Zoo Do 2014

Last night, some friends and I painted again at the Bergen County Zoo at Van Saun Park in Paramus.  It was a blast!  Two of the other face painters are clowns and I love hanging out with clowns.  Such big personalities, it's a blast.

It's funny, although there are four of us painting, and the way we work it is that there's only one line and each artist with an empty seat just calls for the next person in line, each of us tends to end up with our own popular faces for the event.  I heard the artist nearest me painting kitty after kitty, while I didn't have one single kitty request.  My big thing last night was dragons.  I painted a slew of dragons and had some fun with them.  I love asking kids - or adults, for that matter - "What color are dragons where you come from?"  The most common breeds of dragons seem to be green, red, and blue.

I did get one very specific request for this dragon, but with teeth, which I guess from looking at the internet now (I haven't seen the movie yet and really should), he develops as he gets older; mom called up the image on her phone.  Not sure I captured it, but it was on the fly, so I don't think I did a terrible job.

Of course, even with all the dragons, I couldn't have a gig without butterflies.  There are always butterflies.  But I decided to have some fun with them.

There are also almost always tigers, so I decided to have some fun with those too.

 Not everyone chose pretty.  There were a couple of fierce T-Rexes too.

The coolest request, though, was my last of the night - an owl.  I think I've only painted a full face owl once before, and I know for a fact this one was better.  She loved it!

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...

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!

108?!

Wow, not cool.  And I mean that both figuratively and literally, since weather.com says it hit 108 here in NJ yesterday.  A record high, from the prior 105.

I'm not fond of 3-digit temperatures.  If I was, I'd go live in Arizona.

Even in the dark of night, at 1 a.m., it was near 90 degrees.  So you get the idea.  And where was I from 5:30 - 830 p.m.?  With 4 fellow crazy face painters, at the Bergen County Zoo in Van Saun Park in Paramus.  Face painting.  Outdoors.  In that heat.

Crazier than we were may have been the people who got painted.  More power to 'em!  Because of them, I got to do some fun stuff.  Like these butterflies.

Mike Tyson's tribal... which is probably a tad easier with a shaved head.

And yeah, I looked it up.  All hail the smartphone!  Speaking of the smartphone and finding images, I got my first toucan request and decided to give it a go once I found one online.

Good job, if I do say so myself!

I was surprised at the people who wanted full face designs in the heat, but if they were willing, I was willing.  Hence the crocodile and ladybug.

It was kind of fun to make the ladybug smile when she smiled, and it was a surprising popular design.  Another face painting "trick" is to make parts disappear.  This boy was really happy at the snake apparently slithering through his hair.

Unsurprisingly, we did get a lot of arm art.

The best design of the day, though?  Or at least the funniest... check out these guys.

Love it!