Every now and then, I have the rare opportunity to spend some time browsing the posts on the face painting forums, such as the Snazaroo forum or Cindy Trusty's Body Painting Forum. I saw a post this week that seemed relevant to a problem that many of us suffer from.
It happens all the time...You get someone on the phone who wants to hire you, but they want you to give them a discount. Sometimes it's a cultural thing, sometimes it's a bonafide budget issue, but sometimes it's just the nature of the person calling....they have to get a deal on everything. I don't know why these same people feel that it's okay to bargain with people in the face and body art industry, but they would never (I think) go into a hair salon and ask for a deal. Maybe salons suffer from the same problem too though. So you have to decide whether or not you want to give them a discount. Maybe you are desperate for work and need to do what's necessary to get the gig...but be sure to think of the repercussions of discounting your services.
#1 You are cheapening the value of what you do. You are a trained professional, you many put hours into your business besides just the hours at the actual gig, and not everyone can do what you do. You paid good money for the best and safest supplies and equipment available. You pay for marketing materials, advertising, and office supplies.
#2 The only "exposure" you get from these discounted gigs is when the organizer tells all their buddies that you're willing to discount your rates. And they expect you to give them a discounted rate the next time they call.
#3 You may end up having to turn down a client who would have paid you full price because you booked yourself to do the discounted event.
So what are you to do when someone asks you for a discount and you feel like they are simply not willing to pay the posted price for the services requested? It's been my experience that customers place more value on receiving something extra than they do on receiving a discount. Depending on the gig that you're proposing to do, perhaps you can explain to the client, "I'm sorry, but we can't discount our rates because it's unfair to our regular clients who pay full price, but I'll tell you what I can do for you..." Decide what you can afford to offer the client...and personalize it to their needs.
For example:
A mom organizing a birthday party with 8 kids may not need extra time from you, but maybe they would appreciate a CD with photos that you've taken of each child that you painted.
A mom calling for a batmitzvah may not be interested in any sort of party favors or photos, since they have already purchased party favors and hired a photographer, but maybe they would appreciate an extra half-hour of your time for free.
A non-profit event organizer would probably appreciate an offer to bring along a teenager who can quickly do little tattoos while you do the more elaborate face art.
A corporate event organizer would probably appreciate you offering to create a stencil of their logo and tattooing their staff 15-30 minutes before the event starts.
The key is that you want to be appreciated for what you're offering. You don't want the clients to think that you're anything less than professional and worth every dollar that you charge. You have to keep in mind, that while some industries suffer in this economy, luxury items and services usually do not suffer. And what we offer is a luxury service
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Book club: Who moved my cheese? by Spencer Johnson
Apparently Jenn's husband, Carlos, picks this book up whenever he sees it at secondhand bookstores and hands them out to friends. So, I received my copy from him maybe a month ago. It's a quick read; you can probably get through it in an evening. I think I put off reading it because I figured it was something aimed at those who work "regular" jobs with big companies that face downsizing. But the discussion section at the end of the book made me see how the lesson can actually be applied to many areas of life. I plan on reading this book out loud to my kids as part of their homeschooling.
The main story chronicles the lives of two mice and two little people who must navigate an enormous maze in order to find sustenance (cheese). At one point, they find what seems to be an unlimited supply of cheese and decide to get comfortable. Little do they realize that the cheese supply is dwindling, until one day it is all gone. The mice simply shrug and move on to find another source of cheese, but the little men struggle with whether they should risk the unknown to go out into the maze and find more cheese, or stay put and wait for someone to bring back their cheese.
I hear people say that the economy is failing and that we all should just tighten our belts and wait it out. But my sales have increased every year since I've been in business...and not just by a meager percentage. I'd like to think that I am this amazing business guru that always makes the right business moves, but I tend to think that my ADD keeps me from sitting still too long. I get bored doing the same thing every day and am always looking for new products and services. I've stepped out of my comfort zone of exhibiting at small face and body art conventions with 100-400 attendees to exhibit at huge hair and make-up shows with 10,000 - 50,000 attendees. Yes there's a greater financial risk, but the payoff has been huge.
But maybe you don't have the kind of funds available that would allow you to launch a costly advertising campaign or to buy all sorts of new equipment. What can you do that won't cost you a thing other than your time and brainpower? In this day and internet age, there are loads of free non-traditional advertising venues. And there are probably tons of markets that you haven't even tapped into because you've become comfortable with your own little market segment, whether it be in a salon or working private parties. When I start feeling like the business is getting stagnant and I need a creative boost, I like to pick up a motivational book (or six) and spend some time reading industry forums to see what everyone else is doing. If you've run out of ideas, keep in mind that you're never more than a few keystrokes away from someone else's great idea. A fellow colleague once said, "A good artist steals some things, a great artist steals everything."
The main story chronicles the lives of two mice and two little people who must navigate an enormous maze in order to find sustenance (cheese). At one point, they find what seems to be an unlimited supply of cheese and decide to get comfortable. Little do they realize that the cheese supply is dwindling, until one day it is all gone. The mice simply shrug and move on to find another source of cheese, but the little men struggle with whether they should risk the unknown to go out into the maze and find more cheese, or stay put and wait for someone to bring back their cheese.
I hear people say that the economy is failing and that we all should just tighten our belts and wait it out. But my sales have increased every year since I've been in business...and not just by a meager percentage. I'd like to think that I am this amazing business guru that always makes the right business moves, but I tend to think that my ADD keeps me from sitting still too long. I get bored doing the same thing every day and am always looking for new products and services. I've stepped out of my comfort zone of exhibiting at small face and body art conventions with 100-400 attendees to exhibit at huge hair and make-up shows with 10,000 - 50,000 attendees. Yes there's a greater financial risk, but the payoff has been huge.
But maybe you don't have the kind of funds available that would allow you to launch a costly advertising campaign or to buy all sorts of new equipment. What can you do that won't cost you a thing other than your time and brainpower? In this day and internet age, there are loads of free non-traditional advertising venues. And there are probably tons of markets that you haven't even tapped into because you've become comfortable with your own little market segment, whether it be in a salon or working private parties. When I start feeling like the business is getting stagnant and I need a creative boost, I like to pick up a motivational book (or six) and spend some time reading industry forums to see what everyone else is doing. If you've run out of ideas, keep in mind that you're never more than a few keystrokes away from someone else's great idea. A fellow colleague once said, "A good artist steals some things, a great artist steals everything."
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The art of competition
We just returned from a week in Calgary, Alberta where we attended Bodyssey, the Canadian face and body painting convention. After last year's event in Toronto, which was held in April, we were looking forward to a summer event. Much to our surprise, summer does not necessarily equal warm weather in Calgary. While we did not have to contend with snow and ice this time around, the outside temperatures were comparable to what we experience during a Florida winter. Fortunately, the convention kept us busy enough that we stayed indoors most of the time anyways.
This convention is one of the smaller conventions in the industry, but as far as conventions that are specific to face and body painting, I'd venture to say that it's the largest in Canada. And the best advantage to a small convention is the one-on-one time that you get with some of the top instructors in the industry. Some of my classes only had a handful of students. At bigger conventions, you'd have to pay upwards of $125 per class for that kind of personalized teaching. These small classes were included with your convention registration at Bodyssey. While the larger conventions have a lot to offer, smaller events can really pack a lot of value.
I was asked to judge the face painting and body painting competitions at Bodyssey. While I don't consider myself a professional body painter, I have competed a few times at the World Body Painting Festival in Austria. For me, competing was a way of forcing myself to try something new. I was being provided with a model, photographers, and a challenge. And no matter how many times I tell myself that I'm going to try to learn a new technique or a new design, it's not until I have a hard deadline that I actually go through with it. And since competitions don't come around every day, they can be a really great source of motivation to break out of your comfort zone.
Unfortunately, most competitions don't provide the artists with feedback that might help them with improving their work. This is mostly due to time constraints, but also due to not wanting to say anything that might discourage someone.
So as someone who has judged several compeitions, I thought it might be useful to some of you to know exactly what it is that the judges are looking for when they judge your work.
Linework
Trying to create a body painting masterpiece when you can't paint a straight line is like constructing a brick building with old crumbling bricks. No matter how great the overall composition, your art is going to look less polished and will give the impression that it was created by a beginner. When you first start painting, the bulk of your practicing should be simply painting lines over and over again.... straight lines, curved lines, lines on faces, teardrops, thin-to-thick lines, etc...
Basing and Blending
Creating a smooth base on a face takes a little practice. Creating a smooth base on a larger surface, like a body, takes a ton of practice. With so many different brands of make-up available, most artists have more than one brand in their kits, especially when you attend a convention and see a color that would be perfect for your competition piece. Each brand of make-up requires a different quantity of water to get smooth coverage. Some brands blend better than others, and some brands don't mix well with other brands. When you buy new make-up brands and colors, spend some time applying them to your legs or some other large surface so you know how to get the best results. If you don't have good results using a sponge for your base, try a large brush instead. Rubbing mica shimmer powder over your base can help smooth out your base as well.
Color choices
You're the artist and of course you want to choose the colors that you've envisioned when you designed the piece. But you also need to make sure that you've chosen colors that allow you to see what the piece is when someone is looking at it from 20 feet away. Too many times, I've seen body paintings that are done completely in pastels or completely in dark colors and you really can't tell what the design is until you get within a few feet of the model. You want to use colors that show a good amount of contrast and make your design more visible. Even when doing small body art applications like glitter tattoos, you can see that using lighter colors on dark skin and using darker colors on light skin makes the tattoos more visible.
Theme & Originality
If the competition has a theme, then adhering to the theme is going to be part of the scoring process. I think a lot of people decide what they want to paint and then try to reach for some vague connection to the theme. Once you know what the theme is, research the theme so you can find a unique aspect that the other competitors may not have thought of. The last face painting competition that I judged was themed, Dungeons and Dragons. Nearly all of the competitors painted dragons, so not a lot of points for originality. But one competitor had really researched dungeons and dragons and brought in elements that no other competitor had. Talk to your model about the work. In many competitions, the artist is not allowed to enter the judging area with the model, so you want to be sure that the model can answer any of the judges' questions.
Accessories and Embellishments
This may sound like a plug for Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling and Mica Powders (and it is), but when two works of art are at a similar skill and creativity level, the design that has a little bling added to it is going to stand out. I'm not necessarily saying that more is better....as all of us are aware that some face painters will use excessive glitter to cover up less-than-stellar face painting...but knowing where to highlight and accent your painting is important. Be careful that you are not relying on accessories to make the design. Most of the time (unless it is a special effects competition) we are told to exclude (or even subtract from the score) any items that are on the body other than make-up. One contestant that we judged was probably the best work as far as skill and overall impression, but when we excluded the costume and headpiece, we had to give a low score on the theme because without those elements, the painting was too abastract to look at and see the connection to the theme.
Pay attention to the rules
When there is a rule that the whole body (or face) needs to be covered, some artists panic and decide to just accept losing a few points rather than changing their design. When I decided to paint a model as a belly dancer, my workaround was to fill in the blank spots with a sheer pink/ bronze that added a little shimmer, but didn't detract from the outfit I had painted on. If you are painting a mask, you can use the same technique to be sure that the whole face is covered when that is part of the competition rules.
The biggest rule-breaking has to do with adding elements like prosthetics and costume pieces. Choose a design that can stand on its own without all the added fluff. Get your piece judged, and then you can add whatever elements you want to add so you can get great photos for your portfolio.
Many competitions are won by a fraction of a point. You don't want to lose points simply because you didn't understand the rules. If you have a question, ask one of the organizers before you get started.
Completion
It's usually pretty obvious when someone has a really detailed design on the upper part of the body and then hardly anything on the lower part of the body that they simply ran out of time. Body painting takes way longer than you think it would. Just completing the face (which is often a large portion of the score in body painting) can easily take upwards of an hour. If you are allowed to fix the hair and nails before the competion timing starts, definitely take advantage of that. If you have the opportunity, paint the entire design on a model prior to the competion. If you don't have access to a model, at least paint portions of the design and time yourself so you know how long it should take to complete the design. Decide ahead of time which design elements you will sacrifice if you run out of time.
If you are fortunate enough to enter a competition where you receive feedback from the judges, try not to take it personally when you receive negative feedback. Some of us artsy folks may be lacking in communication skills and tact...and to add to that, we're incredibly sensitive when someone critisizes us. Don't be afraid to put your stuff out there and each time you try something new, you're learning what works and what doesn't work and you'll do even better the next time. I tell my kids this a hundred times a day... You have to try and you have to keep practicing. You don't miraculously wake up one day and you're great at something. First you suck at it, but you keep trying and you keep getting better, and eventually you're great at it.
This convention is one of the smaller conventions in the industry, but as far as conventions that are specific to face and body painting, I'd venture to say that it's the largest in Canada. And the best advantage to a small convention is the one-on-one time that you get with some of the top instructors in the industry. Some of my classes only had a handful of students. At bigger conventions, you'd have to pay upwards of $125 per class for that kind of personalized teaching. These small classes were included with your convention registration at Bodyssey. While the larger conventions have a lot to offer, smaller events can really pack a lot of value.
I was asked to judge the face painting and body painting competitions at Bodyssey. While I don't consider myself a professional body painter, I have competed a few times at the World Body Painting Festival in Austria. For me, competing was a way of forcing myself to try something new. I was being provided with a model, photographers, and a challenge. And no matter how many times I tell myself that I'm going to try to learn a new technique or a new design, it's not until I have a hard deadline that I actually go through with it. And since competitions don't come around every day, they can be a really great source of motivation to break out of your comfort zone.
Unfortunately, most competitions don't provide the artists with feedback that might help them with improving their work. This is mostly due to time constraints, but also due to not wanting to say anything that might discourage someone.
So as someone who has judged several compeitions, I thought it might be useful to some of you to know exactly what it is that the judges are looking for when they judge your work.
Linework
Trying to create a body painting masterpiece when you can't paint a straight line is like constructing a brick building with old crumbling bricks. No matter how great the overall composition, your art is going to look less polished and will give the impression that it was created by a beginner. When you first start painting, the bulk of your practicing should be simply painting lines over and over again.... straight lines, curved lines, lines on faces, teardrops, thin-to-thick lines, etc...
Basing and Blending
Creating a smooth base on a face takes a little practice. Creating a smooth base on a larger surface, like a body, takes a ton of practice. With so many different brands of make-up available, most artists have more than one brand in their kits, especially when you attend a convention and see a color that would be perfect for your competition piece. Each brand of make-up requires a different quantity of water to get smooth coverage. Some brands blend better than others, and some brands don't mix well with other brands. When you buy new make-up brands and colors, spend some time applying them to your legs or some other large surface so you know how to get the best results. If you don't have good results using a sponge for your base, try a large brush instead. Rubbing mica shimmer powder over your base can help smooth out your base as well.
Color choices
You're the artist and of course you want to choose the colors that you've envisioned when you designed the piece. But you also need to make sure that you've chosen colors that allow you to see what the piece is when someone is looking at it from 20 feet away. Too many times, I've seen body paintings that are done completely in pastels or completely in dark colors and you really can't tell what the design is until you get within a few feet of the model. You want to use colors that show a good amount of contrast and make your design more visible. Even when doing small body art applications like glitter tattoos, you can see that using lighter colors on dark skin and using darker colors on light skin makes the tattoos more visible.
Theme & Originality
If the competition has a theme, then adhering to the theme is going to be part of the scoring process. I think a lot of people decide what they want to paint and then try to reach for some vague connection to the theme. Once you know what the theme is, research the theme so you can find a unique aspect that the other competitors may not have thought of. The last face painting competition that I judged was themed, Dungeons and Dragons. Nearly all of the competitors painted dragons, so not a lot of points for originality. But one competitor had really researched dungeons and dragons and brought in elements that no other competitor had. Talk to your model about the work. In many competitions, the artist is not allowed to enter the judging area with the model, so you want to be sure that the model can answer any of the judges' questions.
Accessories and Embellishments
This may sound like a plug for Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling and Mica Powders (and it is), but when two works of art are at a similar skill and creativity level, the design that has a little bling added to it is going to stand out. I'm not necessarily saying that more is better....as all of us are aware that some face painters will use excessive glitter to cover up less-than-stellar face painting...but knowing where to highlight and accent your painting is important. Be careful that you are not relying on accessories to make the design. Most of the time (unless it is a special effects competition) we are told to exclude (or even subtract from the score) any items that are on the body other than make-up. One contestant that we judged was probably the best work as far as skill and overall impression, but when we excluded the costume and headpiece, we had to give a low score on the theme because without those elements, the painting was too abastract to look at and see the connection to the theme.
Pay attention to the rules
When there is a rule that the whole body (or face) needs to be covered, some artists panic and decide to just accept losing a few points rather than changing their design. When I decided to paint a model as a belly dancer, my workaround was to fill in the blank spots with a sheer pink/ bronze that added a little shimmer, but didn't detract from the outfit I had painted on. If you are painting a mask, you can use the same technique to be sure that the whole face is covered when that is part of the competition rules.
The biggest rule-breaking has to do with adding elements like prosthetics and costume pieces. Choose a design that can stand on its own without all the added fluff. Get your piece judged, and then you can add whatever elements you want to add so you can get great photos for your portfolio.
Many competitions are won by a fraction of a point. You don't want to lose points simply because you didn't understand the rules. If you have a question, ask one of the organizers before you get started.
Completion
It's usually pretty obvious when someone has a really detailed design on the upper part of the body and then hardly anything on the lower part of the body that they simply ran out of time. Body painting takes way longer than you think it would. Just completing the face (which is often a large portion of the score in body painting) can easily take upwards of an hour. If you are allowed to fix the hair and nails before the competion timing starts, definitely take advantage of that. If you have the opportunity, paint the entire design on a model prior to the competion. If you don't have access to a model, at least paint portions of the design and time yourself so you know how long it should take to complete the design. Decide ahead of time which design elements you will sacrifice if you run out of time.
If you are fortunate enough to enter a competition where you receive feedback from the judges, try not to take it personally when you receive negative feedback. Some of us artsy folks may be lacking in communication skills and tact...and to add to that, we're incredibly sensitive when someone critisizes us. Don't be afraid to put your stuff out there and each time you try something new, you're learning what works and what doesn't work and you'll do even better the next time. I tell my kids this a hundred times a day... You have to try and you have to keep practicing. You don't miraculously wake up one day and you're great at something. First you suck at it, but you keep trying and you keep getting better, and eventually you're great at it.
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