I Love It When I Get to Have Some Fun

And I love it when people translate the fact that I can paint into other creative endeavors.  Most recently, a woman in my town whose daughter is being bat mitzvahed this month contacted me about doing a project for her.

At my bat mitzvah in 1983, my "sign in board" was a sheet of oaktag with a photo of me in the middle and rainbow stickers all around, since my theme was rainbows.  Hey, it was 1983.  Give me a break.  When my sister's bat mitzvah rolled around in 1990, her sign in board was Lucite with her name in Lucite letters and hearts.

Well, this mom has the nifty idea of using a mailbox!  The concept is that she'll have postcards printed with the bat mitzvah girl's logo, which she had designed for the event, and the guests can each write a message on a postcard.  Then the postcards go in the mailbox, and the whole shebang can go on the girl's dresser or shelf as a keepsake.  I love it!

This is the logo:

Cute, right?  Of course, pencil first, just in case.

And then I painted it all in.  I promise the name is in a nice purple, not blue.  With my dining room light lit, I just couldn't get the color true.

What'cha think?  I kind of love it.  And I'm open to more work like this, for sure.  Much more.

... and Now for Something Completely (well, ok, partly) Different!

I've been having more fun with the temp tats recently, because I've started doing more freehand tattoos.  With brushes or a special art pen I've acquired, I can do pretty much anything I want.

On myself, I tried this gorgeous flower design.

Know what this would be perfect for?  Wedding, bachelorette party, and prom tattoos!  How awesome would that be?  The heck with buying jewelry; I'll stick it right on you!

I didn't leave out the less flowery types, though.  I had to try out this cool dragon too.

While I do have dragon stencils, it's kind of cool to translate the dragons I face paint right into my tattoos too.

And this past Sunday at a tattoo party I worked for a christening in Oakland, NJ, This tattoo was the biggest hit of the party!

It was so fun to do, but was even better when the boy who'd taken me up on my challenge of "if you don't see something in my book, we can make something up" saw the final result.  He was so proud of it, and his dad was a huge fan too!

Independence Interlude

I still have more looking back to do with you, but in the meantime, I'll post photos from my paintings at a country club party - Indian Trails club in Franklin Lakes, NJ.

 

These two were funny.  I had a run on camo faces, and then a trendsetter who wanted "rainbow camo."  If he hides in a Crayola factory, no one will see him for sure!

The one fun adult who showed her family how to really party!

And this was just too hilarious.  This young man got a Viking balloon hat & cutlass, then asked for a beard!

He loved it!

Sleepover Party

Last Friday evening, I painted a bunch of well-behaved, appreciative, and cute girls at a birthday sleepover party in Westwood, NJ.  It was a blast!

The birthday girl asked to look like her orange striped cat.

Meanwhile, I was shown a medium-haired, fluffy cat in tabby colors and asked for a rendition of that too.

In addition to a few more cats, I also had a couple of dogs, of course.

Only one more species at this party, bunnies!

The funniest and most creative request, though... a chocolate chip cookie.  With a bow.  And moustache.

Um... ok!

Working My Way Backwards

I've been so lax about posting what I've been doing!  So rather than start at the beginning, I'm going to start with this past Saturday and work my way backwards for a bit.  This past Saturday, I painted at a corporate picnic for Brown & Caldwell.

What a great group!  I know I say that a lot, but this bunch was really fun.  And they didn't even make fun of me - much - when a gigantic cicada landed on my leg and freaked me out, sending me dancing around like a rather shrill lunatic.

So... on to the painting.

My very first request was for a zebra.  I wish I'd known it at the time, but this girl actually had a zebra print dress, complete with tail, and a headband with zebra ears!  It was terrific!  My lament is that by the time I saw her and realized, I was painting others and really couldn't go tackle her for another photo since she was off and running.

Then, another very specific request.  This one wanted to look like her yorkie.  Who can resist that?

This great kiddo said "cow."  Okie doke!  So here you see what I believe is my first ever cow face painting.  His mom cracked up when I started painting the straw.  To do it, I googled cow images and came up with this guy.

I think it's a fair rendition, right?

It was hot out, so the arm art was understandable.

 

If you don't recognize that last guy, it's an Enderman from Minecraft.  You may remember the Creeper I once painted.  I'm starting to think I should get to know all the Minecraft characters; it is not an unpopular game!

Chilly & wet, but who cares?

Last night, I painted with two good friends at the Bergen County Zoo in Paramus.  It's a rain or shine event, so we were up despite the weather that closed the wimpy post office two hours early in some towns.  They had us under the wooden overhang of the bison viewing area rather than up on the bison viewing platform, and gave us a couple canopies for our patrons to stand under too.

It was a light event in terms of patrons this year, when in some years there's an insanely long line, but it made for a nice, easygoing event and gave us a chance to appreciate the ones who showed up.

I don't think it was coincidence that my most requested design was for dolphins.  Eric suggested that I should probably expect a lot of aquatic ideas.

 

I didn't pull out the glitter because it'd get gummed up in the wet, so they don't have that added punch, but the kids loved 'em and that's what counts.  In fact, last night was super satisfying, in that a large majority of the kids I painted actually exclaimed "Wow!" when I showed them the mirror!  Best compliment ever.

I did have two buggy requests, too.  Only one butterfly!  I moved away from my typical butterfly, decided to try something a little different.  Maybe I'll do more of those today; we shall see.

And then, a few more.

I get a kick out of the zebra, that was a fun request.  And I hadn't done one in so many years, I had to come up with it on the fly!

Anyway, off to another event this afternoon...

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?

Glen Rock Newcomer's Association

I didn't have time for many photos, but the teens helping me obliged with a few.  Back in October, I was hired to paint at the Glen Rock Newcomer's Association event in a park in Glen Rock.  It really was a great idea, a barbeque for the group, a mix and mingle for established residents and newbies to get to know each other.  What a great group!

I painted some old standards, of course.

And some I'd painted before, but not frequently.

And my favorite thing, some that were entirely new to me!

I just hope they ask me back again.

Tattoo Party - September 2012

I had a lot of fun at this faerie party!  I loved dressing in faerie to be there.  The kiddos loved my custom tattoo designs, too.