Use the Force

In November, I was asked to paint at a Star Wars themed party.  This one was a lot of fun, mom had the Leia buns and a great Star Wars t-shirt on; dad appeared in a Storm Trooper costume.  They had a light sabre to hit the pinata.  And I painted all in theme.  I knew female faces would be a challenge; there aren't many recognizable female aliens, and you can't exactly paint girls to look like Leia.  So I went hunting.

There was Queen Amidala, of course.

And I found another few characters that apparently appeared in the television series.  The popular one was the Jedi Ahsoka.

The boys were easier.  I'd done Yoda before.  And Darth Maul was one of my very first face at my very first party in 2003.

The new ones for me, though, were Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper.  I think they were fairly successful for my first attempts!

Whatcha think?

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.