Professional Practice: November 2014

Kitty Bliss Face Painting on Facebook

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Introduction 2011-2013

I began face painting four years ago. I was at a friend's child's birthday party with my four-year-old daughter and one of the other mums was face painting as a favour. She was overwhelmed and asked me to give her a hand. I went out and bought basic paints and three brushes and a small pack of sponges a few days later, I was hooked.

My first ever face painting job 2011

My first party was a few weeks later and after a few practice runs on my daughter; with whom the novelty has still not worn off (a good sign I reckon); I headed out to do my first job. I wanted to use it as a practice and the mum knew I hadn't done it before and she paid me £20 to put towards more materials. This year I have had to expand and triple the staff, equipment and materials, a little scary, but the first booking following my investment made enough profit to cover the cost of expansion. Very pleased and relieved, particularly as it proves it is viable.

Lechlade Music Festival 2015

21st Birthday UV clubbing face/body paint

Halloween Monsters' Ball School Disco (after party)

It was not something I had ever considered doing and I love it. It is immensely popular in recent years and I think this is for two reasons: one, that everyone has a camera these days, on their phones, and can immortalise their child's face before it is smudged off, and secondly, the great rise in Festival culture; and no festival is a festival without a face painter! Add that to parties, weddings, fairs and well, its a good time to be a face painter. And it appears that there are only a few really good ones, we are receiving bookings further and further afield, as far as Oxfordshire and have had enquiries for Nottingham and London.

Resident Face Painter, Play Farm, Cheltenham

Developing and Growing the Business 2014-2015

Our unique selling point, improvisation...never paint two faces the same. We make it clear that our book of designs is purely for inspiration, the client gets involved more this way too. It also means that the staff are not under pressure to produce an identical face every time, also giving them the freedom to be creative and discover strokes and lines and dots and patterns, we also say that we can paint anything on anyone and have yet to fail this challenge. Clients can Google and show us something they love and we can paint it, there and then always adding our own individual flare. We also work very fast, five-minutes a face. And an unexpected feature is the performance element...we position ourselves in such a way that the clients awaiting their turn; and this can be well over an hour sometimes, can watch the creations materialise before their very eyes, knowing that soon it will be them in the chair, and they love it. We have stopped apologising for the long wait, because the response was always the same, "no its fine, we love watching you work", even the youngest of children are fascinated and wait patiently; which mystifies the parents too.

I think the best things about face painting as a business for me are:

Work is on weekends and during school holidays leaving plenty of time for studying and my own illustration practice in between
My daughter can accompany me to most of the jobs, meaning that I do not have to pay or leave her with childminders and baby-sitters
I get to be creative every day, even on weekends
I have found a business which supports my new career as an illustrator and animator
I get to go to parties/weddings/festivals/fairs all the time
I can be my own boss
Working creatively in a team, a healthy balance with the potential isolation often experienced by illustrators

Branding

Something I have always been aware of is the importance of a strong brand image for a business. It is important for instilling confidence in the client about your level of professionalism and the quality of your product, and of course your product and delivery must live up to this perceived value otherwise you will soon lose face. I believe that face painting and peoples love of it stems from a desire to pretend to be something else, role-playing. Children and adults alike love fancy dress and changing the face dramatically is a part of this game, being something different, exotic, scary, extraordinary even if just for one day is so much fun. I decided to associate this sensation with the circus, in the old-fashioned sense, mystery and wonder, the colours of the old wagons and the ornate lettering are what inspired me. I am very fortunate that one of my dearest friends, as well as being a very talented painter, is a traditional sign writer, Roger Matthews. I first hired him to paint all the signs and blackboards for my restaurant over ten years ago and we have been friends ever since. He has always been able to bring my ideas for signage to life and continues to do so. He has also promise that one day (when I have time!) he will teach me how to sign write too.

Social Media and Advertising

I decided that rather than duplicate information here, I would provide a link to my Facebook page: Kitty Bliss Face Painting which I update regularly to promote my business.

Practice for full body art design for
Wearable Art competition, Painswick

I have free adverts on two social media sites specifically for families with children, Mumsnet and Netmums (click on the link to see my ads). I update my details from time to time, but these are quite simple ads and very effective, around a third of my enquiries come from these sites. I get around 20% via my Facebook page. But most of my enquiries and the majority of my live bookings come from people seeing me and the team in action at an event or through recommendation. So I am my own best advert. Also, about 95% of recurrent events book us again each year, which is fantastic because I am getting bookings a year in advance.

I tried using the boost features on Facebook to spread the word, and whilst the posts I chose to boost did get viewed by over 1,000 people and it was very cheap to do (£5 a time), I think that the return was not worth the tiny investment.

What I do need to do is build a website for my business. Of this I am acutely aware. Prior to this though, I need to train up some more painters. The two lovely dedicated contractors, Dan and Addy, I work with are fantastic, there's simply not enough of them. I have recently started using another lady, Sarah, (who has her own transport, which is handy). And I have trained a new guy, Chris more recently and there is another chap, Rhys, who has expressed an interest in learning the art form. That said, once I know that I have the manpower then I will go ahead and build a website, as I am already turning work down because I cannot cover it at the moment. Which, of course, is marvellous!

Festival Faces

Tax returns and the like

I've just completed my online application to register for Self Assessment. Little nerve-wracking, I have been self employed before, but I hired an accountant to do this bit. I am determined to figure it out on my own this time around, how hard can it be? I think my fear is unfounded and I just have to give it a go. It takes one week for them to confirm acceptance of the application.

I did actually start face painting two years ago and have back dated the start date of the business to reflect this, I'm hoping I don't get fined (?!?!) for a, (technically), late tax return...

Update: I spoke to a lady from HMRC and explained all of the above and she said it was OK and that I should register the business officially from April 2013. Which I have and have now completed my first dreaded tax return.

March 2015

I did it! Woohoo! My first tax return, all by myself, as an artist!

In a previous life I owned an organic restaurant/bar/art gallery/music venue and had a wonderful accountant who managed the hellish task.

And you know, it wasn't all that difficult, I realised that the majority of it wasn't relevant to me anyway, and I think that was the baffling thing about before??

Sadly, I do owe some money, but not from my profits as an artist, not yet anyway...

Update July 27th 2015

I also qualify for working tax credits and child tax credits which means I now have to complete my book keeping in July (rather than October!!!), but the good thing is its done now! And I have learned to keep everything pretty much in good order, so it was reasonable straight forward. So glad its done now...