corporate face painting – Body Painting by Cat

Revamping my Face Paint Kitbox Part 2 – recovering my CraftnGo with new vinyl.

March 10, 2019March 10, 2019 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Body Paint, corporate face painting, Face Paint Tips & tricks, Face Paint training

As stated in the previous blog “Revamping-my-face-paint-kit-again-craft-n-go-part-1”, I’ve tried many variations of how to carry and use/ display my kit over the last 20 years.

Since 2016 I have stayed with theCraftNGo. I work, teach, demo and judge at events all over the EU and further, in public & in the face & body art and beauty industry, as well as at festivals, so have seen many variations of kit boxes over the years and think this is the best& toughest available just now for free-lance face-painters.

Makeup artists who face paint face different environments mostly so don’t bite my head off, I’ve just seen too many of the fancy makeup rolling stations suffer on rough ground and outside bookings to want one. And tough/ portable as the lovely Zuca bags are, at that price I don’t want to waste time pulling out lots of wee bags of paint to still then need a table and to have to set it all out.

I originally covered the inner grey metal base plates with sticky back black vinyl, which I have done with many kits, etc, as it looks smarter and stains less. I do a lot of clubs, adult events and corporate gigs, and they usually ask for a plain black setup.

However as the inner lid had had mirrors etc magnetized onto it, I had never covered it in vinyl, and after several years of constant use, it had stains that wouldn’t come off. The vinyl was a bit nicked and stained too, so I peeled it all off easily and got ready to start again.

I have loads of ‘nice’ craft vinyls I use in my Cricut for art projects and other bookings – my current fave is this stunning holographic pearl in all its shades which I often sell as a laptop decal (not this design, this was my test with a non-original pattern). But I know how easily that scratches and wanted tougher, cheaper, larger sheets for this.

I’ve still a large roll of the black gloss vinyl but fancied a change, so searched on ebay. LOADS of options! I went for a 3 for 2 offer on glitter gloss vinyl, 610 mm x1 meters each, which worked out at £10 a roll including some new squeegees. It is cheaper if you buy a big bulk roll as I did for the black gloss (still loads left and its done about 4 kits plus assorted signs) but I wanted to see these in real life first. You can get cheaper but I wanted it fast as I have bookings I need to use my kit at.

I went for black, silver and green holographic glitter, incase I went green as I mainly work for Paintopia when not on my own bookings and thats the Paintopia green.

I decided I liked the black for the base plates which see the most use, and the silver best in the lid as it would reflect light onto the paint, helpful in darker bookings even when I have my lights etc.

If you ever had to cover school books in clear sticky back plastic (aka Fablon) this is the same idea.

Sorry for the wibbly videos & lack of proper time-lapse, our builder stacked giant mirror sliding doors in front of my cupboard so I can’t get my tripod out atm.

And now for that a wee bit slower!

1 – Draw around each bit you want covered, leaving a 1 inch at least wider border when you cut it out. The back of the carrier sheet is usually gridded papery stuff so easy to cut out/ draw on.

2 – Make sure your metal plate is clean. You can either do this dry if you are used to it/ its an easy flat shape, or drip or spray a little water or weak soapy water onto the metal. This means you can slide the vinyl around a bit so it is easier.

3 – If you have it, put a spare non-stick surface under the metal sheet so the overhanging edges of what you are adding won’t stick to your table. (Makes it all more awkward). Place your cut bit vinyl side up over the metal plate, making sure it is centred.

4 – Starting at 1 corner or edge, peel a little of the backing off the vinyl to stick it to the metal. Hold that corner of metal & vinyl and make sure the peeled off backing is rolling off the other side. Start slowly, methodically, pushing at the ‘join’ where the rest of the sheet is meeting the metal. It sort of slowly peels/ forces itself off and unrolls onto the metal, hard to describe!

I used my hand, a soft cloth or a soft edged squeegee so as not to scratch the vinyl for this.

5 – Inspect. Even if you haven’t used the wet application method you can sometimes unstick and reposition the vinyl to get rid of any air bubbles, but squeegee as many out as you can. Or make a TINY prick in the middle of each bubble to release the air, and flatten.

6- Flip over to the back of your metal plate, you should have a nice edge border of sticky silvery vinyl showing. Cut 45 degree angles at any bends and then lots of strips around curves/ bends.

7 – Pulling towards the centre of the metal, pull the longer flatter flaps along straight edges tight to the edge and stick down. Repeat with all the wee corner strips.

8 – If, unlike me, you need both sides covered, cut another sheet of vinyl exactly to the size of the metal (or lightly smaller – the central strip that holds the metal plates in place will catch and push any open edges), and stick down on the ‘back’ using the same method. Glossy plain vinyl really shows any imperfections under it, so you may want to trip your stuck -over edges neatly if you do that.

The lid is harder so definitely wet application method! (I do all my car decals this way). Measure and cut a sheet of vinyl a good few inches larger than needed.

Spray the inside of the lid, peel and stick 1 corner or the top edge (leaving overlap where you started), and squeegee diagonally.

When happy with positioning, get rid of any bubbles (none this time, yay).

Push the vinyl as close into all edges and corner as you can, it will ‘frill’.

Using a sharp craft knife, make little cut in the frill down to the edge / corner of the inner lid. Sort of like the hospital corners on the boards wrapping. This will let the ‘frill’ relax so you can flatten it to the sides of the lid.

Using a sharp knife trim the flattened ‘frill’ neatly or even just cur around the inner lid board. I left a bit of an edge as theres glue etc caught in the seams I could see from earlier incarnations of my craft n go kit.

That is as far as I have got so far. I’m waiting on new clamshell paint holder inserts (I sold my old ones a few years back), and a flexible LED light strip and El-wire this time, as they are all much cheaper now.

My brushes are currently usually stuck onto the lid with magnets on their handles but I want to change that. I’ve tried brush stands, brush bars, foam , etc and not been completely happy with anything over the years. So I’m trialling the sticky pad brush holders from Real Techniques.

They have those ‘magic’ sticky pads, allegedly clinging to any smooth clean surface once left to cure for 24 hours. The long grey multi brush holder has held on full of brushes so far (will have to see if it can stand them being pulled on and off at a gig), but the hideous pink pocket one fell off with 2 brushes in it after a few hours so I’ll be complaining about that…

PRIDE London eco glitter face & body art

January 31, 2019January 31, 2019 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Clubbing, corporate face painting, Face Painting, festival face painting, Glitter Tattoos, Uncategorized

This was a lovely booking from @beyondrepair dance company. Their client had booked the roof terrace and 2nd floor of Jamie’s Italian in London Piccadilly for their own pride/ football party above the crowds.

It is actually now faster AND easier for me to get into central London from Bath Spa (my nearest train station then) than it was when I lived ‘in’ London!

I knew Pride In London and other events on that day would mean public transport would be awful, especially with my full kit box and tall makeup chair, so I took along my trusty wheeled trolley wagon.

As expected my nice taxi driver had to drop my about half way to Piccadilly, and leave me amongst the millionaires clothes shopping in New Bond Street (its the world’s most expensive shopping street, FYI) to tow my kit to the restaurant. As I was in full homemade rainbow outfit (I’ll do a blog on that) I didn’t fit in well…

All was going well until I realised I still had to cross Regent Street… which meant crossing the parade! It took about 30 minutes to get to the front of the crowd at one of the designated crossing points, and a bit longer until a gap in the parade allowed myself and some late wedding guests to dash over.

I was set up in a lovely corner looking down 1 street to the Pride crowds, and the other street to crowds watching the important football match on giant screens.

The clients were fab, sadly though they offered me some of the lovely food they were all grazing on I was too busy from start to finish to stop and eat! Some had already been DIY face painting with a rainbow stripe stick.

These designs were all freehand or using the #cutbycat stencils available from my own shop and PaintopiaBodyArtSupplies

I finished my shift and started heading back to the station; as before no taxis and still some crowds and the tail end of the Pride parade to negotiate – all very colourful! I got some Churros as my treat whilst waiting for the train home.

Easter Face Paints & Cancer Charity face painting for Tesco

April 10, 2017January 31, 2019 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in corporate face painting, Face Paint Tips & tricks, Face Painting, Uncategorized

This was a lovely booking, over 2 different weekends for Mel’s face paint company.

We were set up (Claudia and myself) in the foyer of Poole Tesco, with 2 other ladies doing related crafts beside us.

It was sometimes a bit difficult to encourage customers to stop and be painted (for donations into the cancer charity bucket) but everyone that did was lovely.

And the staff really joined in.

Training holiday staff at Butlins to face paint

April 10, 2017January 31, 2019 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in corporate face painting, Demo/ Workshop Bodypaint, Face Paint Tips & tricks, Face Paint training, Face Painting

I have just had my annual trip up to sunny Skegness to train, refresh and enthuse their holiday entertainment staff in the art of face & bodypainting.

As usual the chalet I stayed overnight in – a flat really – was lovely, I have been in a different style/ zone each trip. (I also did the glitter weekend here for a Rave Weekender in the winter so have tried them all now).

This time we did our workshop in the rather luxurious spa which was cosy, warm and bright despite the changing weather. Although sea gulls fighting on the glass roof was a bit noisy and definitely odd to see from below!

On my advice they have added a large selection of stencils from Illusion Magazine Shop to their kits, as well as Cameleon petal brushes and some other professional essentials from the Paintopia Shop.

Their manager is impressed with how their skills have built since I started training with them so do pop in if you are there on holiday and let the ladies decorate you!

Glitter Eyes in Bath Southgate Shopping Mall – Walkabout Face Painting Kit for Student Night

November 3, 2016November 8, 2016 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Body Paint, Clubbing, corporate face painting, Face Paint Tips & tricks, Face Painting, festival face painting

This was an unusual booking; the client wanted ‘walkabout’ mobile painting at an outdoor event in Bath’s Southgate Shopping Mall.

I did a few mobile gigs when I lived in Hong Kong about 11 years ago, walking up to decorate guests at dinner tables or around in bars, and they never seemed as successful (to me) as when I have my kit set up on a table with a tall client chair. But I have done a few since then, so it can be done, but I had a think on a new kit setup…

I used to have the Snazaroo walkabout ‘ kit wheel’ which you gripped in one hand, but found that too heavy and cumbersome. Plus you really need both hands free, one to work, one to steady/ rest on the customer as standing people are even more likely to wibble about than seated!

So, I created a walkabout kit that fitted into an old face paint bag I converted into an apron, with a few extra bits. Not the most stylish but handsfree and pretty comfy apart from when I dropped it all at one point! I’ll tweak it a bit before the next booking as some things I ordered to make it didn’t arrive in time…

Basically its 2 of the magnetic panels I use in my face paint kit, taped together, taped onto 2 of the Ikea pots I sometimes use as brush holders which fitted tightly into the ‘apron’ pocket.

The paints (mainly one strokes and mini black, white & skin tones) I already have with magnets on their bottoms, so they sat nicely on the panels. The new Pixie gels I’d decanted into bottles that sat tip down in a nail varnish holder inside one of the Ikea pots, with space for brushes in the middle. A bag of sponges, a ring of stencils (I didn’t use either in the end) and a facecloth clipped onto the apron and my water spray & glitter were in a side pocket.

Helen’s red snazaroo wheel & my kit as we warmed up hands with hot mochas before the start!

I’d got the lovely Helen hired too, (she ended up with a tired arm from her Snazaroo wheel) so we arrived to find that it was outside and a bit chilly… a special Student Shopping Night promo in the Southgate Shopping Precinct. Its funny as I do lots of student club body art/ face painting bookings but sober, ready-to-shop students were very different! We started by working down the huge entry queue and did eventually have our own little queues going.

I stuck to using the new Pixie Cosmetic glitter gels around simple eye abstract or flowers as that is what most people wanted. All the stencils and extra paints I had squeezed in were not needed! Various acts and stalls were set up and the Scare crew from Avon Valley Wildlife & Adventure Park kept making clients jump, but we wanted to follow around their evil clown as he had a real flamethrower which was cosy!

The kit worked reasonably well but I need to re-think the brush holder being under the paints – my fingers got horribly messy as I kept having to grab the brushes by their painty tips to reach them. I have an idea for a brush holder for next time…

Not many photos as we were so busy & it was dark, but an interesting evening!

Isle Of Wight Festival British Airways Bodypaint

June 26, 2016July 28, 2016 by BodypaintingbyCat, posted in Body Paint, Clubbing, corporate face painting, evening Ball Entertainment, festival face painting, Uncategorized

I was delighted when TRO, a great PR/ Experiential company I have worked with before (they hire me to paint for a week most springs at a Volvo stand at the Camping & Caravanning expo) contacted me about working for them at the Isle Of Wight Festival.

My lovely friend Jennie Roberts of Paintopia was hired to come as the 2nd artist. That was fabulous as we have hardly seen each other in months, even when at the same events, as I’m always painting and she’s hosting, etc.

The months before, with Paintopia, then IMATS and several other big events, was so busy I hadn’t really looked closely at the booking details until we had met up in Southampton to get on the IOW ferry on Thursday evening. Expecting a B&B or whatever as there weren’t many big hotels, (we knew it wasn’t a tent behind the festival stand), imagine our shock & delight when we drove down to the south of the island, up the longest private drive ever, to see we were staying in a mansion!

We didn’t need the travel kettle Jennie had packed for late night cups of tea at all – fully equipped kitchen, games room, gym, TV room, dining, sitting and play rooms…. Amazing! We met a few of the TRO & BA Staff, and a couple of the DJs, before heading off to bed quite late.

The next morning we got some more directions and headed back to the north of the island, calling in at a supermarket on the way to buy some snacks and lunch to have onsite. Sadly the rest of the crew were held up (taxis didn’t arrive) and couldn’t meet us with the electric golf cart at the staff parking, so we ended up having to haul our gear, including hot and wet weather gear, just in case, for a good 30 minutes. Very thankful we had our trolleys! We passed various parking areas, camp sites, tepee and yurt glamping zones, tent areas and then finally into the festival itself. It all seemed very clean and tidy and I loved that they had sniffer dogs on duty. Thank goodness it was dry – dust I can stand, it would have been impossible in thick mud like Download Fest had that same weekend!

Another 10+ minutes of trekking through the various festival zones and we finally found the huge, intriguing British Airways Arena tent. All you could see was a check-in desk with a queuing system in place, just like in an airport.

The idea was that at the desks, after being asked by real BA air hostesses where you were going and getting a special luggage-tag wristband, you crawled though the luggage carousel and entered a party. A uniformed customs official (a dancer) put you in the body scanner, activated by your wrist band, which took infra-red style photos and videos you could download later, then you walked in through the departures board to see a DJ on top of a pile of suitcases, surrounded by fun free activities.

There was a speakeasy bar where answering destination riddles won a cocktail from that city. A spin-to-win board where prizes ranged from blow-up airplanes to free flights to CapeTown. A ‘selfie’ fuselage, Caribbean massages, a ski-lift photo booth again with downloadable videos & pics & props, and beside that, a Bedouin tent from Marrakesh with free face & body art inside by Jennie & myself.

We had been given lovely kaftan tops to wear, which whilst nice and colourful & cool in the heat, were white… not always the best choice for face painters though!

All with real flight crew in uniform, and a bunch of amazing dancers who constantly changed costume to match different Gatwick BA destinations. It seemed risky – no advertising, nothing to be seen but the check in desk but we loved it.

On Friday we took part in the ‘flight parade’ to drum up interest. All the glam air crew in matching Union Jack Hunter wellies and uniform, guided by all the dancers in ground-crew jumpsuits & high-vis with glowing plane-directing paddles, were walking in formation through the festival handing out some tickets.

Jennie & I were supposed to be quickly painting things on interested people as we passed. We soon realised that even just a stencil & puff of glitter put us miles behind the crew, so were always madly stencilling, glittering then running to catch up. Back to the arena tent and we opened at 4.

The idea was to reward the curious, and oh my goodness did we! The music was fab, we were jigging away as we painted, and the noise when someone won a set of international flights was insane. Jenn and I were flat out, sticking to 3-minute-or-less fast designs, chatting to everyone we painted and asking them to take a selfie, and they all thought the whole thing was amazing.

We were supposed to be painting to match BA destinations, but as they fly everywhere we could and did do just about anything.

Day of the dead sugar skulls for South & Central America, USA stuff (inc film/ hero faces), jungle animals, tropical flowers, snowy things….

The staff finally managed to shut down our queue so we quickly packed away and stuffed kit behind the scenes so our tent area could be used by the public.

The aircrew and dancers still looked immaculate and were working away in a huge happy crowd. We went to find a very late tea, then walked to the far end of the festival to see the last few songs by the Stereophonics.

We were going to wait to see Faithless but were so tired we gave up and started the trek back to the car. We stopped to buy churros- I love them – and for the 1st time were shocked by the giant size of the helpings – we only finished 1 portion, they are usually smaller & shorter! Faithless came on nearly an hour later when we got back to the car, exhausted, so I’m glad we didn’t hang about. As it was, by the time we’d got home, showered, cleaned brushes, stencils & sponges and got into bed, it was after 2 am! The rest of the staff started arriving then too.

Saturday morning we were quite stiff from the unusual working position – the bedouin cushions & settees had looked so nice we had put away our usual chairs for customers the day before, and we felt the difference! We breakfasted by the fish pond on the verandah (!) chatting to some of the crew, which was lovely, and had a short walk around the grounds. After debating getting a taxi in so we had less distance to walk now we didn’t have kit, we decided we might want to pack up after work tonight if we didn’t want to go back into the festival on Sunday. Realising all the bands started after our ferry left on Sunday, we had to do the long walk from staff parking again.

No flight parade this time, but word had got around, so there was an even longer queue to get in all day, as people returned or joined out of curiosity.

By the evening, staff removed one of the luggage crawl-ways so people could just walk in when tagged, which meant more were allowed in, and the party really kicked off.

They had to shut off entry to our facepainting queue a long time before we finished, but there was so much else to do people were OK with that. I also went round when we had cleared the queue with all the pre-glued bling I had made, and stuck that on people who hadn’t been painted.

The photo-booth people very kindly offered to drive myself & our kit back so they could see where to go when they had to pack at 1 a..m. so we trundled through the busy crowds at about 10pm.

By the time we returned to the BA Arena, Jennie & I went off for an amazing Thai takeaway whilst seeing a bit of The Who, after which she charmed some T-shirt sellers into a large discount on festival tops for us.

Then as we had promised, we returned to the BA tent to find the biggest party in full swing. There were even some Who fans we had painted the Who logo on there – they went to watch the band and after a couple of songs decided the BA tent was more fun so came back!!

We met the Dickson Brothers from Kiss FM who were lovely, (and huge heroes of Jennies eldest daughter), and the off-duty staff were all joining in too. We bounced around to their fantastic set with the public & staff until the brilliant ‘shut down‘ (click that for a vid clip) with air hostesses, DJ’s etc showing everyone the exits, emergency safety talk style, and had a lovely lock-in with the large crew for a while. Jennie was even allowed to try on a real air stewardess hat.

By the time we got home and into bed, 1 wee bird started singing. As I mentioned it to Jennie, the whole lot started… been a while since anything except the baby had me still up at dawn!

Anyway we visited my brother-in-law on the way back to the ferry, and filled up with coffee for our drives to different sides of the country.

A totally amazing 3 days… bookings like this are what makes the hard slog ones worthwhile. An amazing event with a brilliant team, we can’t say enough about how good the experience was and are so glad it was so well received, and got into the press.

http://www.reveal.co.uk/showbiz-celeb-gossip/news/a688333/isle-of-wight-festival-2016-our-10-highlights-from-an-amazing-weekend.html

As stated in the previous blog “Revamping-my-face-paint-kit-again-craft-n-go-part-1”, I’ve tried many variations of how to carry and use/ display my kit over the last 20 years.

I originally covered the inner grey metal base plates with sticky back black vinyl, which I have done with many kits, etc, as it looks smarter and stains less. I do a lot of clubs, adult events and corporate gigs, and they usually ask for a plain black setup.

However as the inner lid had had mirrors etc magnetized onto it, I had never covered it in vinyl, and after several years of constant use, it had stains that wouldn’t come off. The vinyl was a bit nicked and stained too, so I peeled it all off easily and got ready to start again.

I went for black, silver and green holographic glitter, incase I went green as I mainly work for Paintopia when not on my own bookings and thats the Paintopia green.

I decided I liked the black for the base plates which see the most use, and the silver best in the lid as it would reflect light onto the paint, helpful in darker bookings even when I have my lights etc.

If you ever had to cover school books in clear sticky back plastic (aka Fablon) this is the same idea.

Sorry for the wibbly videos & lack of proper time-lapse, our builder stacked giant mirror sliding doors in front of my cupboard so I can’t get my tripod out atm.

And now for that a wee bit slower!

1 – Draw around each bit you want covered, leaving a 1 inch at least wider border when you cut it out. The back of the carrier sheet is usually gridded papery stuff so easy to cut out/ draw on.

2 – Make sure your metal plate is clean. You can either do this dry if you are used to it/ its an easy flat shape, or drip or spray a little water or weak soapy water onto the metal. This means you can slide the vinyl around a bit so it is easier.

3 – If you have it, put a spare non-stick surface under the metal sheet so the overhanging edges of what you are adding won’t stick to your table. (Makes it all more awkward). Place your cut bit vinyl side up over the metal plate, making sure it is centred.

https://bodypaintingbycat.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/covering-craft-n-go-2-covering.51.mp4

I used my hand, a soft cloth or a soft edged squeegee so as not to scratch the vinyl for this.

5 – Inspect. Even if you haven’t used the wet application method you can sometimes unstick and reposition the vinyl to get rid of any air bubbles, but squeegee as many out as you can. Or make a TINY prick in the middle of each bubble to release the air, and flatten.

6- Flip over to the back of your metal plate, you should have a nice edge border of sticky silvery vinyl showing. Cut 45 degree angles at any bends and then lots of strips around curves/ bends.

7 – Pulling towards the centre of the metal, pull the longer flatter flaps along straight edges tight to the edge and stick down. Repeat with all the wee corner strips.

The lid is harder so definitely wet application method! (I do all my car decals this way). Measure and cut a sheet of vinyl a good few inches larger than needed.

Spray the inside of the lid, peel and stick 1 corner or the top edge (leaving overlap where you started), and squeegee diagonally.

When happy with positioning, get rid of any bubbles (none this time, yay).

Push the vinyl as close into all edges and corner as you can, it will ‘frill’.

Using a sharp craft knife, make little cut in the frill down to the edge / corner of the inner lid. Sort of like the hospital corners on the boards wrapping. This will let the ‘frill’ relax so you can flatten it to the sides of the lid.

Using a sharp knife trim the flattened ‘frill’ neatly or even just cur around the inner lid board. I left a bit of an edge as theres glue etc caught in the seams I could see from earlier incarnations of my craft n go kit.

That is as far as I have got so far. I’m waiting on new clamshell paint holder inserts (I sold my old ones a few years back), and a flexible LED light strip and El-wire this time, as they are all much cheaper now.

My brushes are currently usually stuck onto the lid with magnets on their handles but I want to change that. I’ve tried brush stands, brush bars, foam , etc and not been completely happy with anything over the years. So I’m trialling the sticky pad brush holders from Real Techniques.

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This was a lovely booking, over 2 different weekends for Mel’s face paint company.

We were set up (Claudia and myself) in the foyer of Poole Tesco, with 2 other ladies doing related crafts beside us.

It was sometimes a bit difficult to encourage customers to stop and be painted (for donations into the cancer charity bucket) but everyone that did was lovely.

And the staff really joined in.

Share this:

Like this:

I have just had my annual trip up to sunny Skegness to train, refresh and enthuse their holiday entertainment staff in the art of face & bodypainting.

As usual the chalet I stayed overnight in – a flat really – was lovely, I have been in a different style/ zone each trip. (I also did the glitter weekend here for a Rave Weekender in the winter so have tried them all now).

This time we did our workshop in the rather luxurious spa which was cosy, warm and bright despite the changing weather. Although sea gulls fighting on the glass roof was a bit noisy and definitely odd to see from below!

On my advice they have added a large selection of stencils from Illusion Magazine Shop to their kits, as well as Cameleon petal brushes and some other professional essentials from the Paintopia Shop.

Their manager is impressed with how their skills have built since I started training with them so do pop in if you are there on holiday and let the ladies decorate you!

Share this:

Like this:

This was an unusual booking; the client wanted ‘walkabout’ mobile painting at an outdoor event in Bath’s Southgate Shopping Mall.

I used to have the Snazaroo walkabout ‘ kit wheel’ which you gripped in one hand, but found that too heavy and cumbersome. Plus you really need both hands free, one to work, one to steady/ rest on the customer as standing people are even more likely to wibble about than seated!

Basically its 2 of the magnetic panels I use in my face paint kit, taped together, taped onto 2 of the Ikea pots I sometimes use as brush holders which fitted tightly into the ‘apron’ pocket.

The kit worked reasonably well but I need to re-think the brush holder being under the paints – my fingers got horribly messy as I kept having to grab the brushes by their painty tips to reach them. I have an idea for a brush holder for next time…

Not many photos as we were so busy & it was dark, but an interesting evening!

Share this:

Like this:

I was delighted when TRO, a great PR/ Experiential company I have worked with before (they hire me to paint for a week most springs at a Volvo stand at the Camping & Caravanning expo) contacted me about working for them at the Isle Of Wight Festival.

My lovely friend Jennie Roberts of Paintopia was hired to come as the 2nd artist. That was fabulous as we have hardly seen each other in months, even when at the same events, as I’m always painting and she’s hosting, etc.

We didn’t need the travel kettle Jennie had packed for late night cups of tea at all – fully equipped kitchen, games room, gym, TV room, dining, sitting and play rooms…. Amazing! We met a few of the TRO & BA Staff, and a couple of the DJs, before heading off to bed quite late.

Another 10+ minutes of trekking through the various festival zones and we finally found the huge, intriguing British Airways Arena tent. All you could see was a check-in desk with a queuing system in place, just like in an airport.

We had been given lovely kaftan tops to wear, which whilst nice and colourful & cool in the heat, were white… not always the best choice for face painters though!

All with real flight crew in uniform, and a bunch of amazing dancers who constantly changed costume to match different Gatwick BA destinations. It seemed risky – no advertising, nothing to be seen but the check in desk but we loved it.

Jennie & I were supposed to be quickly painting things on interested people as we passed. We soon realised that even just a stencil & puff of glitter put us miles behind the crew, so were always madly stencilling, glittering then running to catch up. Back to the arena tent and we opened at 4.

We were supposed to be painting to match BA destinations, but as they fly everywhere we could and did do just about anything.

Day of the dead sugar skulls for South & Central America, USA stuff (inc film/ hero faces), jungle animals, tropical flowers, snowy things….

The staff finally managed to shut down our queue so we quickly packed away and stuffed kit behind the scenes so our tent area could be used by the public.

The aircrew and dancers still looked immaculate and were working away in a huge happy crowd. We went to find a very late tea, then walked to the far end of the festival to see the last few songs by the Stereophonics.

No flight parade this time, but word had got around, so there was an even longer queue to get in all day, as people returned or joined out of curiosity.

By the evening, staff removed one of the luggage crawl-ways so people could just walk in when tagged, which meant more were allowed in, and the party really kicked off.

They had to shut off entry to our facepainting queue a long time before we finished, but there was so much else to do people were OK with that. I also went round when we had cleared the queue with all the pre-glued bling I had made, and stuck that on people who hadn’t been painted.

The photo-booth people very kindly offered to drive myself & our kit back so they could see where to go when they had to pack at 1 a..m. so we trundled through the busy crowds at about 10pm.

By the time we returned to the BA Arena, Jennie & I went off for an amazing Thai takeaway whilst seeing a bit of The Who, after which she charmed some T-shirt sellers into a large discount on festival tops for us.

Then as we had promised, we returned to the BA tent to find the biggest party in full swing. There were even some Who fans we had painted the Who logo on there – they went to watch the band and after a couple of songs decided the BA tent was more fun so came back!!

By the time we got home and into bed, 1 wee bird started singing. As I mentioned it to Jennie, the whole lot started… been a while since anything except the baby had me still up at dawn!