Another Good Evening

I painted at a restaurant again tonight. I've been there several times, but only saw one of my "regular" customers, a little boy who gets a race car on his arm every single time I paint him. Before, it was red. Tonight, I changed it up and did blue, convincing him that he didn't want a black one. Trying to get decent definition on a black car would just not be easy. It's like when kids want to be painted as Darth Vader. I can do a kickin' Darth Maul,

but Darth Vader? Not so easy, what with the all black. I made the mistake of attempting it once. Calling the result a "blob" would be generous.

Most of the evening was spent painting my usual... rainbows with butterflies, rainbows with dolphins, flowers, a tiger, and yes... a Darth Maul.

I did get one little girl who wanted Zoe. It took me a minute and some help from mom to place the name: They'd recently gotten back from Sesame Place, and Zoe is Elmo's orange friend. In fact, the girl's sister got Elmo.

They looked cute together, though while the girls were posing their arms, some Elmo transferred onto Zoe, I notice in the photo.

One boy was truly original. He's the first ever, in all my years of painting, to sit down and say, "Can you do an alien?" Can I do an alien?! Of course I can do an alien! An alien means I get to run free!

I see things I'd add or define more, but I honestly like the result. And he was quite the happy customer.

A New Idea

I love it when the kids come up with a new idea for me.

Tonight while I painted the hordes waiting for me at a restaurant, the kids noticed my rainbow cake, and came up with a design I'd never tried before; a rainbow peace sign. It's amazing how the old stuff, like peace signs, just never go out of style with certain age groups. The design was a life saver, since I had a lot of "customers" and only two hours.

I like it! It saved me from the plethora of dolphins I also painted.

I must admit, though, that it wasn't quite as challenging as other designs kids have requested out of the blue, like Ronald McDonald and Grimace....

Or even crazier... Alf! Or a hamster (though the hamster, to be honest, wasn't at a restaurant)!

Who but kids would have thought of these designs? Heck, I'm surprised kids even remember Alf. My favorite thing, though, is a challenge. I may crash and burn, but I'm really likely to try it!