First Gig and a Flea Market Flop ... Fun stuff!

So, I know I've not posted much, but I wanted to share my experiences this week! My first ever gig was on Thursday, at a Fall Festival for the library I work at. It wasn't a huge event- in an hour and a half, I painted about 15 faces, but had a bit of down-time . I had lots of designs that I'd worked on, but almost everyone wanted a butterfly. Luckily, because of FPF, I was prepared for that! I had fun experimenting with variations on the designs I had planned. There was one last-minute face I squeezed in while we were shutting down and I wasn't happy with it, but everyone else seemed happy with what I'd done. (Whew!) So, here's my discovery from that event:

Toddlers are hard to paint--but sometimes, not as hard as a 6-year-old boy!

Then today, I painted at a large flea market in town, and money-wise, it was a total flop. Seriously. I didn't even cover the cost of the table I rented (and that was a cheap table). The thing is, the few faces I painted (six, I think--a few I did for free because I just wanted to paint) went really well and got me all jazzed up! I think one of my problems today was that I had a word board, and not a picture board--I'm going to work on that this week to try to lure people in. All my patrons were particularly pleased, though. The market manager got me a spot right next to the doughnut/snack area, which is REALLY high in traffic, so I'm hoping to do much better next week.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share ... I'm finally feeling like a professional face painter, and it wouldn't be like that at all without FPF and all you wonderful people, so THANKS!

P.S.--at the library gig, someone mentioned that I had a lot of different colors, and I said "It's all part of the job--I'm a professional face painter!", and then I held my breath for a second, like do they believe me?. Ninety minutes later, I was painting on air. I finally feel sure--I can do this!

You are awesome! Tres' cool xx

Believe in yourself and smile!! Definetly try the picture board. It stops confusion and then you and the person/child knows what they are getting. It all takes time to work all the little things out but you will get there.

Very, Very cool! You got to tell someone you're a professional!

Good luck at the market next week~ I'm sure you'll do much better business with a picture board.

I work "I'm a face painter" into almost every conversation I have with people I don't know... seriously, I do... You never know....

Also, when people see me working and make comments about how I'm the "Best face painter EVER" (we all get that, don't we!!!!) or "How do you do that, it's just amazing".... I use my standard response...which I deliver in a funny way..."That's 'cause I'm a professional face painter.... it says so on my business cards."

Miss Ronnie, if I could 'like' your post, I totally would! Mind if I borrow that line? "....it says so on my business cards." lol

Go ahead.... just spreading the love....

Ohh Tessieholic I had a job just like that on Saturday. It was at a Halloween event at the local, supposedly haunted Fort. I was told by the orgainser that they needed me as a second face painter because they had sold 25,000 tickets across the week and were having a fun fair etc. I arrived to an empty car park, the other facepainter set up by the entrance and absolutely nobody there. I painted two faces! I was so cross, my travel costs were quite high, I have no idea why they felt they needed to drag me there and waste my time!

There is always the next job though

Congrats and bravo for you, Tessieholic!!! Now nothing can stop you! YOU'RE A PRO!!!

Thanks, everyone! I love the business card line, Miss Ronnie. I'm still feeling the rush of painting on Saturday ... how amazing is it to do something you love to do, and get paid for it? :-)

Curious...

How did you land these gigs? Call around? How much do you charge per day? per customer? This is confusing for me thank you!

As for the library, I work there, so when the event was being planned, they asked me. As for the flea market, I just booked a table with their office (most farmers markets work the same way).

If you're interested in working library events, I would contact them or send promotional materials and prices in January. That's about the earliest that librarians start to plan their summer reading programs. Summer reading would be a great time for face painting at the library--lots of different programs for kids (our libraries always have at least one magician/clown/balloon twister each year)!

Also, there are a lot if threads on the boards that discuss pricing in detail... For the farmers market, I have a board of $1, $3, and $5 designs. In my area, people at the flea market won't pay anything more than that, but they'll take business cards!

thank you!