Okay, here it is, my 3rd and final installment of “How Much Should I Charge for Face Painting?”. If you haven’t read part one or two, I really suggest you read those first and here it is: How Much Should I Charge for Face Painting?: Part 1 and How Much Should I Charge for Face Painting?: Part 2 Once you’ve read those parts, ask yourself these questions:
Was the event booked in advance or at the last minute?
Did they book you months in advance or the day before? If they left it till the last minute and you had to reschedule all your plans around it, its reasonable that you charge a little extra. You can set a time frame, let people know that if they want to book an event in less than three maybe four days that there will be an additional cost.
Will you be working per hour or per number of faces you paint?
If you know that there won’t be large crowds to keep you busy the whole time, try to get an agree on a rate per hour. If you’d usually charge $5 per face and can paint 10 faces in an hour, than charge $50 per hour.
Are you doing cheek art or full faces?
Some painters charge less for cheek art because its smaller and takes less time. But sometimes there are cheek art designs that take longer to paint than full face designs, so some painters charge the same amount. You might want to have a separate board for designs that you know will take a longer time to paint and charge more for those, regardless to whether its cheek art or full face.
How much are you in demand?
If you’ve got people lining up for more than half an hour to get their face painted…then you’re in demand baby! You can put your price up for anyone who joins the line after that.
If you want to start a face painting business…
“How to Start a Face Painting Business” Home Study Course!
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I am so glad you did topics on How much to charge. I have bee struggling with this question forever!! I think you hit the nail right on the head and it all makes sense. Thank you so much! I love this site and get so many helpful tips from you.
Thank you so much!
Christina
I agree. This is a troublesome question. I apprieciate all the advice it really helps you to consider all the steps it takes to pull an event off. Thank you so much. Your topics are a wonderful help.
I love the one stroke painting its Miraculous and it looks easy, I suppose there is a knack to it. Well Done. I love these pages. Good luck Nina
Thanks so much for these helpful suggestions! I have a first time festival gig coming up (they’re expecting 3-5 thousand people!) and it’s a wonderful opportunity for me to work and introduce myself. I purchased a booth, but I never thought about charging for face painting and balloon twisting! I ran to your blog in a hurry!! Thanks, again, girl!
How much do I charge is the universal question in this field, and it was well answered.Now i wish you can figure out how to get us some faces.Maybe faces made from plastic that can hold the face paint. i need about five to practice on
If you have the money you can go to Sally’s beauty supply and buy one of their manikin dolls. They have the life like one’s for hair cutting and makeup practice and then foam heads as well. If this is too expensive for you ($65) then try your arm, leg, paper plate, back of the hand, your own face as these are free and give the real deal for getting the feel for the paints and the skin. Let me know if any of this helps. I just sit around and practice on myself and my daughter and we love it.
I’m looking for books about cheek art – images……….
Hi Lois,
You can do several things for this. One is to check out Amazon.com and see what they have, see if any face painting websites sell down loadable ebooks, and or just type in pics of cheek face painting designs into your web browser and see what comes up, You can also type this into Utube because there are a lot of videos that show you how to do certain designs and they are free and only a few minutes. I found Face Paint Tips on Utube and I love their tutorials and my daughter loves the tiger face although she only wants an orange tiger instead of a blue or pink one.
How much are you in demand?
If you’ve got people lining up for more than half an hour to get their face painted…then you’re in demand baby! You can put your price up for anyone who joins the line after that.
Philadelphia — I always have this problem…so what does this last line mean?
I don’t follow.
Hi Kathy,
This means if you’re working at a festival or a public event and you’ve always got a tonne of people lining up and happily waiting for a long time, then you can definitely afford to put your prices up because there is a demand and they will be willing to pay more.
Some face painters will do this:
They have a long line of people waiting to get their faces painted so they decide to put their prices up for any new people who want to join the queue. If a person is already in the queue then you charge them the usual price, but any new people to join the line will get the higher price.
If you are going to do this, then you need to be clear about it and tell everyone in already in the line that they’re getting the usual price. And then put up the new (higher) prices on your sign so the new potential customers can see how much it is from now on.
I’ve been doing face and body painting since 1993 and have a sign board which reflects my desire to have something for every face and every budget. Although my sister face painters at renaissance festivals say I should charge more, I would rather be busy painting low-end designs than twiddling my thumbs (or painting on myself) waiting for patrons for more costly art.
I may sometimes get long lines, but they move quickly, and my booth, my fairy wagon, is rather intriguing and entertaining. I sing, offer small containers of bubbles to blow, and also have my other artwork (on gourds, rocks, & ocarinas).
One thing I find interesting is the fact that I tend to get tipped more on the higher-priced designs, and I also get tipped more just because my prices are affordable.
I certainly do not skimp on the materials I use and make a concentrated effort to have an enchanting booth or set-up.
I have to agree with Deborah I struggle with this for each event but keeping it affodable and doable for yourself is what matters. Parents will pull out money for $5 and below very easily. Also see what elese is being charged at the event if parents have to pay for alot of different things like games,ride tickets,food,ect.. they might not want to pay alot for your services. Absolutely put up a board with prices it helps extremely for any event even birthday partys just take off your prices. I also have noticed parents don’t want full face art. I have been looking into eye masks more and more check art I will see how it works out this summer.
thank you so much for this site i have just set up business as a face and body paint artist and this is a subject me and my husband always discuss as he feels i tend to under sell myself! this was very helpful! xx