Fun With Tiger Faces

 I practiced some new Tiger face paintings the other day, and wanted to share with my Paint On Your Facepaint on your face fans!  The first tiger design took about 45 minutes.  It's a great design for clients' private sessions, to accent a costume, or for a client photoshoot. 

Check it out...

Here I am after the color blending and basic shapes are complete.  I always start by sponging on the lightest colors first, then move on to mediums,  and lastly the darks.  I mainly used TAG paints and Mehron Paradise.

In this closeup of my tiger face painting you can see more detail.  I always work from "biggest to smallest." This means the largest shapes come first. Then lastly you add details such as the little dots of color.

I call the final design the "Electric Tiger," because the tiger stripes look like lightning, and the colors are 'electrifying!'

I had so much fun painting myself as the "Electric Tiger," that I face painted Jay with a tiger a few days later. This one is more basic. I finished in about 25 minutes.

 Stay tuned for more faces!

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Facepainting for the Community

Last week was full of wonderful surprises at the Brentwood Village Spring Fest and the grand opening of the Tessie Cleveland Community Center in Gardena.

First off, Saturday was face painting at the Brentwood Village Spring Festival. This was an event I've been looking forward to since January!  Since the Holiday event in Brentwood got canceled due to rain, I knew this one was going to be double the fun, especially since the community was really looking forward to it.  I got there around noon, and set up near the store called Wonderland, which has incredibly cute baby and kid's clothes, toys and furniture.  To the right of me was a pet adoption, and I enjoyed the little pups running around for the duration of my time facepainting. 

By the time 1:00pm rolled around, my line was pretty long! When I'm busy at work painting, and finally look up to see 15 people waiting to get a face, it's quite invigorating.  The popular faces of the day were puppies and kitties (due to the inspiration of the pet adoption next door), as well as flowers and peace signs. One little girl who was decked out in adorable hippy attire was in dire need of a peacock face, which turned out pretty nice, with green and purple sparkling peacock feathers spreading out from the corner of her eye.

Thanks to Jennifer Turchin for hiring Paint On Your Face and sponsoring a bunch of other fun activities that day.  If you get a chance, visit her store Jennifer Knits in Brentwood Village to stock up on beautiful specialty knits and yarn. They also hold knitting workshops and classes.

Facepainting for community events is wonderful because people who live close to one another can  hang out and share common experiences.  That's what community is all about!  Especially when kids and young adults are involved, it creates an atmosphere where friendships start. It's awesome when I'm face painting at a block party or business and neighbors who have lived next door to each other for 10 years start their first conversation.

  






The Tessie Cleveland Community Center Grand Opening was all about  close knit community.  The kids really came together, and formed relationships while standing in line for facepainting. I overheard them telling each other how great they looked. Siblings were hugging, and parents were taking pictures of their children.  It was a real celebration, and I was so glad to have been apart of it. It's amazing that something so simple like face painting can be an outlet for people to open up to those around them.  Very special thanks to Sylvia Ramirez for hiring me and allowing me to witness the strength of this great center of growth for young people.

Transformers, Nutcrackers and Kung Fu Facepainting

This weekend was fun filled with face painting, just how I like it. On Saturday there was a birthday party in Cypress for returning customers from last year.  As I walked through their front door, I was greeted with "Hi Jamie!" and "Ya, the Facepainter is here!"  I eves-dropped on little whispers as I set up my station..."what are you going to get?" "I want to be something different from last year!"

It's so awesome to observe families getting really into the face painting.  The participation actually adds to the excitement and anticipation. When the adults and teens get into it, everyone gets loose and helps everyone enjoy each other. It's parties like these I never forget.

Some of the teens exemplified this attitude at the birthday party. One young man broke the mold and asked to become a Transformer.  "Hmmm," I wondered, "Can we Google it on someone's phone so I can look at a picture?"  (I must admit I'm not too familiar with the Transformers logo..until now that is). One of the partygoers held up their phone for me to copy a Transformer logo, of which I made into a facepainting. Check it out...

 

The Transformer request got everyone going. I even had a request for a Nutcracker. Yes, that's right folks, a Christmas Nutcracker... in March!

Next up Sunday was facepainting at Golf'N'Stuff in Norwalk for Chabad.  This event started off slow but after 30 minutes, I had a line of families just dying for facepainting, and people were waiting for up to 40 minutes to get a face!  This is where my Kung-Fu Face Painting style comes in, where I bust booty and paint like a madwoman.  I enjoy fast facepainting. It reminds me of back in the days at Disneyland, when I hustled and bustled, facepainting quick stylie, with long lines packed with 20 plus people who were in a rush.

Sunday was unforgettable because I brought a reference book with me, Marcela Murad's  "Facepainting Book of Masks." I hid it in my bag, but placed it tilted just enough so while I was painting, I could peak into it and try some new styles.  It really helped me break my mold, and stray from repetition that sometimes takes over when I'm in a rush. I have been trying to remind myself lately how important it is to try new things in regards to art.  When we are always evolving and learning, we never get bored.  Actually, the same goes for life in general.

Take a look at some of the great pics from the Chabad event...

 

Stay tuned for next weekend's pics for the Brentwood Village community event!  It's free to the public, and that includes facepainting by moi. If you're interested in going, just email me for directions and details.

Have a great week y'all! 

Learning About Face Painting Color Application

Face painting is easy if you know where to start. Most importantly, get to know the consistency of the face paint, and which colors to apply first so they blend into beautiful bright hues, not muddy browns and grays. When colors are applied next to each other, take into consideration the good old Color Wheel. Remember that thing from grade school?  (Honestly I hardly remember it, and had to Google it just now :-) shhh, don't tell anyone!)

Let's go deep into the subconscious mind and bring back our grade school color wheel experiences together, or shall we say "color wheel post-traumatic stress."

So, the Primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue.  These 3 Primary colors can make just about any other color you can think of if mixed properly.  If the 3 primary colors are mixed together, they make black or gray.  That's why it helps to plan ahead before applying color, like working with a color by number.  Know which colors are ok to place next to eachother in face painting so that you don't get an ugly grayish color when they blend.  Unless of course you're creating a shark face with a ton of gray, now that's a different story.

Remember that when painting, mixing colors opposite eachother will
create dark muddy grays.  Plan out how you will apply the colors on the face before you start.  Try applying lighter colors first.

Let's begin our facepainting color tutorial with a Butterfly. I love painting the butterfly because it looks so complicated but it really isn't, as long as you know how to start with the color.

 

-Begin with a light color on the eyelids, extending just above the outer corner of the eyes, above the eyebrows.  Bring the yellow below the undereyes. Taper the yellow to a point at the ends. 

-Since blue and yellow make green, we'll apply blue next to the yellow. When the blue and yellow blend together, you'll see a hint of green. If we were to use green and red instead, the middle would blend to gray, and might not look as bright and beautiful. 

-Moving outward from the eyes, now apply pink next to the blue. Since pink and blue make purple, they are safe to apply next to each other. 

-Finish with outlines using your brush, and voila, a Rainbow butterfly with perfectly blended colors!

Hopefully this helped you get to know more about using face painting colors, and where to place them. For more info about how to apply colors with your face paint, just email me with your questions. Also feel free to visit my site for more pictures.

Facepainting 2010: Bringin' It On!

Greetings, and thanks for stopping by! My name is Jamie and I'll be guiding you through my facepainting adventures in 2010. 

With a weekend free of face painting parties, I've decided to make it a time of reflection.  Over the last 5 years I've grown to love facepainting more than I've ever thought. Unbelievably, this little hobby grew into a creative outlet that allows me to share the beauty of painting with hundreds of people.  Not only do I get to paint, I get to give people a gift that's worth so much more than something tangible.  Seeing a smile on the face of a 4 year old who just received their very first  face painting is priceless. Seeing the joy on the face of a dad who just got his bald head painted with a yellow smiley face is priceless too!  Facepainting spreads joy to every group of people, that's for sure.

Years ago if you would have told me, "Jamie, I can see you being a facepainter for a living," I would have laughed so hard.  My calling, or so I thought, was to be a children's book writer and illustrator, and nothing less.  I planned on interning at Nickelodeon or Disney in the animation/ illustration department.  I was going to take the art world by storm!  Well, then the reality check set in. It's not that I wasn't a good artist, but I was learning that it was hard work. Harder than I thought.  Negotiating deals with entertainment investors who like your artwork, and make big plans for you but stop returning your calls when another artist who works for less money comes along. Not an easy thing for a fresh young artist who is naive about the industry.  I have a feeling that facepainting will possibly bring about new avenues for my childrens book art in the future.  (A little note: The Paint On Your Face mascot, Yolanda, was a character from my 2006 childrens book, Candy Makes You Dandy!).

For now, I'll focus on what I've got;  Paint On Your Face!  It's my baby, and it's growing.  We've got a great group of supporters and clients, a new website, and lots of potential.  There are so many things in store for 2010, and I can't wait to share them with you.

Starting next weekend, we've got parties, baby, parties!  Saturday will be a birthday party in Cypress, Orange County for some returning clients, and Sunday will be a Chabad event for the Jewish Community at Golf'N'Stuff in Norwalk.  The weekend after that, Saturday March 20  is the Brentwood Spring event at Brentwood Village from 12 noon-4:00pm.  Please stop by to do some shopping and get your face painted. Facepainting will be FREE to the public, and done by me, Jamie!!   I am so excited for the Brentwood event because their big holiday event in December 2009 was canceled due to rain, so I'll have to do any extra awesome job to double the fun.

Did I mention that I am attending the Facepainting and Body Art Convention in Florida this May?  Holy moly, I can't even begin to describe how much fun it's going to be.  And of course, I'll keep you updated every day that I'm there, with pics and blog entries.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and stay tuned for more updates on Paint On Your Face sooner than later!

 

Yolanda! Copyright Jamie Graden 2006