gz-Body Painting or Going Away

No, not me. Ha, you're not getting rid of me that easily!

Someone else... and so there was a big kids' going away party yesterday afternoon at Tribeca Cinemas. I was hired to face paint at the party, and because I knew we'd have two hours and a lot of kids, I brought my friend Emilie with me.

The party was great, with balloons, a DJ, food, and drink... and of course, us. When we first got there, only a few girls chose to get painted.

So I did what I usually do to try and attract attention; I started to paint myself as a tiger. Well, I got the orange and white base done, and picked up a brush with black to get myself a nose, fangs, and start on my stripes... and of course, a line formed! We painted furiously for over two hours straight, and I never did get a chance to finish my own painting, so I spent the afternoon painting with an orange and white face. I actually forgot about it until I went to the bathroom to empty my water and looked in the mirror!

Oops.

I was happy, though. I think I got my puppy face down to about 90 seconds, since I did what felt like hundreds of them. And we had some creative kids there. This very pretty girl wanted to be a vampire, and was very happy with her face, even happier when she turned around and scared the heck out of two girls waiting behind her!

I also had a young mermaid swim away from my chair.

Recognize the very quick version of the shell I practiced for cheek art? Speaking of cheek art, some of the most fun paintings I did were of the cheek and arm art variety. The kids were so into the painting once we got going, that ones who'd already been face painted kept coming back and getting on line to get arms painted; I think had some had four or five separate paintings!

Well, my first new thing for the day... I got a request for a robot! Um... OK. Let's see what we can do with that.

And then... a lollipop!

And last, but not least, a flamingo!

Of course, those resulted in many repeated requests for robots, lollipops, and flamingos. Of course!

gz-Body Painting or Improvements

Tonight was another meeting of the northern NJ Face & Body Art Guild, and I was finally able to make it again. I've missed several meetings because of the show and rehearsals. Now that we're out of rehearsals, and in fact there's only one weekend left, I've got time.

And I am now, quite literally, a card-carrying member of the guild!

How cute is that?

This month's meeting was especially valuable, as we had a guest teacher to lead our workshop, Pashur. Yup, the same great guy whose class I took back in November. He's really a great person in addition to being a great artist, and it was fun to see him again.

In addition to a great new parrot design, he showed us ways to really improve our sharks. Plus, I learned this great tattoo-style rose that, when filled in and shaded, is similar to an Ed Hardy look.

Polished up, filled in, shaded, and surrounded by some tribals or thorny vines, this will be a phenomenal addition to my repertoire.

The best part of Pashur's workshops are the games that get you to push your boundaries. One game was to fingerpaint fifteen 3-color roses with a vine, leaves, and a bumblebee... first person to finish won, so we needed to move fast and throw skill and "pretty" out the window. The range of outcomes was hilarious.

Mine was second from the left.

I can't wait to put my new skills and ideas to good use!

gz-Body Painting or What an experience!

Wow.

Friday night was opening night of the show I'm in, and everyone went out after, so I got home late. And then of course I was wide awake and couldn't sleep right away.

I got up on Saturday at around 9 a.m., leaving for Tribeca at 10, to get to the Film Fesival.

I found my place in Washington Market Park, and set up while Eric went to find parking - it took him an hour! Tha'ts how crazy and huge the fetival was. It makes sense on such a gorgeous day. The high was 88, and it was just partly cloudy. Perfect for this sort of thing, really, and I was in an area shaded by trees, so it was even more attractive.

Well, on the first trip, people saw me put stuff by the table with the "face painting" sign, and started to line up. As usual, people started getting on line for painting while I was still setting up. I set up fast, and got going... and going... and going.

I painted nonstop for 5 hours, barely taking a break for a swig of SmartWater.

The kids were freakin' awesome, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Not exaggerating. Polite, sweet, fun. Laughed at my bad jokes, and I did a zillion butterflies but most let me match colors to their outfits! And most of the parents and guardians were also freakin' awesome. Seriously, I was thanked for doing the painting, thanked for making the kids happy, repeatedly told what a great artist I was, and thanked some more. They thanked me for even just being a face painter!

It feels so grear to be appreciated, it really does. This is the kind of event that makes the heat, the lugging and carrying, the practice, the investment, the shore shoulders and backs - all of it - worthwhile.

I heard that people were waiting on line for me for TWO HOURS and were STILL nice to me. I'm pretty sure that says something about their character.

People were so disappointed when I had to leave at 4; next year I will definitely not audition for the May show at the theater so I can spend the whole day painting. It's worth it.

While there, though, I got to do my second ever panda! And third, but I didn't get a photo of that one.

I loved this brother and sister too, a kitty that originally wanted to be a bird, and a robot! My robot requests are very infrequent, but a challenge is always welcome.

I also got to design my first mouse! This girl was such a cutie, and luckily, we got video and a photo of the final result.

That night, I was back on stage for a great show, as was I on Sunday afternoon!

After that, I came home to an email from the project manager of the Festival, letting me know that the "official" estimate was that they had over 300,000 attendees and thanking me for "helping to make it such a very special day for everyone who attended."

She commented that she'd wanted to say hi as she passed a few times, but didn’t want to interrupt me "while [I was] busy transforming faces into artistic beauty," that everyone seemed so pleased with my work, and that it was a pleasure to have me with them. It was definitely mutual!

gz-Body Painting or Go, Rangers!

OK, I'm from NJ, I know. And I'm really a Devils fan. But I married a Rangers fan, and since we met, he'd been talking about me painting a Rangers jersey on his all-white cat, Neptune. Neptune, in addition to being all white, is a lump. He's a sweetheart, snuggly, and likes to lie around. You can mush him to bits and he doesn't care.

So we figured it'd work fine.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell... we found out that Neptune is a little squirmy when being painted for any length of time. I should've known; he will only take licking/cleaning from his sister Catimus for so long before walking away, and I imagine this felt similar. Don't worry, I used all Snazaroo, it's perfectly safe. Child toy safety rated, even. And no animals - not even Neptune - were harmed in the painting of this cat or taking of the photos.

Almost none. My dog, Meg's, feelings were hurt, but she gets like that any time I pay too much attention to one of the cats. But that's it, I promise. And even that was fixed; I painted her head with a NJ Devils logo (not my best work, I admit), and she just lay there the whole time, happy for the attention.

Those sharp edges are just not easy on fur!

Practice, Practice, Practice

I can draw.  I know this.  I forget it sometimes, because as a face painter, I don't always need to actually draw.  Yes, I use elements and techniques from my zillion years of art classes to turn your child into a tiger like the one on the banner of this blog, but there's a difference between turning someone into something and drawing it.

When face painting, I've focused on the former and avoided the latter.  For me, the former is easier and faster.  And it's usually more fun for my model!  Who wouldn't want to be a tiger, rather than just having one on his face?  Plus, it's got that "wow" factor that everyone loves to have at a party.

Sometimes, though, a child wants a painting on his or her hand or arm.  Or mom wants cheek art so she doesn't have to wash her child's whole face, even if my paints are easy to wash off.  So I need to be able to draw!

When I've been doing a lot of full-face painting, I sometimes forget that I can draw.  That's silly, I know, since I started taking art classes at age 5.  Of course I can draw!  Look at this lemur I did for my husband at his request.

And then I redrew it for him, in black and white.

I drew him another one too.

They look crazy, I know.  I can "draw" when it comes to the face paints too.  After all, I did this dragon, which won me an Honorable Mention in an international competition (3rd row down on the right).

And I made up this cute monster guy while I was at a slow festival one day, and just goofing.

And I can putll out some strange things when challenged, like that seal I did at the Audubon Zoo.

Sometimes, though, I just draw a blank.  Or when I'm working and moving quickly, I end up doing the same sort of thing over and over.  For instance, flowers.  There are so many species of flowers, but when I'm moving fast, my flowers can bcome annoyingly generic.  The only way to combat this is to practice when I'm not under the gun, with a squirmy kid wanting to be done and get out of my chair and twenty more waiting to get in.  So I took some time today to practice.  And the results, in the flower category:

 

That's my first calla lily.  I also tried an iris, my sister's favorite flower.

Next on my list was a sunnny yellow daisy.

And this little guy.  A forget-me-not, I think.

 

We have variety!  I didn't stop at flower, though.  While I can and have drawn a dinosaur before, I wanted some new ones of those too.  So here are two new cute dinosaurs, too, a stegosaurus and triceratops.

 

 

I also tried some other critters, a lizard different from my usual, a frog, also new for me, and a seahorse.  I love seahorses and am actually getting a tank ready so I can own some real ones!

 

 

Continuing with the sea theme, some shells.

That'll be great when I do mermaid princesses too!  I'm also constantly getting asked for trains.  I had a train, but it was nothing I was proud of.  This one is much cuter!

 

And a for good measure, a couple more things that'd be handy to have in my repertoire.

 

Perfect for summer, that one is!

There's tons more I could practice, of course, but I've gotten hungry and it's a beautiful day out.  I may get a late lunch, and take the puppy for a walk.

'Til next time!

gz body paint or Autism Awareness Day

A fellow face painter, Daniel Lasris, also known as Katmandew, has decided to do his part for World Autism Awareness Day, which is today, April 2, 2010. The color of awareness is blue.

Therefore, Daniel has asked that we face painters paint some part of ourselves or each other blue and upload it to the Facebook Fan Page he has created. He's going to take all of the photos he receives, upload them to a Shutterfly.com share site, and then create a book from the photographs submitted. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Autism Speaks, and the organization plans to match the donation 100%!

I have submitted this photo, my blue faerie face.

It's the one blue face I know I have on short notice. Plus, I really kinda love it.

If you'd like to learn more about the organization or donate to Autism Speaks, please visit their website for information.

This past Saturday, I painted faces at a 5th birthday party in River Edge, NJ. It was a great party, but I didn't have time for photos, so there aren't any of those. Sorry!

It did bring up an interesting issue, though, so I thought I might want to give you some pointers for when you're having an entertainer at your party. This is relevant for hiring face painters, magicians, caricature artists, anybody...

The party was at a dojo (karate school), and was amazing fun for the kids. Don't get me wrong, it was great fun for me too! Heck, I used to take karate as a kid myself, so it was fun even to reminisce.

Thing is, the family planned for me to be there right when the party started. So I got there and set up, and was ready to go in a back room next to the party room. What I didn't know was that the parties at that school have a standard format (as well they should, but I'd never before done a karate party), during which the sensei (teacher) has the kids participate in a series of games and exercises for about 1.5 hours before going to the party room.

It included breaking boards, so it was very cool for the kids, and I can't wail 'til my nephew's old enough to have a party like that!

Thing is, for the first hour or so of the party, I was just hanging around, being entertained by the sensei and kids, but not working. It so happened that this particular family wasn't worried about it and was able to add an hour onto my time to make sure that no kids left unpainted. That's terrific, but most families simply can't afford that, and I'd hate for them to be put in the position of having to choose what to do about it. Also, it was lucky that I didn't have another obligation immediately after that party; it can happen that I have five parties in one weekend and can't really stay later at any of them.

All in all, it was great to be there; the family was very nice, the kids were wonderful, the other guests great, and I even got some ice cream cake!

This is just a reminder to the rest of you... when planning your parties, if you don't want an entertainer to have down time, go over the party schedule with your entertainer when booking so you can work out together the best possible way to handle things.

Wicked Faire Revisited

I know that I mentioned in my Wicked Faire post that I was hired last minute to do a full body painting on a cat for a fashion show that was schedule to occur at the Faire.  The request was not to make her look like a cat, but to take my cues from the mask she'd be wearing with her ears and tail.  I had just over an hour to complete the look, from shoulders to shoes.  I did it!

The model, Nicole, was great to work with, and apparently was also great at the show, which I unfortunately had to miss.

Then again, she's a dancer, so how could she not be great?  Those boots are painted on, by the way.  Nicole had on t-strap shoes, but we wanted her to look like she was wearing boots, so I painted them right up her legs.

I did my best to mimic the swirls and curls of the mask, as well as the crosshatch pattern and fading that were involved in it.

All photos in this post were taken by Chris Bossio.

gz-Body Painting or LA Fete 2010

I have had the most amazing time this past week, at the Louisiana Living Arts Festival in New Orleans, otherwise known as LA Fete.

LA Fete started in 2006, when I was offered a pot of gumbo. No, seriously. I'm a member of some international face and body art discussion groups, and I mentioned in one that my favorite food was Cajun. Susie Pierce, otherwise known as Susie the Crazy Cajun, told me that if I came down to her hometown of Baton Rouge, she'd make me a pot of gumbo. My response was, "You name the weekend, I'm there," and all of a sudden there were about 30 other artists chiming in with "me too!" We found ourselves picking St. Patrick's Day weekend of 2007, and LA Fete was born.

Once a party was planned with so many artists, it was only natural that we intend to practice our art, and that morphed into scheduled classes and workshops.

So once a year, for 4 days in March, I go down to New Orleans for LA Fete. I take classes, jam with my friends, face and body paint, and practice my henna.

We attend the New Orleans St. Paddy's Day parade, take an afternoon to face paint at the Audubon Zoo and donate the proceeds to charity, and body paint models for a show at a French Quarter club.

On Thursday night, we had a zombie crawl, and I got to become a tourist attraction in my own right. I'm waiting to see photos of myself show up on Facebook or Google. My friend Z painted me, and I painted other friends Dot Com the clown and Liz Alaniz.

This year, for the first time, my husband Eric came with me. After the Fete was over, we stayed an extra day and went to the aquarium.

We're finally home and exhausted, but it was worth it! Nowhere else do I get an experience like that, working alongside the masters and feeding off of each others' creativity. My clients will benefit from it, too. Every time I come back from LA Fete, my skills are vastly improved. I can't wait to try them out this weekend!