Starting on Wednesday February First we will have golden grip brushes from Loew-Cornell, new sponges, more special brushes and hopefully Bad Ass Stencils and a full inventory of Wolfe FX.

If  you made it through the worst of the Post Holiday Job Slump scream “Yeah, gigs are coming again!” If you didn’t hit a slump, please tell us why in the comments!

Oh yeah, the contest!

The prize this time around is even bigger than in the past! a $50 e-gift card or a $50 store credit to JestPaint.com, wooohooo!

The subject of the contest is “Peace Out!”

We are hoping for a lot more peace in our Families, our Schools, our Towns, our Country and our World.  We often wonder how we could ever achieve world peace if we can’t even achieve peace in our own little circles. Everyone is so different in so many ways that it is natural that it is hard for us to all get along easily.   We think that face painting peace signs and other symbols of peace on kids and adults is a nice reminder to those who see them that peace is on our minds! We just need to be examples of peace every day and challenge others to forgive and to compromise.

If you have a peaceful idea for this contest, don’t wait until the last minute! Whip out some practice faces and sketch out as many creative ideas that you can. Once you find the one you like the most paint it on your arm or leg or neck… or someone else that is human, and send it to us!

Quick Submission Rules

1. Paint a human with the Peace Out theme in mind. Be creative as a crazy caterpillar!

2.  Most of the design should be done with professional face paint. Only use stencils and bling to add to the design, not to create the whole design. E.g. a stenciled background to add texture is okay, but do not use a stencil for the whole design. (like you folks would ever do that anyway.)

3. Take  nice clear pictures that aren’t blurry,  too dark, or set to a contrast so high that the model’s tear ducts are bright red and their skin is unnaturally orange. ..I love to tweak my contrast a little, but don’t go overboard with editing, doing this can be misleading. Photoshopping the actual design is a no go, but photo shopping out the background, explosive zits and boogers is fine!

4. Let us know how you felt about participating in this themed contest, and/or some bio info about you.

Other things to consider before you get going!

The pictures will be posted anonymously once they are all submitted. The latest poll results on the best way to handle voting show that most of you want me to pick the top 5….and then subscibers vote on those top five to pick the winner. Check out our polls if you want to weigh in on this for future contests.

Only those subscribed to the blog can vote, and we discourage popularity voting. You can tell folks on facebook to join the blog and vote for the design they like the best…but do not tell them what your design is…please.  And the design can’t be painted on your own face, but you can paint on your own arm or leg or someone else’s face to help keep it anonymous. So basically, this also means that the design has to be new and not published anywhere else.

Extra Rules/Logistics for Entry

(Don’t groan too loud…We know… We Know…rules are not the artists number one fun thing on earth… but these are actually important to read, so buckle down folks!) 

-Starting on January 20th, 2012 participants can submit their entries.

-The deadline for submissions  is February 13th, 2012 at 11:59pm eastern standard time.

-Voting will take place from February 15th-February 20th at 11:59pm eastern standard time.

-The winner will be announced on the blog and facebook and contacted through e-mail on February 21st. We will tell you how to redeem your store credit. If you want us to call you, please leave us your phone number in your submission e-mail.

-Anna Wilinski will choose the top 5 pictures to be voted on. The choice will be based on clean technique (smooth blending, crisp line work, balanced design) and creativity. If you are a beginner, give it your best shot, make every line count and blend like there is no tomorrow.  In the end the design concept, and originality will be top on the list for decision making.

- You cannot tell others what picture you submitted until after the contest is over. No logos or other identifying text should be on the image itself, nor the artist face in the image.

- The images that you submit should contain an original Face and/or body painting design made by you.

-Only two UNIQUE  DESIGNS per participant can be submitted. You can submit multiple pictures of the same design and I will choose two to post on the blog if you want to show different angles.

- Only our blog subscribers can participate and vote, so, you have to send the image using the e-mail address you used to subscribe to our blog. E-mail me if you can’t remember it. Subscribe now if you haven’t yet.  

- The pictures have to be sent to the following e-mail address: anna@jestpaint.com You will get an e-mail back from us letting you know that we received your submission. If you do not hear back from us within 24 hours, you can call us at 269-598-5436 to make sure that we got your submission.

-The subject of the e-mail must be: “Peace Out Contest” and the e-mail must contain your name or alias (very important since we will publish the winner’s name in the blog and everyone else’s too after the contest).

-If you have a Facebook page , and you  haven’t become a fan of JestPaint on Facebook, click here and” Like” it!      Face book is a great way to stay connected…feel free to also Friend us… Anna Wilinski-Massano and Santiago Massano on Facebook too. We want to check out your face book pages too!

- The PRIZE for the Peace Out Contest is a $50 credit or e-gift card at Jestpaint.com, which will be issued on February 21st, 2012. 

-By entering the contest you give Anna Wilinski and JestPaint rights over publishing your picture on this blog, the Jest Paint face book page, the JestPaint.com site and any other site that we might feel is pertinent to advertise this contest.

-The artist will be given credit for their work wherever their pictures are posted by either their name or alias provided.

- We will publish the winner’s design on our blog, together with his/her name or alias, and any extra info they want to add after the announcement.

- We will publish all submitted images in a collage on our blog so everybody can enjoy them! Artists names will be added after the contest is over.

-By submitting your image, you agree to all of the rules of the contest.

Have fun, give it a shot, and let us know if  you have any questions!

Peace, Love and Paint!

Anna and Santi

We finally made a new video tutorial! Sorry for taking so long, we will do our best so the next one comes sooner.

For this video Anna used Jest Paint Metallic Light Orange and Jest Paint Cranberry Rose as a base. She used DFX Black and White to outline, and a stick on gem that we will soon have in stock (same style that Mama Clown gems that we already have in stock, but a bit cheaper).

Soon we will have Loew Cornell Brushes (Golden Grip and others) and Bad Ass Stencils in stock!

Enjoy the video and leave your comments at the bottom ….

Have a wonderful week!

Santi, Anna, Oshi and Angelo!

Types of Brushes

A lot of people ask me what brushes I use the most.  I carry around a pretty hefty bunch of brushes to gigs, a big cup full because I always like having variety.  If I get a little bored I will play around with a funky brush to help create new designs.

Synthetic versus Natural Hair

I use synthetic hair brushes or brushes that have a blend of real and synthetic hair.  The real hair brushes are very soft when you get them wet, so they are harder to control in my opinion. Brushes designed for acrylic painting, especially decorative painting seem to hold face paint well and offer a lot of control. I have met painters who use the mega fancy natural haired brushes, their claim to fame is that they hold more paint and let it out too! If you are a dare devil, give them a try, I am sure with practice they can be used nicely.

Rounds

Besides being the best for outlining, making swirls and twirls and popping out little dots, rounds are also good for having a hey day with tear drops. By dragging the tip and then pressing down, or by doing the reverse, you will get cute little tear drops. They work best if you use a round with a chubby base and a pointy tip. You can also use them for making double loaded flower petals and for filling in spaces with paint.

I always have 2 small rounds, two medium rounds  and two nice fat rounds,  all for black and white (round # 2 or 3, and  a 4or 6 and a 10).

Brush Round Gold Nylon #3 by Wolfe FX

Why do I subject my self to so many rounds just for two colors?

It is hard to rinse all of the black out of a brush at a gig, so I just keep brushes for black so they don’t contaminate the loveliness of the other colors and so my water doesn’t get so muddy so fast with all the rinsing of a black brush.  Same deal with the white,  I don’t like picking up a brush that was last used with red paint, and then rinsing it and using it for white…and ending up with a whitish pink.  My colors come out looking brighter and my water looks better, and I save more paint if I stick to this policy in my brush department.  You can color code your paint handles with finger nail polish so you  know who is who.

For all the other colors I just use another group of many sized rounds interchangeably .

Flats

Flats are another brush that I have more than one of in my kit. I have 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″ and 1 1/4″  flats for all of my one stroke painting needs. ( Yes ,I have a strong need to one stroke!)

Brush Flat Gold Nylon Magic #12 (3/4″) by TAG

I think the 1/2″ and 3/4″ flats are easier to control if you are doing fancy one stroke moves with a lot of wiggling the brush, and the wider flats are better for more simple strokes.

I also love the 1/4″ flat brush for doing thin to thick line work for tiger faces and around spider fella’s eyes.  I twist the small flat while I pull it, so it looks like it goes from / to — to / to —-.  You can end with a really sharp line, which always excites me!

Filberts

Filberts are well known for being the go to brush for double and triple loaded flowers. They make great petal shapes when you just stamp them down, or stamp and twist them.  Different sized filberts will open you up to different sized flowers or baby butterflies.

Filberts are also good for painting cheek art in general, laying down larger areas of a color, like to fill in a pony heads or other rounded edge designs.  Filberts also rock my socks off when it comes to  blending a darker color onto a lighter color…they make a smooth transition between the two colors.

Brush Filbert Gold Nylon #8 (1/2″) by TAG

 Rakes/Wisps

I love rake/wisp brushes. They are great for making tons of  fine strokes or tons of tiny dots all at once.  I use the larger sized flats, angles and fans the most.  The fine lines add dramatic fine shading to the outer edges of butterfly wings…if you start at the edge of your wing and then pull in towards the eye.  I also use them for palm trees and grass and horse hair for cheek art designs.  For boy full face designs I use them a lot to add wrinkles on the nose of creepy monsters, or weird textures on the rest of the face, or fur on tigers. 

Brush Angle Wisp Large 1″

My biggest use for the rake/whips brush is for making tiny little dots over black line work or around designs to add that magical fairy dust look.  I load up a pretty good paste of white and just stamp the tips all over and every one goes “Ohhh wow!”  I am glad simple things can amaze those who watch you paint.

A regular fan brush is also a popular one in my kit. I use it for butterflies and also for wisping shag.  I like to also press it into the rainbow cakes and stamp it around eye masks.

Brush Fan Medium 1 1/4″ Spread

There are some funky brushes for sale right now from Loew-Cornell. I have used the dagger a lot in the past after seeing Lynne Jamison use it for making really long fine sharp lines.  I haven’t tried the other two below, but they look like fun.

Brush Loew-Cornell Golden Taklon #10 Flora

Brush Loew-Cornell Golden Taklon Double FIlbert #6

Brush Loew-Cornell Comfort 1/4 inch Dagger Stripe

Taking Care of your Beloved Brushes

Before you go nuts and buy really fancy expensive brushes, make sure you have a system set up so that they stay in good shape for a long time.  I am not the best mother to my face paint brushes, sometimes I even drop them on the floor and leave them at gigs, and who knows what happens to them after that! I store my brushes in a zipper pouch that has one mesh side.  There are cases where you store them under elastic bands, and that is my dream for 2012, since they jostle around too much in my pouch, and if it turns upside down the bristles get a little raggedy.

You can snip wild loose hairs off with a nail clipper, and you can try to reshape your brushes by setting them with hair gel, or even face paint.

You can wash your brushes in  hot water, or in baby shampoo or even Brush Bath. Brush Bath can be used in your rinse water while you are working to clean your brushes out better and condition the bristles. If you use regular soap,  be sure to rinse it all out so that it doesn’t get in a kids eye when you use your brushes again .

Brush Bath

It is recommended to dry your brushes either hanging upside down or flat so that when they dry, the water doesn’t soak down into the Ferrule  ( the metal tube that holds the bristles onto the handle )and mishape the bristles or the wooden handle .  Once they are dry you can store them standing up.

Another thing that is hard to resist is not to leave your brushes sitting bristle down in your water cup while you are working. I have a habit of doing this, and I have to stay really conscious to rinse and put away my brush.  Avoiding rubbing your brushes to death on the bottom or side of your cup will also help them last longer.

Watch how your load your paint as well, making sure that you aren’t hurting your bristles by smooshing them into the hard cakes in unnatural ways.  Usually we get a hang of this pretty quick…well hopefully by the time we turn 8 years old.  My daughter still makes me squirm when she uses my brushes.

If you have some damaged brushes, you can still use them for other things, like applying glitter on your face paint designs or glitter tattoos, or by making them funkier by additional smashing or cutting to see if you can come up with a useful specialty brush! ooh la la !

Once, while making a youtube video,  Oceana chewed the wahoo out of one oh my 1″ flat brushe…she bent the metal ferrule so much that the bristles would no longer be useful for one stroking. I took that dear flat of mine and double loaded the tips, smashing in head first into a rainbow cake, and then stamped the head onto my skin and found out it made an amazing feathered petal print.

The fish and flowers were made with Oceana’s smashed flat brush.

About the different brands! We carry brushes that we like, there are so many lines of brushes that it is hard to decide what else to carry.  If you are looking for a particular brush, please let us know.  Some brushes are more expensive than others.  The quality of the handle and the hairs can affect cost, along with simply the brand name that goes with them.  Head to face paint jams and try out your friends brushes and write the names down.  Mark Reid has aplastic handled brushes (correction…they are actually wood with a very plastic like appearance), which looks nicer for a longer period of time than wooden handled brushes.  Paradise’s Prisma flat brush has shorter bristles for better control, and it also has a plastic handle.  Look for pointy tips, a strong connection at the ferrule and bristles that are not too sharp and pointy for a child’s skin.  TAG and Wolfe and DFX all have great round brushes.

If you have any questions about brushes, please leave them in the comments or e-mail me…or even call me!

                         Anna and I want to wish you Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, which ever suits you best. Anyhow, we hope you have a great time and that you find joy and peace this time of the year, and all year round.

We want to thank you for all your support. This wouldn’t be possible without you. You are making our dreams come true, and we hope we are helping to make yours to.

This has been a great year for us, and we have found lots of joy in what we do. We hope next year we can keep offering you great products, at great prices with awesome service.

We also hope you find time to spend with your family and/or friends, and that you get crazy fun Face Painting gigs during this winter.

This time around, we are thankful for finding joy in our work, for the baby (Angelo) that is coming in April, and for the house that Habitat for Humanity will help us build next year.

We love you all!

Anna, Santi, Oshi and Angelo

Check over the rules below before you shop to avoid any shopping cart confusion, especially if you are using paypal!

So, these are the rules for the code:

10% Discount on all products, use code CBS10

This coupon expires at 11:59pm EST on November 28th 2011.

When do I enter the code?

At check out.

Where do I enter the code?

For Guests or Registered check out: go to your “Shopping Art Cart” in the store, and at the VERY LEFT of the shopping cart page, above the customer information there is a box that says “enter code”. Put your code there, complete the customer information and click “Proceed to Step 2″.

For Paypal Express Check Out (an express route that skips the guest or registered checkout) enter the coupon code after going to PayPal. Once you’ve been to the PayPal page it will take you back to our website and there will be a space for you to put the coupon code. It seems weird, but it works!

When does the Coupon Expire?

The coupon code is valid for orders CONFIRMED by 11:59pm On November 25th 2011 U.S. Eastern Standard Time (check the world clock to make it in time!)

Can I use this coupon more than once?

No, this coupon code can only be used 1 time per costumer.

Can I use the coupon with another one?

No, you can only enter one code at check out.

If I forget to use the code at check out or have a problem using it, can you refund me later?

No, in order to get the discount you MUST put the coupon code in the correct spot during the check out process. Call us before checking out if you have any problems and we will make sure you get your discount.

Can everyone use this code?

YES

Once again,

The Coupon Code is:

CBS10

Copy and Paste it into the code box at check out! HAPPY SHOPPING!!!

Check over the rules below before you shop to avoid any shopping cart confusion, especially if you are using paypal!

So, these are the rules for the code:

10% Discount on all products, use code BFS10

This coupon expires at 11:59pm EST on November 25th 2011.

When do I enter the code?

At check out.

Where do I enter the code?

For Guests or Registered check out: go to your “Shopping Art Cart” in the store, and at the VERY LEFT of the shopping cart page, above the customer information there is a box that says “enter code”. Put your code there, complete the customer information and click “Proceed to Step 2″.

For Paypal Express Check Out (an express route that skips the guest or registered checkout) enter the coupon code after going to PayPal. Once you’ve been to the PayPal page it will take you back to our website and there will be a space for you to put the coupon code. It seems weird, but it works!

When does the Coupon Expire?

The coupon code is valid for orders CONFIRMED by 11:59pm On November 25th 2011 U.S. Eastern Standard Time (check the world clock to make it in time!)

Can I use this coupon more than once?

No, this coupon code can only be used 1 time per costumer.

Can I use the coupon with another one?

No, you can only enter one code at check out.

If I forget to use the code at check out or have a problem using it, can you refund me later?

No, in order to get the discount you MUST put the coupon code in the correct spot during the check out process. Call us before checking out if you have any problems and we will make sure you get your discount.

Can everyone use this code?

YES

Once again,

The Coupon Code is:

BFS10

Copy and Paste it into the code box at check out! HAPPY SHOPPING!!!

We will be getting more Christmas cakes soon for those of you that couldn’t get them the first time (we still have some left but not many).

Keep in mind that if you are planing to order products for Christmas the sooner you do it the better, because shipping gets slower during Christmas time!

We wanted to remind you that we have the option of insuring your package, and that might be a good idea during Christmas when USPS is flooded with packages.

Also, we have Wish List and E-Gift Card service available at the store, so, you can create your wish list and send it to your significant other, or you can ask a E-Gift Card from JestPaint.com for Christmas.

Soon we will be doing more contests and tutorials, and keep your eyes open for Cyber Monday (Monday after thanks giving) for our BIG SALE!

We wish you all a great Thanks Giving and we thank you all for your support! We love being your source for Face Paint!

Santi (and Anna)