Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

Superhero Face Painting at Disney World

Tiger Face Painting at the Zoo
The boy looked a little young but too tired to squirm.

SpiderMan at City of Belmont’s Kids Fest
It was interesting having the kid stand while getting his face painted.

Silly Heather from Silly Farm has 100 face painting tutorial videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/sillyheatherb

Spring Chick Face Painting Tutorial
Here’s a good design that’s perfect for Easter and Spring, a chick hatching out of it’s egg using rainbow cakes and floral designs.

2 Minute Bunny – Face Painting Tutorial
Here’s a quick tutorial on a fast bunny face painting design, just in time for Easter!

Christopher Agostino — Transformation Artist
http://thestorybehindthefaces.com/

Christopher Agostino has enjoyed a 30 year adventure in theater, storytelling, face and bodypainting. Trained in theater, theatrical makeup and graphic arts, he developed a technique for quickly transforming a human face in a unique mask-like style with bold designs that capture the essential quality of traditional body art.

He has brought this performance art onto the stage in the Transformations show, and has appeared before hundreds of audiences in schools, festivals and theaters with his original productions combining storytelling and painted faces.

Li Chi Slays the Dragon — a Transformation Tale by Christopher Agostino:

Before Cave Walls…The Transformation Lecture:

Two years ago, when I was finally ready to go from doing volunteer events to paid events, I knew I wanted to have liability insurance. It seemed like most of my friends had their insurance through the World Clown Association. They offer insurance as an additional option when paying the annual membership dues. It seemed like the easiest option. Although, the insurance is offered by the World Clown Association, I know a lot of non-clowns who do either balloons or face painting who join just for their insurance.

World Clown Membership and Insurance

If you get your insurance through the World Clown Association, their policy year ends on April 30th, 2012. It is time to renew your membership and pay for another year of insurance.

New Members – $40
Membership Renewal – $35
Liability Insurance – $139

They do offer Additional Insurance for a client who requests being added to your policy.

From their website:

Coverage: This is a Comprehensive General Liability Policy provided by an A-rated insurance company with coverage of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate per event.

Deductible: None The price remains the same regardless of number of months covered (The fee is NOT prorated) and includes Premium, Brokerage fee and Association handling fee.

Policy Exclusions: This program is designed for Clowns and Magicians.

The following types of performances are NOT ACCEPTABLE.

1. Hypnosis
2. Hot Air Balloon Events, Circuses (production), overnight camping Tractor pulls, Rodeo and roping events, motorized events, Mechanical amusement devices, inflatables, rock climb,Bounce Houses, laser tag, sky diving, competition racing.
3. Pyrotechnics, Explosives, Fireworks or similar materials except “concussion effects, “flashpots”, and “smokepots” (Flashboxes covered up to $5,000)
4. Production Management or Promotions Management for hire
5. Animals except performing dogs, doves and rabbits
6. Musicians and Disc Jockeys, except clowns/magicians who engage in these activities as part of their act
7. Copyright infringement exclusion (i.e. Barney, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny)
8. Throwing objects (juggling is acceptable)

Be sure to evaluate your insurance needs and pick the coverage that is right for you. If you hire employees or have special requirements, you may want to get a different policy. Other companies that offer insurance include:

Specialty Insurance Agency
http://www.specialtyinsuranceagency.com/

K&K Insurance Group
http://www.kandkinsurance.com/Entertainment/Pages/Entertainers-Performers.aspx

Cossio Insurance Agency
http://entertainerinsurance.com/

Silly Heather from Silly Farm has several videos on YouTube. Here are her new ones for St. Patrick’s Day.

Lucky Lady for St. Patrick’s Day

Lucky Dude – Shamrock Face Painting

See more of Heather’s videos at
http://www.youtube.com/user/sillyheatherb

Boy gets a Tiger face at Disney

Girl gets a butterfly face in a mall

Girl gets her face painted at the circus… along with an interview of the face painter.

Boy enjoying the dinosaur painted on his face

Terminator Face Painting by FancifulFaces

Robot Face Painting Tutorial by FacePaintify

Not into face painting? How about a robot balloon?

I like to dress like an entertainer. That probably means something different to everyone. I know some entertainers like to “dress up” and look formal with a suit and tie. Others like to wear colorful outfits. I definitely like to be colorful when I am at a casual event, and that includes my shoes. Several shoe companies let their customers design custom shoes. Some are just picking the team colors and others are creating a totally unique looking shoe.

I have several shoes from Converse. I initially decided to go with Converse because they seemed to have more options available. They have a variety of solid colors and prints available. The shoes really don’t cost more than regular shoes. Prices range from about $40-80 per pair plus shipping. A few times each year, the shoes go on sale.

Rainbow with Stars and Swirls

Pink Butterfly – I think the face painter in this video needs to work on her setup. Her paints seemed a little too far from the chair.

While at the Circus Magic Convention in Williamsburg, VA, I had the opportunity to take a few classes with Ken Stillman. Ken was a great teacher. I had been looking forward to learning some bigger/fancier balloons and that is exactly what I got.

Ken told us about his balloon website, Balloon Click, which has videos and downloads for balloon twisters. It is a membership-based website with two levels, free or paid members. I still need to take the time to properly check it out, but after meeting Ken, I expect it to be a valuable resource.