Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

Dog Face Painting

Being on Facebook and surfing the Internet for inspiration, I see a lot of face painting pictures. Overall, I think it is the smile that sells the pictures more than the artwork. Kids who look happy and like they are enjoying things make the best pictures. I find it unfortunate that many kids don’t know how to smile. Honestly, I don’t know what the parents are doing, but they aren’t teaching their kids how to smile. Smiling isn’t about seeing all of your teeth. With acting, they say that a smile is in the eyes. Often, as face painters, we are rushed to move on to the next child, but when we do stop to take pictures, it is helpful if we can take good looking pictures of the kids with their face painted.

YouTube has a few videos that might help…

How to Smile Naturally for Photos

Tamron How-To Child Photography: Candid & Posed Natural Light Moments with Your Children

I created a ball balloon in November and have been taking pictures of the balloon each morning to see how quickly or slowly it deflates. The following sequence of pictures were taken about once every five days for a period of three months.

Balloon Ball - Day 1

Balloon Ball - 3 Months Later

Are you on facebook? I know a lot of people who for one reason or another are not on facebook. I joined several years ago when I was hosting foreign exchange students. At the time, it was one way for me to monitor their online activities. Since then, I have found hundreds of friends on facebook. Some are classmates from elementary or high school, some are family, some are current or former co-workers, but at least half are entertainers.

In my opinion, there are more reasons to join facebook than to avoid facebook. For one thing, facebook is a great way to share news and pictures with friends and family.

Like all users on facebook, I have a personal page where I can post pictures and updates. I can use that page to identify family and friends, like other pages, and interact with groups. I also have a page for my work as an entertainer. I post pictures from my events, messages about where I will be next, and can have both friends and customers like me. I have a few groups on facebook for my clown alley and jam groups. With these groups, our members can share pictures, event updates, and other news.

Watching other people on facebook, I have come to realize that one must use some caution. I know several people who mix there personal interests (politics, religion, etc.) and their professional interests. I don’t think they always realize that their jokes and comments can be seen not only by their friends but also their customers. Sometimes, I think that if I was their customer, I would stop doing business with them based on their facebook comments and complaints.

If you are NOT on facebook yet, I suggest you get an account. If you are on facebook, I suggest you evaluate your profile and determine if you need to further separate your personal page from your business identity. Also, I suggest that you think twice before positing a comment that others may find offensive.

I know that I am not the best balloon twister out there. I have a good collection of balloons that I know how to make and can usually find something to satisfy a picky child. I am lucky to live in an area with other, more experienced balloon twisters. I host a monthly jam and have the opportunity to see what the others like to make and to share some of the things that I like to make.

When I learn a new balloon, I need to practice and make it several times in order to really remember how it is done. Some balloons, I can remember the “gist” of how it is done, but forget the minor details. If I find something that I really like, I try to take a picture and then refer back to the picture to see how the balloon is supposed to look.

I learned how to make a ladybug at a convention last year. I have seen many variations of the ladybug balloon, but this one uses a red heart shaped balloon for the body/wings (black 260 for the legs, red heart for the head/wings, 5″ round white for the eyes, and a scrap for the antenna). Most of the other ladybug designs I have learned use the tail of the balloon used for the legs as a strap on a bracelet, but this balloon uses it to hold the wings in place. It is easy to remember the gist of this balloon, and I had made it several times after learning this variation. It wasn’t until I returned to the picture of the original ladybug balloon that I realized that I had been missing the ear twist on the heart balloon to make the ladybug’s head. This is am important twist as it makes the heart shape a little smaller and easier for the strap to hold the wings in place.

The same thing happened when I first learned the turtle balloon. I remembered the gist of the design (green 260 for the head and legs, 5″ round white for the eyes, and a 5″ orange round for the shell) but forgot how the head looked. The first few times I tried to make the turtle, I had to refer back to the picture to get it right.

When you learn a new balloon, take a picture or two. If you have problems remembering how it was made, you will be glad you did.