painting using airbrushing. Investing in a class for this would be a wise idea if you are new to the idea of airbrushing. It would better your success over the long-term to be as well-prepared and informed as possible no matter what type of face painting you choose.