Category: FOR ARTISTS

Posts aimed at fellow painters and entertainers

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2022 Year in Review

Happy new year!! I always love to look back on the previous year on new year’s day.

It’s SO hard to pick just one photo from each month, especially those summer months! But here are just a few highlights…

Window painting – My little covid pivot has really paid off this year, as I took on 4 brand new clients and got repeat work from my existing clients. Dunkin’ is definitely my biggest window client, and their locations grew from 4 to 6 stores this year, which now gives me about 24 painting jobs every year just from them! This year I did interior paint jobs, exterior, and vinyl!

The Glitter Glamper – The Glamper had a huge year!!! In May was our first year participating in the MN State Fair’s “Kickoff to Summer” over Memorial Day weekend. We were slammed for 5 days, and I believe this was the Glamper trailer’s foot in the door to landing our new fair location, as shortly after I was offered a huge, new space to park the trailer in August at the MN State Fair! In between the two, the Glamper set up camp at Interlachen Country Club (our 2nd year with the Glamper there) for the 4th of July, and we also set up at the Carver County Fair for 5 days in early August. This was the year I really got to see my Photoshopped renderings of this Glitter Glamper concept turn to reality!

Private Sessions – I love painting for private sessions! I don’t do a lot of them but when I do they are SO much fun. This year I got to paint Rachel’s belly for the 2nd time, this time with a super cute “Up” theme! I also had the opportunity to paint Diane to complete her jester costume for Halloween!

County Fair – This year’s Carver County fair was like no other! I was able to bring in the Glamper and set it up right outside the building where my face painting booth has always been, and bringing in some of my amazing team of artists to help, I was able to juggle two booths at once! I had SO much fun having friends with me (normally I work alone here), and my boys got a chance to run the cash registers too!

MY AMAZING TEAM! – In looking back at my year’s worth of hundreds of photos, my favorites are always those of the amazing artists and family members without who’s help I would most certainly NOT be able to pull ANY of this off! Thank you all for doing such amazing work in sometimes very challenging scenarios, but always with smiles on your faces! You all make my job SO much fun and I am SO INCREDIBLY thankful for each and every one of you! Here’s to many more adventures in 2023!

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Tuesday Tips @ 10: Balloon Apron Organization

Welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tips at Ten! Today’s tip is for balloon twisters, and I’m going to show you a cool little trick I recently came up with to help me know which balloons are in which little pocket on my apron! I’m always swapping out what’s in those pockets based on the event and theme, so I can never remember what is where. This trip keeps me from having to dig in all the pockets to find what I need!

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Step by Step Juggling Snowman!

The snowfall here in Minnesota the past couple of days has been MAGICAL! My favorite kind…the thick, fluffy kind that falls slowly like a snow globe and sticks to the branches, making everything look like a fairy land! Here are just a few pics I took in my yard:

Today felt like just the perfect photo backdrop for me to paint a little snowball juggling snowman idea that I drew in my sketchbook during my paint jam earlier this month!

Here’s a little time lapse tutorial!

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Introducing: Tuesday Tips at Ten!

If you follow me on social media, you’re already way ahead of me here! It just dawned on me that I have failed to include my blog in the locations where I’m now sharing tips every Tuesday! SO, I’m going to take this opportunity to introduce my new “thing” to my blog readers here and get you all caught up!

Basically, every Tuesday at 10:00 am central time, I am going to be sharing some sort of tip with you! It could be face paint related or something for other art forms like balloons, glitter tattoos, etc. It could be a business tip. Some might be mind blowing, some might be “well duh, I already knew that!” But my goal is to share as many tips as I can come up with, and I hope that at least a few of them help you out in some way! I’ll try to keep them roughly 2 minutes long, give or take, but it’ll depend on the tip of course. Quick and helpful is my goal!

I started on Tuesday, November 22nd so there are a few already out there. I’ll post them below! And from here on out, I’ll try to remember to post these here on the blog so you don’t miss any if you are a blog subscriber! You also should be able to find these on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

SO, watch, subscribe, and enjoy! Please do comment if you find any of these useful…it helps me to know if I’m sharing good stuff or not! 😉 And if YOU have a great tip to share, send it our way! I’d love to share your tips too, and of course give YOU credit!

Thanks so much and happy painting!

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Step-by-Step: Googly Ghost

Let’s have some more fun with googly eyes!!

Want to offer some googly eyes to your designs but don’t have a lot of them on hand? You can make them stretch twice as far by making your characters WINK! 😉

This little ghost is SUPER simple and only requires ONE googly eye!

Step 1:

Using a round brush loaded with your favorite blue (I’m using FAB Shimmery snow petrol!), outline the curves of your ghost, and then paint around that for a background.

Step 2:

Fade the edges of your blue background. I love to use my Cameleon large blending brush for this!

Step 3:

Add some stars! I’m using my Ooh! Star Flip stencil and a finger dauber loaded up with yellow. First I lay down the stencil and use a makeup remover wipe to wipe away the blue, then apply the yellow paint, and finally tap on some yellow glitter before removing the stencil. This gives me crisp, clear, bright yellow stars that are glittery only ON the stars!

Step 4:

Fill in the ghost with white. I’m using Wolfe white and a round brush. Add a little dimension with some light blue if you wish!

Step 5:

Clean away a spot where your google eye will go. I use mini daubers to do this but a wipe works too, or a clean brush. Using a small round brush loaded with black (I’m using Wolfe black), outline the design and add the mouth and winking eye. Add a little tongue if you like!

Step 6:

Adhere one googly eye with Pros-Aide II (it is easier to remove than the original Pros-Aide, which I reserve for glitter tattoos), and finish it off with some chunky glitter! I used Vivid Candy Cosmos up in the sky, and Amerikan Body Art Biosphere on the ghost.

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Step by Step: Google Eye Bat

I’ve been on a google eye kick lately! Here’s a fun bat design that uses “human-style” google eyes! These eyes have fun colored irises, as opposed to your typical google eyes with just a black “pupil.”

Step 1:

Load a 3/4″ angled or flat brush with a pink & purple split cake. I pulled the neon pink & purple from my Superior Sunset base blender. With purple on top, paint the outlines of the wings.

Step 2:

Use a fluffy brush to blend the pink down over the eyes, and feather the purple. I love using my Cameleon large blending brush for this!

Step 3:

Paint some pink for the insides of the ears. I left a couple little tears in the edges of his ears!

Step 4:

Add a little texture to the inside of the wings. I used my mini stencil kabuki brush and purple with a HAS 5701 stencil (from the “Alive” set) to create a little texture, and wrapped it around and under my eyes a bit.

Step 5:

Using your favorite round brush and black, paint the bat’s head, tuft of hair, and wings.

Step 6:

Using a small round black loaded with white, add a smile, fangs and highlights. I also used a halftone stencil to fade the head onto the bridge of my nose. Finish it off with google eyes applied with Pros-Aide II, and some fun chunky glitter! I used “Valley Girl” Pixie Paint!

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Step by Step: Google Eye Jack-o-Lantern

It’s OCTOBER! We face painters LOVE October for obvious reasons! I’ve been getting my usual flood of requests for painters at events this month and am doing my best to fill them, but if you happen to be looking for a face painter for YOUR event, make sure to plan ahead! We start booking Halloween events up to a YEAR in advance! So, if you think you may be having a Halloween party even next year, make a note in your calendar at least as early as June if you’d like to book the BEST before their schedules book up!

Now that my public service announcement is aside, I thought I’d share this fun and simple pumpkin design with you! I LOVE to play with google eyes, and they look especially fun when you mismatch the colors and/or sizes.

Step 1:

Load up a 1/2″ flat brush with a red/orange/yellow split cake. I used my TAG Dragon cake, and only loaded the yellow-to-red section. Paint the curved outer edges of your pumpkin, then repeat the strokes working your way towards the center. Make sure that you are consistent with which side is your shaded side (darker red) and lighter side (yellow) to get the best dimensional effect! I am assuming my light is coming from the upper right side here.

Step 2:

Use the lighter yellow corner of your brush to fill in the center area of the pumpkin.

Step 3:

Using a mini kabuki brush and an Ooh! fall leaf wrap stencil, surround your pumpkin with a variety of fall leaves! A mix of yellows, oranges, red and brown add some fun variety.

Step 4:

Load a small round brush with yellow and add a smiley mouth. I like to dab on a little yellow glitter here. Don’t worry about outlining teeth, you’ll whip those out in seconds in the next step!

Step 5:

For the teeth, just load a small 1/4″ flat brush with orange, and paint on three short strokes over the top of your mouth!

Step 6:

Outline the pumpkin with black and add a few highlights. I love Wolfe black and white for all of my outlines and highlights! Use a face wipe, Q-tip or clean dauber to remove paint on a couple spots where the eyes will stick. Apply some Pros-Aide II to these spots, and the back of your google eyes, let dry clear and stick. I use Pros-Aide II for gem clusters (original formula for glitter tattoos) because it is designed to break down easier for removal! Top. it all off with some sparkly Vivid Gleam glitter cream…I used “Trick-or-Treat!”Harvest!”

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Step by Step Easter Bunny Eye

The lake outside of my studio may still be frozen, but spring is technically here, haha! As I wait for those elusive 50 and 60 degree days in the extended forecast to reach me, I’ve decided to do a little Easter and springtime painting! Not only to get into the springy mood myself, but to warm myself up for my Easter gigs which start this weekend! In honor of spring’s inevitable return, today I wanted to share this simple little eye design…a bunny peeking around some eggs!

First, do a quick “sketch” outline of the eggs and bunny. I used a small, round brush with a little white.

Next, fill in the eggs with whatever springy colors and patterns you like! Try stripes, polka dots, zig zags, or just solid color! Experiment with metallic paints if you wish! I used my Cameleon small blending brush to blend the colors of the egg over to my eyelid.

With a round brush, fill in the white of the bunny. Add a few pink details inside the ears and the nose. I like to use a little light blue to add shading to white objects…it gives them a little dimension and a bit more color!

Outline the design with a fine, round brush and your favorite black. I like Wolfe black for my outlines. I also used some tiny dotters to add polka dots to my eggs here!

Add some fun flourishes around the design! I used my new Topaz Fleur Mirror eye stencil, combined with my Topaz Tiny Bubbles stencil. I then used a Deb’s Dotter to add a few more colorful dots to tie it all together.

I finished off the design with some “Capricorn” glitter creme by Amerikan Body Art…one of my favorites for the bright, cheery colors, and it blended perfectly with my colorful polka dots!

I have another fun Easter design that I will share soon, and hopefully some more as my schedule allows over the coming week! Stay tuned! Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy painting!