HELP for CRAZY lines

So Canada Day was a great success! Yahoooooo!

I have a question though guys, what the heck do you do for a HUGE line up? I closed my line down and hour and fifteen before I was supposed to be finished. I had my husband & sister inlaw become the end of the line bullies. It became a problem because I was the only painter "hired".

The event offered spray tats, caricature drawings, etc - they were all independent. I was provided by the city, so "free" to the public.

There were volunteer painters from the local YMCA, we sent about 50 people their way, but my line up was probably 60-70 deep at it's biggest. What do you do? I painted like a freaking mad man!!!!! Spent no longer than 5 min per face, prob about 3-4min on average.

I post signs (see my free resources page for samples) that say

1) what the hours of face painting will be available and when the last face will be painted. Usually 3 or 4 of them - on my a-frame sign, on the display, on the table....

2) how long it takes to paint a face.

3) Waiting in line is their decision.

You are under no obligation, if you are painting "free" as in hired to be there, to paint everyone who lines up. I learned this the hard way after years of "finishing the line" because I would cut it off too late and over estimated how many more I could paint. (I used to stamp hands about an hour before I was to finish... never managed to actually calculate it right!)

Now I stick to the posted time, end of story. About half an hour before quitting time I will stand up and announce to everyone in line that there are only 30 minutes left so that means I/we can only paint another 6 or so faces. I stress that we will not be painting past quitting time.

I will make exceptions for siblings, etc. but typically we quit at the end of the booked time.

Most of the time this works fine. People understand the process.

Occasionally I get people who wait and think if they stay in line I will paint them.... even had one woman offer me $20 to just "do something on the cheek" I refused.

After all, the other people who had been in line left when they realized we were done! I heard her telling the kids with her "don't worry I'll negotiate something with her" when the line was cut off - that made me mad - what a thing to teach kids!

Good ideas. My husband figured I should do something similiar, about posting times and length of time per face so people can do their own calculations and figure out how long they will be waiting. I tried the hand stamping bit yesterday, but i had soooo many people it was crazy. I ended up being way over my time, but i said I would paint the people i stamped, so i stood by that. Never again tho, never again.

As Shannon say, it is people own decision. Take it as a compliment =)

I find the most annoying is parents that come late and want their children painted now, saying that they had been there before, but the line was sooo long... And then telling their children: "no, the lady do not want to paint you". So now it is somehow my fault that they was not there in time?

I hear ya! I did the same thing yesterday - cut the line off an hour and twenty minutes beforehand. In retrospect, i should have cut it off the first tme I stood up, about 10 or so prior - whoops! I made a sandwich board-style sign (printed pages laminated and tied with ribbon) for the last person in line to wear that said:

"I am the last person in line! Please do not line up after me, as Kristal has other commitments after this event. Thank you!"

That went well, but overall the entire event was madness. They had paid henna beside me, and another paid fp stand elsewhere, but I was paid by the city and therefore "free."

I also had a sign with times etc (from your resources page, Shannon!) on my display board, but chances are pretty good that most people didn't bother to read it.

I also had a woman near the end who's son I started to paint as a tiger, who got scared - I stopped, gave her a baby wipe, and went on. 10 mins later she comes back and says he wants one now. I tell her I have about 10 mins left and another 6 kids to get through (I can't bring myself to turn kids away once I've cut the line!), and that he had his chance. She does the whole, just something small routine, and I refuse. They stand there and he cries and I work my line. (BTW I can't believe how many people get angry when you tell them you're done! You couldn't be bothered to stand in line at any point during the 6 hours I was there, that's too bad)

I did paint him after I was done everyone else (fastest tiger EVER), and tried to give him a talk (what was the point?!), which I'm sure didn't do any good.

What do you do with people budging? I know it's beyond us to do line control when we paint, but I've had instances where there'll be like 2 kids in line, and when they're at the front, suddenly 6 other siblings/cousins/whatever are there, too, wanting turns. It's totally a culture thing here, and I know that my mini lineup ultimatum did no good whatsoever, but what to do?!

Yeah... one person holds the spot in line then when you think you are just about at the end of the line 25 kids show up! I actually challenged a couple of kids - dad with a couple of little ones that I had NOT seen waiting, but the woman behind them said, oh yeah, they were in front of us... oh well.

That's why I have completely switched to the time signs and cut it off soley based on time - if I say I can only paint 3 more, that's all I'll paint. It is based on TIME not an arbitrary spot in the line.

Yeah... there's always "just one more" over and over and over again. I like the time cut off... we do that at the hockey games where we are paid so it is no charge for the customers... we stop when the game starts

I'm gonna have to do the time cut off. Thinking back, there were tons of people trying to get in my line, but they didn't have a stamp so I turned them away. Other people looked like they had a washed or smeared stamp, the excuses were "I went to the bathroom and washed my hands" I think they were licking them and making it smear on their friend. Isn't it crazy the lengths people are willing to go to get painted? LOL

It's horrible trying to end a long long line at an hourly-paid event... Painting numbers on the hands has worked best for me so far. Judging when to cut it off is the hardest part, because when I am "in the zone" I often don't realize how many people are in line. Even after numbering the kids, I have so many new people joining the line that every 10 minutes or so I call out "The line is closing, only those with numbered hands will be painted, sorry!"

Once I HAD to leave at a certain time for another job, the line was well over an hour long, and I ended up saying that I would only be able to paint the next 15 kids in line. I went down the line marking hands, and you should have seen how people were shoving their kids towards the front, desperately crowding forward, pushing their children's arms out to be marked. You'd have thought they were in the lifeboat line on the Titanic! I did end up painting all those who were in the line anyway (supa-fast!) but after that episode I made a point to ALWAYS be aware of the wait-time and how long my line was. Eek!

My good friend is the master of closing the line..... she does that last five, ten people gather round and you're going to get x or y. Then she paints them assembly line style. Glitter and go!

I successfully did this at a girly party where a few girls at the end of the line wanted the same masks. (you know when one gets it then they all want the same thing......). It was also great from the standpoint your base on the first 2 is dry when you go back for the line work.

* This works great for glitter tatts too since the dry time for the adhesive is the longest part of the process --- just have them pick their design, put it in their hand and line them up, apply stencil, roll/paint glue, go back to first applying glitter colors and on down the line!*

The assembly line wouldn't work for me... I use clean sponges and brushes on each person, so no time would be saved.

However, for glitter tatts it would work (the alcohol makes it all nice and clean!)

I face paint at a inner city ministry event about every six weeks with my church. The first few times there I would do the one more, and one more. Then the next few timews I would say I am only doing so many more faces, but I didn't have time to even check the kids in the line. The last time I just cut them off. I said, sorry I have to go and started packing, I actually thought I would feel worse about it then I did. One mom got mad, and I seen her point, but she isn't the one who donates 3 hours and paint to do it. It actually worked better that way. I have found saying no is getting easier and easier. We could all do one more, but then we would be painting forever.

Hello,
this post is interesting, I saw the same problem with balloons !
And my husband think that i'm unable to stop at time ! It's very difficult to say " No, sorry " when you're in front of a smiler kid face...
The better way is to closed at the end of the event ( best is to be employed for all the fest !)
And I always have the client (or someone of organisation) who is coming when I start to close my bag (of course, he was busy also) OK but not here !
Howewer, I like to do balloons twist and when I begin, it's also difficult to stop me !!!
Marie-F

If you use a word stamp (say "Smile") and stamp it on the top of their wrist with the words always orientated in the same direction (i.e., bottom of word facing the crook of the arm), it's impossible to do an identical transfer without somebody volunteering to break their wrist. I've watched kids trying to just get the transfer accomplished and had to laugh. One kid thought he'd figured it out and had his sister lay her wrist on his after she licked her wrist...but then I called out to him that all he had left to do was figure out a way to get the "Smile" to not be upside down on her wrist...they both went away.

I am so glad that I read this today, I am doing a walmart grand opening tomorrow and was hired by them so it will be free to the kids. I didn't even think about the line or cutting it off on time. Now I will be prepared to do something!