Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

I know that I am not the absolute best face painter or balloon twister, yet I often get parents and hosts tell me how much they or their guests loved my work. I don’t know how many times someone has told me that my work was so much better than the “Guy” they had at their office party or some other event.

While I realize that the correct response is, “Thank you.” I can’t help but think how many people I know who could have done better looking designs. I also know that from time to time, I have found myself working in an assembly line environment where I have to stick to the simple creations.

I have learned that making the child feel special is sometimes more important than the quality of my work. When a child asks for something that I don’t really know how to make, I can either suggest something else or give it a try. Sometimes, the child really would rather get a blob of a balloon they can pretend is what they wanted instead of getting a great looking balloon that isn’t what they really wanted.

I think this fact is lost in the many balloon and face painting competitions at the various conventions. A judge is looking for artistry, difficulty, balance, and other qualities of a design that show the skill of the artist. On the other hand, my customer, the 6 or 7 year old child who just asked for a balloon or their face painted will be using a different set of criteria to judge the results. I have seen judges at competitions score things lower because they didn’t know what the design was (think modern cultural items like Angry Birds) when a kid would instantly recognize the design.

I think it is easiest to impress people with your designs when they don’t have an easy way to compare things side by side with the designs from another entertainer. My goal is to always deliver my best designs and to continue learning and getting better. Some day, people may think of me when they say they know people who are better at making balloons or face painting. Until then, I need to accept the compliments and know that I am doing my job of making people happy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Balloon Twisting, Event, Face Painting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.