Whole Lotta Paintin' Goin' On

I only had two gigs this weekend, but I think I may have painted enough faces in 4 and a half hours to rival the Tribeca Film Festival painting days!

On Saturday afternoon, I made my second annual appearance at the Glen Rock Newcomer's Association's kickoff party.  I was there for two hours, flying like the wind, but man, did I have fun.  I worked from a limited list of my fastest faces to keep things moving quickly and was assigned a couple of teens as line managers who did a phenomenal job making sure the kiddos had their choices made before hitting my chair.

I obviously didn't have time for photos, but did ask one of the girls to take two photos of faces I especially liked.  This was a slightly different take on my typical dragon and I thought it was cute.

Even more fun was my new "Zombie bite" face, inspired by Pashur, a master body artist out of Las Vegas.  It may just be my new favorite face.

How creepy is she?!  Those eyes!  Gotta say, I wouldn't want to meet up with that face in the middle of the forest.  Or city, for that matter.

That face was such a hit on Saturday, that I brought it out again on Sunday, when I painted for the very first time for the Heat & Sole Walk to benefit heart failure and transplant patients.  What an amazing group!

The funniest thing to me, and I regret not getting a photo of him, was an older boy who saw my zombie bite and just had to have one.  While I was painting him, he told me, "You painted my sister at a party at Bounce U a few weeks ago!" and showed me a photo on his phone of a pink kitty that was easily recognizable as one of mine.  Turns out this young man was at that birthday party, which was for a five-year-old girl and her friends, and was too old for face painting.... until he saw the cooler options he had this time around!  Ha!  I call that vindication, my friends.

This face also inspired an adult woman to have me "do something creepy" on her arm, and was happy with what I came up with.

To be honest, so was I.  Fun, right?  In case you can't tell, Halloween is my favorite holiday.

I had a lot of my regular fare too, including one boy who was really excited when I told him, in listing several options and ideas, "When I say I can do a bear, I mean panda, polar, or brown bear," and exclaimed happily, "Brown bear!"  So a brown bear he was.

Now I just hope they have me back next year!

Back to Backing Up

Every June, some friends and I have one of the best and most rewarding gigs of my year, the Valerie Fund Walk in Verona, NJ.  We meet so many great people who benefit from the fund or just make this their cause.  Really a terrific bunch all around.

I was so busy beginning to end that I only took one photo this year, because I was happy with my daisies.

Almost as cute as the girl sporting them.

A Weekend Outdoors

This past weekend, I painted at two events, both large, and both events at which I have painted many times before. 

Friday night was the Zoo Do at the Bergen County Zoo in Van Saun Park in Paramus.  There were four of us working the three hours that night, and it was a great event!

It's for zoo members, and they have music, food, us, and the animals out for the kiddos and their families.  My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew actually came, but didn't get painted.  My nephew, at 2.5 years old, still hates having anything on his face.  He's adorable and would make a terrific model, but irony strikes again.

We were really busy, so I only got a couple photos, but I really liked this frog and this mountain lion.

Then on Sunday morning, I had to be in Verona Park in Verona, NJ to face paint with two other artists bright and early for four hours during the Valerie Fund Walk.  I seriously have never met a better bunch of people.

This little girl stopped by with her grandpa, who insisted that the angel painting was simply a representation of the great kid she really was.  I believe it.

This young man had trouble choosing a good color for his cat, so we finally settled on a cool lime green.

And of course, in addition to a domesticated cat, there had to be wild ones - cheetahs and tigers!

Of course, I had a whole series of butterflies...

... and other bugs.

A couple of flowers.

A dinosaur & dragon...

... the dragon request came with a suggestion of pink lips instead of fire!

Some animals that like the water, like ducks, snakes, and a mythical mermaid.

And the most unusual request of the day, a softball!

I'm a Hockey Fan

A fan of the NJ Devils, in fact.  Have been for as long as I can remember.  Unfortunately, I don't have a jersey.

So when my parents gave us 4 tickets to the Devils/Islanders game at the Prudential Center in Newark, I just had to do something to show my FANatic side!  I painted myself!

Unfortunately, the stadium was bright enough that I didn't realize my flash wasn't engaging, so my photos are kind of grainy.  Too bad, 'cause I did a pretty good job, especially for painting myself, which is always harder.

It was definitely a fun face to wear!

And yes, that's my husband in a NY Rangers jersey.  I married a New Yorker.  Sigh.

Oh, and by the way?  We won!

So Busy that the Sky is Falling!

I painted with a friend on Friday evening at a country club's father/daughter dance.  It was princess themed, and really fun.  The girls were in amazing dresses, some with their hair professionally done, and the club provided princess tiaras and us to do princess faces.

With just 2 painters, 3 hours, and 120 girls, there was no time for photo-taking, unfortunately.

But since I have to give you some sort of photos, I'll tell you about my play!

I'm appearing in December in the children's show Poultry in Motion, at the Studio Playhouse in Montclair.

It's a take on the classic Chicken Little, and I get to be Henny Penny!  The director has potentially chosen to do traditional stage makeup for the characters, except for Foxy Loxy, who I may get to paint.  So I worked up a sample face, based on a fox photo I found online.

Because she was the only one getting painted, the director asked me to tone it down.  So I tried this.

We'll see if he goes for it.  I hope he does!

Glitter Tat Party

I was the guest of a 10-year-old and her 15 friends at their sleepover birthday party tonight.  She was dead set on having glitter tattoos at her party, and glitter tattoos I provided.  Like these.

Butterfly

Henna Flowers

Panther

Twilight

Irish Sugar Skull

And some were getting in gear for Halloween, kids after my own heart.

 

Skull & Crossbones

Candy Corn

I got up at 6:30 this morning.

Yes, on a Saturday.  I had a good reason, though.  I was face painting with two other artists at the Valerie Fund walk in Verona Park this morning.

We were all painting furiously for several hours straight, so I only had a little time to take photos, but here are some of them.

Two princesses and a monster.

A request for a red skeleton that was neither bloody nor angry, so we added glitter.  Nothing with glitter could be angry.  Except maybe my cat.  He glares at me when I get glitter on him.

My first bumblebee in many years.

A shark.

A tiger.  As you know, I love it when adults want to get painted.

A request for a unicorn with rainbows, for which I simply didn't have time.  Instead, my model compromised with me for a unicorn with a rainbow mane.

My very first werewolf.

And some wildcats.  I painted the two on the left; one of the other two artists painted the leopard.

A Great Event and a Sigh

Last night, I painted at a holiday party for The Valerie Fund, in Livingston, NJ.

It was a terrific event. There was another face painter there as well, Hug-a-Me the Clown, and it was so much fun to work with her! There were four more clowns doing balloons and playing with the kids and their parents, a DJ, and some games for the kids.

They had a small but tasty buffet, and I think I drank three bottles of apple juice - I had no idea I was so in need of hydration!

Everyone was wonderful, the volunteers, the kids, the parents, everyone. We did a ton of face painting, and I was having a great painting night - very on the mark, great designs, and everything came out exactly like I wanted it to. We painted a large family of kids who were then going to take photos for their Christmas cards! I did one girl with a really pretty holly princess design, her little brother with an adorable snowman, and some others.

There was one absolutely adorable little boy who wanted to be a lion. Not a tiger, mind you, most definitively a lion. He was sure of it. Now... my lions... are varied. I've yet to pinpoint exactly the lion design I want and love, so every time I do them, they're a little different. This one was so cute that he was making people giggle, including me. He took some offense, telling me, "they're laughing at me!" I explained to him, "No, they're laughing because you're too cute! You know how sometimes you see a puppy that's so incredibly cute it makes you laugh, you can't help it?" He nodded yes. I said, "It's the same thing. You're so cute they can't help it!" He understood.

Why the sigh, then? I couldn't take photos because of HIPAA regulations. It makes complete sense, and I'm not railing against the regulations by any means, but it just figures that the best painting I've done in months is at the one event where I can't get a record of it. So... sigh. And a chuckle, too.