Has Anybody worked for Kaman's Art Shoppe?

Im going to re-apply for kamans and leave disneyland attractions(as they wanted me to before). I love face painting so much, I just want to be able to do it more often. But I know that their base pay is $8.00 and hour and for me that is another pay cut. Just wondering if anybody knows what the commition is. I know it will probably differ from state to state but I just want to get an idea to see if I will be able to still pay all my bills.

Seem's cool if you want the practice, but $8 an hour is robbery in my opinion. In my mind it would almost be more beneficial to work for $8 an hour for someone local that you could get birthday parties and other events for locally. I have even thought about asking my local Wal-mart to let me paint outside or something like this.

Do they offer you any training, tools or benefits?

Wow. I'm only getting $7.50 at Busch Gardens through Kamans. First day if it's slow the person you are working with might show you a few brush strokes (I went in blind) but if it's busy they'll just have you start with a picture. A kid comes up and wants a butterfly, you paint a butterfly. It's really frustrating when you first start and are working with someone who has been there a while and their work looks incredible next to your uneven sloppy work. All the tools are left at work so slow time is practice time. No benefits.

Wow! I've never worked for any theme parks, but that's just crazy cheap! I'm supposing they provide the paints, brushes, etc?

Seems crazy to me that a HUGE place like Disneyland would offer such low rates of pay.

The disney parks do not do the facepainting. They are run by a contracting company, like Kamans, called Enjoy Your Face. Unlike Kamans, Enjoy Your Face provides a great deal of training so all the artist designs look alike. They also pay more. Kamans does provide all of the supplies you need, paints, brushes, glitter tattoos, and we make our own henna.

Working for a theme park can get crazy sometimes, especially in Florida. The disgusting heat, the hurricanes, the (sometimes) cold weather. In the summer we get 10 minute rain showers every day like clockwork. That can make painting difficult. You do get a lot of time to practice your designs on different face shapes and find out what does work and what doesn't. I am actually really glad I started my whole face painting experience with a company first because now I am very fast and skilled at doing a lot of things that beginners struggle with. The pay is sucky, but doing gigs on the side in towns away from the park are helpful.

That is crazy. Minimum wage in Canada is I think $10.75.
How can someone live off $8 an hour?
Plus, all the talent behind the painting. If you need the job and love painting, go for it and get all the experience and practice you can.

Holy crow I feel terrible now. I was working on 9.50 as a photographer actually working for Busch Gardens and that was amazing. $7.50 an hour isn't even $8 so it hurts. There are times that I am literally selling my plasma at DCI biologicals so I can get food for the week. I've sold my 150+ dvds which is one of my prized possessions. Times are tough here and I can't do merchandise sales in stores as I would end up insane.

I work for Kaman's as well and its safe to say that it's virtually impossible to live off of $7.50 an hour, it's also equally as impossible to make commission, you have to average $42 per hour for the week, in my one year of working there, I've only made it once and that was during one of the busiest weeks of the summer.
On the other hand being a body artist at Kaman's has been totally worth it for me in every aspect except my finances, its the best job I've ever had and the experience is unlike anything you could get starting out small, after working there I feel pretty confident about doing bigger gigs and festivals. I would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their skills, you just might have to find a second job.

Minimum wage in Canada varies from province to province
A job is a job. If its a matter of eating or not, take the job. We all have to pay our dues, but an issue of survival is something different.

It would kill me, as much as places like that charge customers for facepainting, to be making so little of that money myself. I suppose the FP company is paying the park a huge amount in rent too though.

I'm with Criss though. A job is a job, and if you have to have a full-time job then face painting is a nice one to have. Just strike out on your own as soon as you can, because marketing yourself for party entertainment will be much more financially beneficial.

I actually just finished a season working for Kaman's at the Columbus Zoo and it did very well for me. While the base pay is low and it might be a good idea to look for a second job if you need the security, if you have the right personality and are determined its entirely possible to make commission on a regular basis. I rarely had a week in which I didn't hit my commission numbers and Commission will get your 18% of your total sales. If you can get a position as a lead or supervisor it becomes much easier to get good numbers and work enough hours to cover bills. (I was not a supervisor or lead myself). It really comes down to the question of do you enjoy doing commission based work? Its not for everyone and there are a lot of factors to consider, but speaking from experience it can be done.