Since 2005...
Face Painting...
Cheeky Face have been face painting since 2005.
Our artists are either trained in art or design and have some tertiary level education behind their skill at face painting. Otherwise they are naturally talented and skilled and able to provide great designs whether it needs to please boys or girls.
Some things to know:
3 year olds and under...
Due to some changes in the industry in recent years, public liability insurers will not protect artists for face painting activities for children 3 years old or under.
This makes it difficult for us when confronted with parents who insist that they want to have their child painted and insist that they'll be fine ...and we have this conversation often.
If you have children at your event who are 3 years old or under and you require some kind of activity for them whilst the face painting is being provided then we recommend adding balloon twisting to the services booked. This way there will be something available for those whilst the face painting is on OR we can arrange to send an artist who can do both face painting and balloons and then we will offer the balloon option to those little ones.
Not the artists fault...
Whether a child takes part in the face painting or not, is the responsibility of the parent/guardian. If a face painter refuses to paint them on that basis then we ask that you do not get upset and argue with the artist. It is out of their hands. If the parent tells us that the child is old enough and a reaction occurs then this again is not the responsibility of the artist/s. We will simply ask that parents take responsibility for their children and if they believe they may be allergic to the paints or just dont want to risk it then we prefer that you do not let your child take part.
Cheeky Face will not be held responsible for any adverse reactions the child may experience if they are aged 3 years old or under. This is part of the agreement when you book a face painter and there is nothing we can do to change the rules of the insurer.
Over the years...
Very early on we realized that we needed to offer some degree of variety so we adopted the craft of balloon twisting to offer something more. Not everyone is a fan of face painting but regardless of that fact, it's obvious that these two options are a good match. Because this adventure all started with a friend (Renai) asking us (Lorene) to replace the face painter Woolworths (I think they were still Safeway back then) had organised for one of their events, we knew it was a good idea to target similar stores. It wasn't long before we had a call from a few Coles managers and pretty quickly we were discovering the different types of customers willing to hire face painters for their promotions or simply events like Christmas parties or as in one case, a team building activity (a client the repeatedly booked us to paint up employees from usually large corporations as part of a team building experience). It is surprising how many options were out there and as we grew we met other face painters and balloon artists who shared their knowledge and their work, further enhancing our understanding and work. We were lucky to meet so many others who made up a network of artists interested in face painting and body art. This inadvertently led to more customers in areas we didn't about. Henna tatoos became a thing for a while and we also held workshops for anyone interested in becoming a face painter and over time we started getting enough work to start hiring entertainers / artists. One of the best things of this kind of work was the people we were meeting and making friends with. 
Just some of the highlights:
Eventually we were getting calls from the likes of Luna Park, Yarra Trams, Best Friends Pet stores, Angus & Robertson Book Stores (we did the harry potter launch back then too). It was all very exciting and reassuring that we could live this life, our reputation grew and almost without realizing it. We were managing larger events and providing multiple artists to cover events like Moomba (4 face painters - possibly more), Melbourne City Council's New Year's Eve (5 or 6 artists in our new large inflatable tent). Yarra Trams Christmas Festivals for their staff (they also loved our tent). So it was not long before we heard from Bank Of Melbourne (Westpac).
Growth & Networking:
Bank of Melbourne re-opened their doors in Victoria after having closed their branches for a few years, and of course we got a call from them. A Bank? That's what I thought too, but quickly it became obvious that they needed a lot of face painters and they wanted them all on one day - opening day. After some negotiating we were able to provide them with a plan to cover about 30 or so branch openings across Victoria with an artist providing either Face Painting OR Balloon Twisting in the time frame of one week. We had some amazing face painters from 
around Melbourne and Adelaide to help us make this work. So we did it and after a successful week and lots of great feedback, they became a regular customer with us for years to come and new branches opening over the years to come needing a boost to help promote the banks family orientated image.
From about 2011 - 2014 Bank Of Melbourne booked us for the Grand Final Parade in Collins St each year. Painting fast makes it difficult to keep up a standard that met the expectations we had encouraged in our clients and it tested us but we managed to get through these events well due to the preparation and the fact that it was fun. No matter the pressure there is a simple reality to speed and once we accepted that it became just a fun event and all involved got something positive from it. You can see examples of the work we did for the first event here AFL Grand Final Parade
Cheeky Face Now...
Enjoying the other side :
After a few bumps in the road and some ups & downs Cheeky Face is still here and still going strong. The industry has a changed a lot and we had to change with it. Networking grew with social media and the work environment changed with various groups full of talented and younger artists, forming to establish services similar to ours but with something different. Competition also made it difficult to continue and growth was at a point that we had to either go large or ease up and focus on smaller jobs. We did the latter and have fond memories of tackling bigger & exciting projects but more focused now on smaller events and helping others who need us as part of a team on bigger events.
Still Face Painting & Balloons:
We took a break and slowed down for a few years (tried different jobs and then there was Covid) but always relying on face painting or ballooning work in some form. We have returned to focusing on building up Cheeky Face again and continuing from where we left off but in less of a hurry this time.
Cheeky Face are still offering balloon twisting and face painting services for private and public events. We are still keen to tackle larger events so feel free to get to in touch if you need experienced artists for larger events but we also cater to small events and private functions. You just need to be sure to book in advance and give us a enough notice.
Other ideas:
Our passion has always been in the area of making art and this is something we encourage in our children but of course unless you lead by example it's not likely to stick. We are focusing a little more on our own personal art and hoping to find a way to build that into an income stream. Our youngest daughter Sukie (11 years old at the time of writing this) has recently had a burst of inspiration to make book marks. To encourage this we figure on adding a book marks section to the Cheeky Face culture. Over time to come we will be adding more artwork related products, and a separate page for book marks just for sukie. Try me and see if its ready yet
