NorthBeach San Francisco

Had some fun at San Francisco's world-famous North beach festival! Clementine brough a young friend who we painted zombie eyes and a smile on and sat next to the booth.

Union Street San Francisco

we face painted at the Union Street festival a few weeks ago, and I painted the youngest full face tiger in my career. We used starblend powders for the base since I didnt know how still the little guy would sit but he was a champ! Only one wiggle when we got to the wet paint. Mom and dad were so pleased he came back for a second day and was done up as a dragonfly...

We Love Repeat Face Paint Party Clients!

We face painted and did glitter tattoos for a 3rd birthday party this weekend. I love this family, they have us back every year! This dude is one of my favorite subjects he always chooses the best things...this year scary rabbit with huge green 'people' eyes...

Also we worked on 'princess kitty' influenced by Rebecca of Arty Brush Strokes in S. Cal

Vacaville Medieval Fantasy Festival

Its been a busy last several weeks. First the Vacaville Medieval Fantasy Festival. Which was one of those darling little community events, casual and a nice flow of fun people. We will definitely be going back next year.

here are a couple of my favorite shots of the day!



5QSJVQPC2GPD

5 tips for great parties

My son is in kindergarten and while this means several things; such as the necessity to find matching socks and pack sack lunches the school administration will approve of it also means that he will be invited to roughly 19 birthday parties…plus the one we throw ourselves.

In fact I am sitting at the second of three scheduled for this spring break. You see with birthday party etiquette when one is in kindergarten you invite the WHOLE class as strong individual likes...and dislikes haven’t really been formed yet, you either invite all 20 or you make it gender specific; you hold a tea party just for the girls or you hold a nerf war birthday just for the boys. But chances are you are destined to be inviting more than a basketballs team worth of kids for your offspring's special day.

So what are you going to do!? Do you play the one-ups-manship game and match the parties already having been thrown by the mothers of the classmates?

Do you take the easy – yet expensive way out and all head off to the local jumpy house venue or do you go the old fashioned yet unique way of a traditional backyard party?

Either choice is rife with pitfalls. Woe be unto you party thrower who doesn’t have enough to entertain the kids, or those of you who provide lack-luster activities that no one can remember by the time the kids reconvene at school.

Is there a sure fire way to personalize and add a shot of adrenaline to juniors party – I mean without letting them get tattoos of their favorite nick toon?

Yes, possibly there is...eschew cookie cutter parties, just say no to corporate party land, embrace a theme! Decorate with home grown ideas in your childs chosen theme. Carry the idea over to party favors, I mean REAL party favors. Send the kids home with potted flowers from your garden party theme, a small remote control car from your race theme party.

Don’t load my kid up with plastic magnifying glasses or spinning tops that are just fodder for the vacuum cleaner. Stuck for a theme? Ask your child's teacher what the current unit in school is, there is certainly an idea there (this month my sons kindergarten is studying plants, butterflies and has had a guest artist who works in ceramics come in – all of which would be great themes!)

Yes, it takes more thought. It possibly might be as expensive as a jumpy house but you will be off the Richter scale when it comes to the coolness factor. It will be a party to remember

5 steps to the worlds best party

1. Employ a theme and carry it all the way through from invitations to thank you notes
2. Money does not a good party make. Instead try ingenuity and creativity
3. Send them home when theyre still happy. This means don’t go too long. If they are bored, asking to go home or causing problems its already too late
4. Feed me! It’s a scientific fact that kids with low blood sugar are not fun party guests
5. Activities. Think about when the guests arrive, make sure there is something for them to engage in – better yet some activity to get them interacting! If your budget can afford it consider novelty entertainment, better yet work it with your theme. Hire a face painter to paint butterflies, flowers or puppy dogs. Have the local reptile show come in and introduce your kids to iguanas and geckos. Have a magician or mad scientist give a command performance, think novel, think theme, think fun.

VOTE now; bring storytelling to local schools

**storyteller**

karen b.

Storytelling...

some of you may know we began adding storytelling to our menu of services earlier this year. Im happy to report its been going great! I am enrolled in a professional storytelling course with Stagebridge in oakland and will be included in a presentation in Berkeley next week!

We have also been telling stories the first Saturday of the month at Millers Candy Emporium downtown Sebastopol and we have had an ongoing storytelling date with the second grade at Gravenstein Elementary School.

Be looking for us at some events later this summer with our 'magic storytelling bag' (where all good stories come from!) Also be on the lookout for some possible news regarding storytelling and a grant from Prilosec OTC

Las Vegas Body Painting Article in Las Vegas Weekly

Very cool article in Las Vegas Weekly.

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2010/feb/17/if-you-paint-it-they-will-come/

Here is my favorite paragraph:
The energy level was higher on the last day, as was the creativity. And the temperature—even the models held towelettes under their pits to keep sweat from smearing paint. Though the final presentation ran very late, it was worth the price of a Red Bull to discover that most of the models were dancers too, performing choreography ranging from Balinese ritual to robot moves, showgirl tease, MMA, nunchuk demonstrations, contortion and mime. One artist even sang her model’s accompaniment a capella.

The singer was Rachel from Hawaii. Apparently her sound wasnt cued right and after coaxing her model out to the stage she belted out her description of her work -- totally spontaneously. Rachel rocked the house!

10 tips for Body Painters; or what are the judges REALLY looking for

What are the judges really looking for? That was a question many fresh-faced competitors were asking each other during the North American Body Painting Championships inaugural gathering in Las Vegas during February. Curious contenders could find the scoring matrix on the NABPC web site. Judges would award up to 150 points equally distributed between the categories of originality, creativity, design flow, use of color, application and total design. Unfortunately little more was known by novice painters and the judges certainly weren’t giving away any secrets!

In an effort to help illuminate and educate body painters everywhere the following list has been culled from a variety of sources, including experienced competitors, past judges, as well as first-hand experience.

1. Don’t paint the obvious. Type your given theme into a browser search and bypass the first several pages. You will never be noticed if you design the same ‘wild life’ or ‘tropics’ theme as everyone else.
2. Keep in mind that 75% of your ‘work zone’ happens from the hips to the shoulders, devote the appropriate time there.
3. Work a wide variety of skills into your piece. Add elements that show your depth and ability, think about shadows, perspective, reflections and the way that images layer on top of each other. Don’t be a one-trick pony.
4. Consider an unexpected element for a longer ‘visual ride.’ Both Yolanda Bartram’s NABPC pieces had a ‘surprise ending’ only revealed when the model was in a certain position.
5. Move the judge’s eye seamlessly from one area of the body to another through an element of color or form.
6. Incorporate those places humans naturally look; breasts and bottoms. Make them part of your overall design, don’t make them the reason d’être but don’t pretend they aren’t there with a wash of a single color.
7. Color is king. As a general rule pieces with a limited palette don’t place on the podium. Think in terms of a rainbow of possibilities!
8. Flawless blending and crisp, confident line work are mandatory.
9. Sell your work! Be excited and passionate about your piece. Have a reason you’ve selected the elements you have chosen, spin the judges a story of how your piece perfectly reflects the theme. Confidence is contagious and can only work in your favor.
10. Accessories do make an impact. While you are not officially judged on false eyelashes, fingernails, contact lenses, fangs, shoes or headpieces ours is a subjective art and everything we do has the ability to affect the overall impression of our work.


And a bonus suggestions: Be prepared with a written statement about your piece as well as music selected specifically to fit your painting. Your model will likely be asked perform, or at the minimum present your work on stage. This is your showcase, the public pay-off of the long hours, the sweat, anguish and tears you gave this one brief moment in the sun – be prepared enough to enjoy it!

Bella Volen Body painter: Las Vegas Convention

Hopefully Bella's link will work for you. It didnt for me but i want to give you an opportunity to experience what this woman was about. Bella has a masters in fine arts and is so much more than a body painter. She combines body art with the aesthetic, architecture and symbolism. She says she does 'trasformations'

Yes, you can appropriately read into this that her body art is much more than where the paint meets the skin, as she's thought long and hard about her work. As a third generation artist who has been painting for 50 hours per week since she was 12 years old in her native Bulgaria, Bella embodies her art....

Bella gave her Las Vegas class an overview of body art from early peoples to its raucous teenage years during the free love 1960's then she gave us a glimpse into how she works as she painted the model above. One of the biggest ideas I picked up during her presentation was the fact that black can be too powerful, too heavy, and can create visual holes in your work. You are much better off to use two complementary colors mixed to a dark color. Color wheel complements will create a 'living dark' color, not a dead, flat black. Bella earned a fourth place finish during the recent North American Body Painting Championships

a quote from her FaceBook fan page

Body painting is unique and very old. I love it because it is alive: the painted body can move, dance, sing. From human skin you can create a 3D illusion, an alien, a building, you can express feelings, a whole world, and this world will exist for a few hours, will stay in your mind, and then it will disappear into the running water.


At the beginning my body paintings were more decorative than my paintings.
Many of them were made for competitions. Now I am only interested in
the creation itself. I was creating androgynous art and I still do. The difference is
that now I work much more on the concept, the idea behind and I like to play with
the space around, so the body will be a part of the whole atmosphere. At the moment
I do not just paint on bodies. I do contemporary body transformations.

Las Vegas Face Painting Convention

Holy moly! what a whirl wind last week. FairyDust Faces; Face Painting and Body art went to Las Vegas for some of the finest instruction, competition and fellowship on the west coast. My week started off with the bad boys of face painting, the rock stars of the body art world -- the Evil Twins of transformation, Nick and Brian Wolfe...santa Rosa can expect to see something new this season, take a look at the day long class had to offer:

Their class was 'How to paint like a Wolfe" and they covered some of their basics, from theory and adaptation of basic boy and basic girl design to a few often requested pieces of cheek art. Here is a new skull and unicorn.




then, true to Wolfe style we did full face boy pieces. This is also the base for skulls and monsters





Here is a picture of a classmate and some friends....

Face Painting + Storytelling

This last weekend was a busy time for the story telling / face painting component of FairyDust Faces party packages. With our new theme parties clients can choose one of seven different types of parties. Everything from a princess party, to a monster party or even an interactive story telling presentation!

And this weekend was a busy time for the story teller at FairyDust Faces. On Friday there was a continuing education class at Stagebridge in Oakland, Saturday was a private story telling party on the golf course in San Rafael with the weekend being topped off by a face painting / story telling presentation at the Martin Luther King celebration at the Wells Fargo Center for Performing Arts in Santa Rosa.

It was a fairly heady feeling being on the stage in the main auditorium with all the kids at the conclusion of the program. The rear of the stage was filled with a choir of about 60 strong and they finished with a tribute to MLK of “I will overcome”…pretty powerful stuff




FairyDust Faces
Experience the Magic of FairyDust!
http://www.FairyDustFaces.com
facebook.com/FairyDustFacePainting

Happy New Year

At the start of 2010 its time to get squared up again. So for the first post this year I want to consider volunteers and volunteering to face paint at events. Many professional entertainers have lots of thoughts on volunteers and volunteering themselves.

These considerations run the gamut from having untrained and/or unskilled volunteers working and taking a job that could possibly go to a trained individual to having a volunteer painter do actual ‘damage.’ Most often this is by having the volunteer use materials that aren’t for use on the skin, the child having a bad reaction and then being afraid to have their face painted again. This can be exacerbated by the well meaning parent reminding a child ‘don’t you remember how hard it was to get it off/how much it itched/the rash you got etc should the child want to be painted again.

This of course has the unintended effect of putting the professional in a position to try and explain what good and bad products are, often during a busy festival or under a time pressure. Sometimes the parent relents and the child is painted, sometimes they agree to a patch test but sometimes the parent assumes the entertainer is just trying to make that extra buck and isn’t being truthful.

I encourage parents to give it a try if they don’t have the resources to hire a professional and I also direct them to quality products and recommendations on where they can buy them online or at local retailers. The internet is a wealth of information and a motivated parent should be encouraged to seek out the info they need.

As a business we do donate to some very specific charities during the course of the year. We also offer a nice non-profit discount to other charities once our limit oif volunteer events is full. In 2010 we will again be donating in-kind services to various organizations and have just completed our first event, a post-holiday party with Bob Burke’s Kids, an organization that helps terminally ill children and their families in Sonoma County California. These kids are battling cancer and other serious illnesses: http://www.bobburkeskids.org/ the pink tiger and floral crown were done on teenage boys connected with the special Olympics. We were also blessed to paint several *fabulous* teens with Downs syndrome

This month we will also be doing a story telling/face painting presentation in honor of Martin Luther King JR. http://eventful.com/santarosa/events/martin-luther-king-jr-annual-birthday-/E0-001-027187243-7