My daughter was nice enough to put together a step-by-step for everyone on here so that you can see the evolution of one of her designs. Hopefully it will inspire you in some way.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/063.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/064.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/065.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/066.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/067.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/068.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Chris_texas/072.jpg

Thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see how others approach their designs. I work inside the design first and then outline it in black last. It's a great design. Dragons are popular. You've got a winner!

Don't cha hate it when a person with overly hairy arms asks for an arm design like this one? Even the arms that appear to be smooth and when you start, they have super blonde, almost invisible, and LOTS of hair, and then you're dealing with the nap of their hair while trying to work on the design smoothly too?
Ugh.

Thanks sooo much for sharing............That is soooo totally awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see how others approach their designs. I work inside the design first and then outline it in black last. It's a great design. Dragons are popular. You've got a winner!

Don't cha hate it when a person with overly hairy arms asks for an arm design like this one? Even the arms that appear to be smooth and when you start, they have super blonde, almost invisible, and LOTS of hair, and then you're dealing with the nap of their hair while trying to work on the design smoothly too?
Ugh.

Absolutely. Even worse though is eyebrows.

Thanks. I think that even with the step by step, mine wouldn't turn out half as nice. But, I guess if you don't try, you don't learn...

About how long does it take your daughter to paint that design?

About how long does it take your daughter to paint that design?

At least 30 seconds...


Seriously though, I wasn't watching. Probably ten minutes anyway. We don't really concern ourselves overmuch with time as that's not really our thing. We CAN work fast when we want to, but our focus is on more elaborate stuff and that takes time. Whenever I think about time I am reminded of a hillarious comment in Mark Reed's video -- he's already spent about five minutes in on this one design when he pauses to tell the camera that this is a quick three or four minute design, then he proceeds to spend another ten minutes screwing with it.

What it comes down to is YOUR business model. Do you focus on higher customer volume events? Do you work alone? If so you should probably make speed and throughput a priority -- make it your goal to complete a design within five minutes. For us, much of the time we are working lower customer volume events, and often against "competition". Because of this, and because there are two of us, we have the luxury to spend longer per customer. Another consideration is pricing. We change a lot.

HOWEVER, with all that said it is very important to remain conscious of the parents. If you take too long they are gonna get annoyed, and even if they love what you deliver they are gonna be hesitant to jump in line the next time they see you. If a design takes a while TELL them ahead of time. For our arm designs (these are our most elaborate and time consuming) we show them a book which has the pricing and estimated time. For a large and detailed work it might take twenty minutes or so (and a lot of money), and they are told this ahead of time.

This works for us.

Summary: As a general rule you should be able to complete your basic designs within five minutes or so. If not, no worries, just work on it. Also, keep in mind that you are taking longer than you think -- if you thought it only took five minutes it was probably more like seven or ten, so use a watch. Along those same lines remember that the same applies to other face painters as well, and when they tell you that they can whip out 274 tigers per hour just nod your head and smile.

Good information, Smacky. It does come down to what venue a facepainter is doing. I wish I had the luxury to not care about timing. I get paid very well per hour for corporate work and I put alot of demand on myself to do as many people as I can, without compromising clean lines and symmetry. I live in a highly competitive area, so I have to stand out among the sea of painters in some way that is appealing to the masses.

I have my hubby time me because as you said, time is oblivious when you are painting. Most venues I do is for 1,000-5,000 people. It's crazy time, so we have a system where he asks for the number of the design from the client and writes it down on a slip of paper. Then the person, when it's their turn, hands it to me, and I stick it in a container. At the end of the day, we count how many faces I did and divide that by the number of hours I serviced. While I can't whip out 274 tigers per hour, it feels like I am sometimes! LOL! I love challenging myself to do a great job and in a timely manner.

While this is a different approach to what you do, (and what you do is quite appealing) this is what the demand is for me in my area, so it is what it is. When I attend a clown covention, I will enjoy the luxury of taking my time to do a design for the facepainting competition!

Good information, Smacky. It does come down to what venue a facepainter is doing. I wish I had the luxury to not care about timing. I get paid very well per hour for corporate work and I put alot of demand on myself to do as many people as I can, without compromising clean lines and symmetry. I live in a highly competitive area, so I have to stand out among the sea of painters in some way that is appealing to the masses.

I have my hubby time me because as you said, time is oblivious when you are painting. Most venues I do is for 1,000-5,000 people. It's crazy time, so we have a system where he asks for the number of the design from the client and writes it down on a slip of paper. Then the person, when it's their turn, hands it to me, and I stick it in a container. At the end of the day, we count how many faces I did and divide that by the number of hours I serviced. While I can't whip out 274 tigers per hour, it feels like I am sometimes! LOL! I love challenging myself to do a great job and in a timely manner.

While this is a different approach to what you do, (and what you do is quite appealing) this is what the demand is for me in my area, so it is what it is. When I attend a clown covention, I will enjoy the luxury of taking my time to do a design for the facepainting competition!

Thanks! This illustrates my point perfectly. All of us need to model their business and designs in a way that maximizes profit. For some it might be fast and beautiful, for others slower and more elaborate. The key is professionalism.

For most of our designs we have simplified versions that we have developed (and for all of them we have shortcuts we can use -- as seen in the pictures I post).

For a while we were worried about speed. It was particularly weighting on our minds after doing a couple events where we had long queues, and we got to thinking about how much more we might have made had we worked faster. At the time we were kicking ourselves, and that's when we created this new set of signs. However, what we have come to realize is that in our market it really is rarely an issue. We are somewhere damn near every week, and sometimes all week long as well, and at 90% of these events the slowest makeup artist would have no trouble keeping up. We have decided that for OUR business what we are doing is working for us -- but that does not mean that I think it's the best way for everyone (or even anyone) else. It's good for us financially and it's what we WANT to do.

I like the idea of having estimated times right in the choices book, that's a realy creative idea! we have A-Frame boards that our designs are on that sit inside and just outsideo ur booth to help draw people in. it would be really easy for us to just add a little sign on each one that tells how long the design takes. Thanks!!