About us

Cheeky Face was established in 2005...
Before the internet became such a universally used tool for business, Cheeky Face started collecting photos of every single face we painted and we were uploading them to our website weekly for people to access and then download for free.   That was the aim anyhow and we only missed out on photographing a few faces during this time - it was probably, literally about 5 faces over the few early years that we were doing this.  Even though it helped to get our name out there it was probably a naïve vision, but it taught us some valuable lessons.  
1. Look at what you have done previously and learn from it.   
2. Children love the experience and that is the most important part of the service.  Good face painting is always a bonus but there's nothing like a big smile from a happy customer.

So apart from just loving the job we had, our aim was to ensure that we give our little customers a choice that is their own, and we soon realized that this alone gives children power, in presumably, a world where they are usually being told how to behave and don't get as much choice as they might like.  Perhaps this is something that most people who work with children realize, and it was an important part of how we approached the relationship that we had with our customers.  We have seen what difference it makes and we continue to learn almost 20 years on that this is still the most important part.  We didn't at that time have iPads and digital devices on the scale we do now but kids still love the experience today.  

Entering into a field where we had little experience (apart from being parents), probably gave us an edge on others who were trained entertainers and focused on performance.  We weren't looking for any edge but in hind-sight that's what it must have been.  We were pursuing art as a way of life and we happened to stumble on to Face Painting and from the beginning we learned and shaped the business as we felt  it could work for us to provide an income and later realizing it helped fill a requirement in a field that was likely poised for change and we must have started doing this at the right time.  

Where children's entertainment in many ways relied on performance, due to lacking in any performing skill ourselves, we simply provided a service that was more like an activity and people didn't push us away but instead were happy to book us as the focus for their party or events as the feedback was obviously good and the feedback was coming from the kids.  Back in the early days I recall hearing on occasion comments from the public such as "You guys should do this for birthday parties" OR "what a great idea for a party" which was an indicator that at that time Face Painting was merely an activity that was a side dish to the main performance.  Usually an entertainer would attend as a clown and provide a variety of activities and face painting was just a small part of that and usually just quick and simple.  Since that was the only part we were skilled at (or had enough confidence to attempt) we focused on making that the main service face painting to be hired for parties.  It was obviously the only way we could do it, so hearing people say things like this (the above quotations) was kind of telling us to keep going.  So we did.

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 events like Christmas parties and gradually many other types of events started to pop up in need of our services.
In one case, a team building activity (a client who repeatedly booked us to paint up employees, usually from 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 our own 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 even know 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 with this kind of work was the people who 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 re-branded 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

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 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 to some degree.  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.   Joining our team is our son and his wife and potentially our girls too (they just haven't realized it yet).

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

More of our customer base includes: 

Coles Myer

Woolworths Super Markets

Target

Bunnings stores

Best Friends Pet Stores

Melbourne City Council

Moomba

Luna Park

Yarra Trams

Angus & Robertson Book Stores

Ronald McDonald House

Schneider Electrical (Formerly Clipsal Australia)