by: Cynthia Kaloust

Face painting is the new rave in party entertainment. Over the past decade, face painting has gained popularity and become a more sophisticated art form. Event planners are receiving an increase in requests than previous years and having to find face painters to accommodate the demand. New technologies for developing skin safe paints with vibrant colors and glitters are propelling the industry by allowing face painters to create an immense array of amazing designs. As an emerging art form and entertainment form, new face painters are popping up everywhere.

Traditionally face painting was created for cultural meaningful events such as tribal wars, gatherings etc. In modern society, face painting has emerged in sporting events, theatre, and creative expression. Face painting is a fun and creative way for artists and their clients to express themselves. Children and adults enjoy the process. Expressing your inner personality through the artist can be exciting and fulfilling. Face painting allows you to escape, to transform, to venture into another aspect of yourself. Although this is unconscious, it explains the lure of face painting. Transforming yourself into a cat, lion, alien, rabbit, monster, and butterfly allows the painted to enhance themselves, to express themselves in a way they are not able to do by themselves.

Hiring a face painter for your event can be an excellent complement to other activities or by itself. People will enjoy watching the artist paint and others will enjoy looking at theresults. Hiring a talented artist will add flair to your party.Imagine a variety of creatures mingling within the party, adding entertainment and discussion topics. Its fun for everyone: those whose faces are painted and those who get to look at those whose faces are painted. If your event is a children's' party, it is a great form of entertainment. If you are having an adult event, face painting can be just as exciting. Artists can really get carried away with the creativity when working on adults.

There are many things to consider when hiring a face painter. First of all you want to hire someone you feel comfortable with.Ultimately this person will be face painting your children, family, friends and guests so make sure to speak with the face painter to get a feel for them. Look at their work. You want to hire someone appropriate for your event. If you are having a party with many small children, you want to hire someone who uses FDA approved face paint. In addition, you want to make sure they do cheek art and know how to work with small children. Small children (3 and under) have difficulty sitting for long periods of time, so cheek art is usually appropriate for them. If your party is for older kids who can sit for longer periods of time, make sure the face painter can accommodate larger face painting designs such as full face and half face masks. Thirdly, you want to make sure the face painter has experience. Check their references.

Ask the company how many faces per hour they can paint. Is it cheek art or full face art? Remember, the number of faces they paint per hour divided by the hourly rate is what you pay per face. At this point you will have to measure their art work with their hourly rate. Some face painters charge less, but their quality is low. Others charge more because they create a higher quality design. You will have to decide what is important to you. Remember, "You get what you pay for". This is always true. The ultimate goal at most events is that you want your guests to be entertained and want them to remember your event. If you keep this in mind when hiring you have a better chance of choosing the best face painter for your party.

You will want to hire someone that will entertain with their art and who will help make your event memorable. The only way a good face painter can do that is by making your guests feel good and creating an awesome face design that will leave everyone with lasting impressions.