private party question- How many faces can you paint??

So far I have only done small parties and I haven't really timed myself at the few school carnivals I have done. I have just been booked for a party for 2 hours and just found out the number of kids is 50.....I'm scared now!

Those of you that have alot of party experience...If I exclude full face designs do you think 2 hours is enough time for 50 kids or is that pushing it??? I'm pretty quick with simple designs I think, but feel sometimes I could be quicker.

That is pushing it! What are the ages? I wouldn't paint anyone under three for liability reasons. Also, about 10% will not want to be painted, which may leave you with 40.

You always have to ask how many kids just for this reason. Just figure out the breakdown of girls and boys and only put out a list of 5 super quick designs for each. Break down the full face designs into less colors. Like I normally do a cat with white ears, white muzzle and a minimum two color blend, plus outline. But in a pinch I can do a one color cat with the outline in 45 seconds and the kids are still happy. Don't forget the glitter for a quick jazz of any design. Make sure it is irridecent and go with aurora. I have found that even the boys like this glitter because it reflects the colors of the boyish designs to. I just tell them it helps it dry and adds reflectors.

I will do a demo in a day or so of the cat, but I think you know what I mean.

You can always add more detail if you have time.

Good Luck!

I bet you probably paint a lot faster than you think. I've done quite a few gigs where I was worried about whether or not I could paint quickly enough (I tend to take the gig right away and do my worrying later, lol) and each time, I did all the kids with time to spare.

I would choose a menu of quicker designs, and just go for it. If you see you are falling behind you can always speed up, but chances are you will have enough time to do all that want to be done, as long as the choices are more simple.

Ya you can pull it off, just fallow the kiss rule... that's what i do when painting buy the face and have a big line. I tell people for party's that I average 5 min a face. I'm sure I paint faster than that but it allows me to take my time and do some nice work. so.. next time but for now just keep your head down your selection small and take it one kid at a time. I have no worry's. You can handle this

50??

My birthday party "package" is 2 hours and I limit it to 15 (yes, fifteen) faces... that's 8 minutes per face. I can paint a butterfly in about a minute and a half, but birthday parties are my "relaxed" gigs where I can take my time and make them really fancy. If there are more than 15 kids they either book me for longer, or pay additional per face over the 15.

I've never had a birthday party that was more than 15 max ... around here it just isn't done.

ROFL I was trying to keep her from pooing hahaha ok so to be honest ya you might be pushing it lol... ohh the first time I did this I told the mom we would start with the b-day kid and then work our way from the littler ones on up.. and if we ran out of time them.. they could pay me to keep painting... I bet next time you ask how many kids hehe sorry hun, but we survived our over loading, you will ether have to call them back and say hey amm we need to talk or.. bit the bullet.. ether way you will have to let them know thats a lot of kids for 2 hours. The hubdy said pack the brush and stick to your guns.

hehe yea Toni lol, thanks all for the replies. Yea, I need to ask how many right off the bat and then suggest to them a time. We had spoke on the phone, said she only wanted 2 hrs and then later she sent me the details when she had the number.

I'm going to plan on only simple designs and no full faces. The ages at the party will be pretty young she said up to 15 so you are probably right about some not even getting painted. Theres so many little kids that are scared to do it but the parent seems to want it more then them.

ohoh I know paint a cat face on your self.. this will keep the little tiny ones away ROFL well it do's for me ohh and I only give it a two try thing for little ones.. after the parents try two times I say well lets get the line moving for the other kids, we can try again after they change there minds just dont give the parent an option..man was that a hard one to learn

Don't worry, you can do this! Out of 50 invited, probably 30 will come. Out of 30 coming, probably 25 will want to be painted. Out of 25 painted, 15 will want tiny little eye flowers and quick princess crowns. See, it already looks better!

I personally would love to have parties booked with 7 kids per hour, but around here no one would hire me. LOL.

Thanks so much! I feel better I really need to go into it confident, positive and relaxed instead of tense and worried. But for next time I will definatly give a number of faces I can do per hour first.

7.5 an hour Angie... that half face is very important!!

People around here do not do those large parties... the only one I've been too in the last 10 years that was more than 15 was a Filipino party - it was the first birthday of a boy and there must have been 250 people... I did tattoos at that event!!

I love doing Filipino parties... they won't let you leave without eating and the the food is great!

For larger groups where they don't want to book the time that I feel is needed to face paint I suggest tattoos - I have a combination of transfer tattoos for the little ones, and freehand tattoo inks and glitter tattoos for the older one.

EVEN at the worst, and all 50 show up and all 50 want something. That's averaging 2 minute faces/cheek/eye art. That can be done if they already know or have an idea of what they want. Print up your sign board, make sure to say on it to have a design in mind before sitting with you.

Then you can limit the board to things you know you can do quick...like butterflies on one eye...puppy faces...kitty faces...eye 'glam' swirls and glitter. The new 'eye design' book has several designs, including some boy ones.

Kathy and I just did two Halloween Festivals and we had two hours and hundreds of kids. We stuck to really quick stuff and managed to get them all done. We did mostly eye designs on both boys and girls.

It will help if you have a parent managing the line and making sure the children know to pick something before sitting with you. That seems to be the biggest time waster...when they don't know what they want yet. I usually just say that they can bump down the line until they make a decision and they instantly pick something..haha

Otherwise I'd let the hostess know up front if the children sit there and hem haw on what they want, or if you have to manage the line, that you can't possibly paint all 50 of the children in two hours...but you will try your best to get to all the ones that you can.

You can do it! Recruit one of the attending moms or a teen to help you with the line or maybe do stickers/tattoos for the little ones.

Good luck!

heheh omg... just had to tell you the party was this last Saturday and only 10 kids showed up! So I worried for nothing lol. The hostess was saying I'm so sorry I thought more were showing up. That is a big drop from her original 50 count but I didn't mind at all of course!

I can tell you the kids that did show up were in hog heaven because they got multiple paintings .

HAHA see! Told ya it would be fine!
Now, I after all my smart talk had a B-party that about killed me lol!!! I thought of you! I also thought you would get a kick to hear that after all my talk, I booked a party for a lady's 40th b-day. it was a costume party and there where to be a hand full of kids there. The plan was that I would paint the belly dancers the kids and of course the birthday girl. She wanted 2 hours..so after asking about how many kids I said it sounded good but she would need to close the line down at 8:30. I ended up painting a little over 4 hours! and still had to turn a way a large number of good spirited party goers. I got lucky the lady was happy to cut the check with out a secant thought and I got some tips even with out a tip jar. I got home at 12:00 am grabbed a beer, un-clipped my horns, pull off my tiara and thought of you! And grumbled about how I needed you here!!! lol I estimate my speed to be about 5 min a face.. (little faster most of the time) and I was booken that night... It was all one big blear, I have no idea how many I did! So even if it do's happen HA! You will survive it! I mean if I can anyone can lol.

Ah ha Debi, I'm so glad it turned out well!! See, it's never as scary as it sounds right after you hang up the phone and whisper "what have I done?" to yourself. LOL.

I did a last minute gig yesterday that was 1.5 hours for 40 kids, and I didn't have any time to prepare a "quickie" menu. I was kinda worried about that, but it turned out that only about 15 kids came, and I probably painted about 12.

That ALMOST makes up for the gigs where you arrive expecting 12 and find 40 sitting there waiting on you.