Happy Indpendence Day, the Face Painter's Way!

I painted at my annual appearance on Wednesday at the Ridgewood Country Club's 4th of July party.  I love that so many of the kids remember me and come looking for me.  I had some fun ones this year, like my first-ever request for Yoda!

Star Wars was popular this year, and I had two more Yodas plus a couple of Darth Mauls.  Some of those had requested Darth Vader, but I talked them out of it, since I've yet to figure out how to make a fully black face defined like a Darth Vader mask.  I love trying new things, but even I have my limitations.

I also did my first pink & green ladybug, at this young lady's request.  I think it's pretty cute!

As is my first blue dragon with red eyes, as specified by my model.

And another first, a poison dart frog.  I happen to love poison dart frogs, so I was really happy to get this request.

And then some old standards, rainbow butterflies, monsters, Spideygirl, a clown, and zombies.  What's the 4th of July without zombies?

And of course, the regular 4th of July hits, flags & fireworks!

Hope you had a good day too!

A Last-Minute Birthday

I'd kept today free for other things, but when I got a call this morning from a former client who'd had me paint at a baptism two years ago, needing a last-minute face painter because the rain canceled the bounce house, I decided to take the party.

It was a 3rd birthday for a beautiful and decisive little girl who knew even when her mom was on the phone with me at 9 a.m. that she wanted to be a tiger.  Unwavering, when I got to the party at 2 p.m., "tiger" was still the request.  And a tiger she was.  A happy one, even.

This was a creative bunch; my next customer wanted to be a brown gorilla.  This face got a heck of a reaction.

His older brother also had his idea from the very beginning, a snake.  They all freaked out at the eyes on the eyes (my first time doing this!), and the one negative was that he couldn't see 'em in the mirror.  But his mom took photos with his eyes closed for him to have.

I also had another zombie... you know I love doing those!  He wanted lots of blood.  I think it's even better with that hairdo!

Is it me, or is that kid headed for a rock band when he hits high school?

The older girls got mostly arm art, including this heart made of hearts, by request.

But this chick told me to surprise her.  It was fun painting while she tried to guess what I was doing.  Once someone told her it was undersea, though, she figured out that the grey I'd used was a shark and she requested a jellyfish and a crab, both of which I incorporated.

She kept a straight face for the photo, but loved it otherwise!

I really am glad I had a free day and decided to go to the party.  It was such a great bunch of people.

Halloween 2010

Ah, Halloween, my favorite holiday.

We were so busy this year with so many things that we actually skipped our annual Holiday party and instead made other plans.

I did, however, face paint at my usual Halloween gig, the Bergen County Cabbage Night Festival.  I love this event, and it's great for the kids.

My first model of the day was this adorable girl who wanted something scary and settled on an alien.

She was hanging around as I set up my table, and was the only one around, but once I painted her I was swamped for even longer than my scheduled three hours.

Some more girls who were into the scary faces (my personal favorites) were this zombie, vampire, and witch.

Some weren't into face painting, but were sure into the theme.  A new design for me that was hugely popular this year was my haunted house scene.  I did some on hands, some on faces.

And my first vampire hand painting.  I'm used to turning people into vampires, more than drawing them.  Still, a fair representation, I think.

And of course I had my usual butterflies, tigers, puppies, and this cute cheetah.

Plus, my first ever rocket request, which I then duplicated on this young man's brother.

This next design was a heck of a compromise.  The model wanted a flower, just a simple flower.  Her mom was pushing for a mardi gras mask.  So I suggested a flowered mardi gras mask!

Then there were these three teens who were so cool.  The first one saw the length of my line and chose to keep things moving for me, even though she'd waited for nearly two hours herself.  She requested just a cat nose and whiskers.  The second dubbed herself a comic book geek and requested a superhero mask, which was voted by the three as the "best superhero mask she'd ever gotten" and "sick" (a good thing in teenspeak).  The third wanted nerd glasses, tape and all.

I was so crazy busy painting, that I actually handed them my phone to take photos of each other for me!  I love how they all got into character with their paintings.

While that afternoon I was a Renaissance wench,

later that night, my husband Eric and I went to Forest of Fear, a haunt organized by the same group that does the NY Renaissance Festival across the street from the Faire grounds.  For that, I went as a zombie Alice in Wonderland, and Eric wore this terrific mask we bought him in New Orleans, with a black velvet cloak.

Today, I went trick or treating wtih my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  My nephew, for his first Halloween, was Curious George, my brothe-in-law was the Man in the Yellow Hat, and my sister was the bunch of balloons in the sky.  I was a clown.

We do have one more Halloween event - we're going to Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor next Saturday.  I'll let you know how it was!

From Girls to Ghouls

I face painted this afternoon at the Ridgewood Country Club for their Labor Day party.  In amongst my usual fare of dolphins and skulls were these adorable kittens.

On the other end of the spectrum were this scary clown...

... and this adorable (and yet scary) zombie.

It's a terrible photo, but I so love it when they get into character.

My July 4th

My 4th of July this year was long.  And hot.  I have no idea how the kids do it, running around in the sun and heat, but I wish I was one of them sometimes.  Of course, I don't remember being that fine in that sort of weather, so maybe I was always old?

(Of course, I'll only be 40 at the end of this month, so "old" is a state of mind.  Or body.  I haven't decided which.)

On the morning of the 4th, my husband Eric and I made shampoo, since our web store was out of stock.  Then in the afternoon, I was hired by a wonderful event organizer, Premier Productions, to paint kids at a big party at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ.  It's a beautiful place, and the event organizer was very good to the entertainers.  She had canopies, tables, and chairs set up for each of us, plus enough cold water to keep us going.

That striped tent had games for the kids to play.  There was also this terrific balloon artist.

Plus, a magician.  The balloon artist apparently had a large number of requests for aliens, because then the kidos came to me to have their faces match!  As someone who's ever only painted one alien face before, it was fun to have several in one day; gave me a challenge to change them up a bit as I went.

Even some of the club staff got painted, like this Tinkerbell fan, which is always fun for me.

Some of the kids stuck with the patriotic theme, of course.

And others didn't.

Some went completely another direction and were looking for my favorite, the horror faces.  One boy was very definite about wanting to be a vampire, and another, age 12, just gave me the instruction that he wanted the most gory, bloody, horrible thing I could do.  So here goes, a vampire and a zombie.

And you just have to love kids who play up to the photography!  Hams are the best!

Believe it or not, after four hours of this, I went home, took a shower, and then Eric and I went to a party hosted by one of our own friends.  It wasn't until the next day that we got to see fireworks in Ridgewood.