Currently, I’m busy developing my face painting portfolio. I must admit this is quite difficult for me since most of the photos of my past events have been wiped out after my old desktop drowned in the Ondoy floods two years ago. And I’m recruiting face painters too for weekend events so I could focus on marketing, and hopefully System Engineer Jobs when the biz has expanded. (LOL)

Kidding aside, this is what keeps me busy these days – trying to establish branding and the direction I would like this small business to take, one at a time.

A friend has always been telling me to go for it. Like make these crazy ideas happen instead of sitting on it like I did for the past year. Ideas, no matter how great, if remain unfilled, are nothing but a waste of brain energy. Right.

I might hire a professional website builder for this, for the same old reason that I don’t have much time. I have already checked on various templates and have spotted one that looks better – clean, fun and easy to manage from my end. It doesn’t really matter if it’s going to be another Joomla. I just need something I could start working on. I have to begin at something and let everything roll from there.

We provide face paint art training and competitive fees to talented artists. Please email a short bio of yourself and a scanned copy of any artwork you have to elyenita@hotmail.com.

Anyway, the malls even in this side of the world were packed with shoppers lining up payment counters and ATM booths for cash advance or withdrawal transactions. The weather outside was moderately cold. It’s beginning to feel and look a lot like Christmas.

My workstation

I’d like to thank AJ’s parents, Nick and Becca, for having us back last Sunday.

I usually do a lot of drawings and paintings before, either for a hobby, de-stressing myself, or a serious assignment. Aside from that are those extended service plan and services I recommend to other people. I can organize parties from family gatherings to concerts, conceptualize themes, mount up an entire production…I mean that’s how restless my mind can be.

If you need help in organizing yours, drop a note.

There’s my amateur attempt to create a puppy. It took a couple of twists and turns to form one. You can basically form other shapes easily. All you’d need is some dose of creativity and an incredible amount of patience. I think similar virtues apply to every discipline.

I’ll post photos I downloaded from my sd card soon. By the way, if you’re interested to learn how or having one in your party, let me know.

Kids waiting for their turn

My favorite sidekick, Olga, was down with flu so I tagged Hey Jude to accompany me in a face painting gig last week at Bel-Air Village in Makati City. It was my second time to do face painting in Bel-Air in a month. I was glad that my first client there, Becca and her husband Nick, both gracious to us, still has my number and forwarded it to their friend, Maya.

During Bel-Air parties, I did face painting and glitter tattooing both on kids and adults. Most kids would rather have cheek art or a glitter tattoo than have their full face painted. But as an artist, doing a full face paint is far more challenging and exciting. My schedule is free this Halloween. Drop a line or two should you need one.

Here are some photos. Just click on thumbnails to view larger images.

Summer in England means a lot to kids. The two-month break allows schoolchildren to go on a holiday outside England and come back to school with tons of stories to tell. While I was there, my niece spent hers playing with her baby sister at the lawn. Disneyland Paris was quite an expensive trip. Anyway, that girl has already toured the world since birth.

While moms kept themselves busy with chores, birthday parties and recipe books, sale and mall events were big at the towncentres. On this particular site at Edenwalk, weekends were filled with fun activities for children – from storytelling to face painting.

This was where I actually got the idea. My cousin somehow encouraged it. She bought me a set of color palettes to bring home to Manila.

I was able to squeeze in some time to be at Ryu’s birthday party in McDonalds SM Taytay more than a week ago. Ryu is Andrei’s son, and Andrei is my brother’s friend. The boy has just turned three.

During the party, I did face painting for kids and tried my glitter tattoo on adults. There were a dozen kids, including babies, who came in. It was fun, they loved their cheek arts and the adults their glitter tattoos.

Some mothers asked for my number. Come to think of it, this is a good source of extra income that could afford one to buy clothes, shoes, grocery supplies, a baby bedding or send kids to school. I mean that’s what most parents tell me when they admire the only visible talent I’ve got. One parent I met abroad told his husband to study the craft. Face painting is a lucrative business abroad at $3 to $5 per head. But here in Manila, I don’t charge that much.

My glitter tattoo kit

With some inspiration I got from joining a Google group, I’m launching a new career in glitter tattooing. It’s actually an expanded business line since I’ve been doing face painting for half a year now. Sooner or later, you’d find me in weekend parties mingling with kids, babies in a Bob stroller and their yayas. Yesterday, my trial kit was delivered to the office. If the quality of materials is perfect, I’ll ask a friend in the United States to buy boxes for me and ship it here together with her balikbayan box. The last time I ordered my paints from London was around 4 months ago when I was still holding on to my MasterCard then. The shipping charges cost nearly the same as the item I purchased. But I don’t mind sacrificing quality of materials over price. By the way, if you’re interested to have a smashing glittery party for your child, a colorful school fair or anything that crosses your mind, just send a text message to 0906-2066277.

By the way, I didn’t realized being in a Google group entails a flooded Gmail inbox. I couldn’t figure out how to disable the mad flow of email exchange and read those messages on the web instead like in a Yahoo group.