I’m a facepainter- AMA

[weechops]

As the title says really
No idea if this is even of interest to anyone but hey it’s all I’ve got!

Are you now massively overstocked with red and white?

I’m actually Scottish soooo not really. There have been some amazing England flag/football designs I’ve seen though! I only did one on my football daft son

On a scale of 1 to 10 how much would you panic if a child had a massive allergic reaction to the paint?

1. Hope I don’t sound blasé or cold hearted, but it’s the parents responsibility if they allow their child to be painted. I have a disclaimer displayed at every gig I do stating I accept no liability. Anyone can react to anything at any time, but the risk is generally pretty small. I never paint an unaccompanied child either.

If , god forbid, a child did have a huge reaction, I would only advise the parent how to remove the facepaint (also displayed on my disclaimer) but I’m not medically trained so wouldn’t offer any other advice. As activities go, it’s generally pretty low risk.

That’s fine, I only asked cause I had a bad reaction as a kid to one, stupid sensitive skin, I could never have my face painted again as a kid :(

Oh no that’s rubbish you had a bad experience It could have been a number of things really in addition to your sensitive skin. Maybe the paints used weren’t of high quality, maybe bad hygiene practices. I hope you were ok, you must have got such a fright as a wee kid.
If I have a child wanting painted, but they have a skin condition such as eczema, and the parent is insistent they’ll be fine, I say to the parent I could do a small motif on the hand/arm. And only if they sign a disclaimer. Oh and never if there is any inflamed breakouts. For those occasions I keep a stash of goody bags to give to the child if they can’t be painted that day.

It was ages ago when I was only 4 or 5 it wasn't hospital or anything I just remember having a really red face (after they took off my lovely painted face maybe a tiger but not sure) and then my family said I could never have my face painted again and I had to watch everyone else get their face painted. I still paint my face now every so often only this time it's war paint (make up)

How do you get the glitter and sequins off a childs face easily without having to really scrub it as I had a nightmare getting it off my 3 year olds face?

If it’s the chunky festival glitter the best way I’ve found, without scrubbing, is to use a bit of sticky tape to gently press on the glitter and it lifts the majority off. Then for the remainder, for fine glitter and for all facepaint, use your normal soap/cleanser on the face first BEFORE wetting. Masssge it in until the paint is loosening, then use a warm damp facecloth to gently wipe off. You can use oil, I like coconut oil, to wipe off any excess. Really gentle method. Some colours take a wee bit longer to fade such as green, but again use more oil and it will come off

Are you generally artistic? Or have you learned how to do certain designs?

Could you paint anything on a face or only what you know how to paint?

I am quite artistic but not painting portraits or anything, more like drawing cartoons for the kids to colour in
I practice as much as I can so the designs I know really really well it becomes like muscle memory and I can do them quickly and well. New designs - I get inspiration from other painters, Pinterest, YouTube etc. It’s more difficult for me to think of a totally original design off the top of my head. But it’s very frowned upon to directly copy another artist especially if you don’t then credit them.
I can paint most things and I like a challenge so if a kid has a wild idea then I go with it Sometimes I have to google an image to get an idea of how to start.