Money Making Face Painting Designs with Donna Godfrey Webinar

Want to know the secret to making more money as a face painter? It's not about painting the fanciest design — it's about painting the right design for the right client. In this webinar, Donna Godfrey from Yorkshire, England breaks down her approach to money-making face painting across three key areas: corporate events, birthday parties, and pay-per-face gigs. With live timed demos and practical business advice, Donna shows how speed, strategy, and client-focused thinking can seriously boost your bottom line.

About the Artist: Donna Godfrey is a professional face painter based in Yorkshire, UK. Known for her energetic personality and no-nonsense approach, Donna runs a busy face painting business that handles everything from large-scale corporate events to birthday parties. She has built a loyal following on TikTok where her creative content — including painting bald heads — has gone viral and landed her unique corporate gigs. Donna also teaches face painting classes for beginners and is passionate about helping other artists grow their businesses.

Products and Tools Used in This Webinar

Donna used a range of products during her demonstrations. Her preferred white is Party Explosion (Peter Tranza edition), which she praised for its smooth coverage. For the claw marks design, she used Silly Farm's Pirate Red split cake — a red and black one-stroke — as well as individual PXP Ruby Red and black paints loaded onto an angle brush as an alternative method. For Batman, she used Face Paints Australia Sunny Days, a bright neon blue. Her brushes included a Face Painting Hub three-quarter inch angle brush for one-stroke shapes, a Face Painting Hub round number six for line work and teardrops, and Leanne's Rainbow Flower petal brush for double-dip stamping techniques. She also mentioned trying out Banana Gum round brushes, which she noted were surprisingly pointy and worth testing.

Speed Designs for Corporate Events

Donna started the class by tackling what she called one of her biggest client categories: corporate events. The challenge with corporate face painting is that clients typically want hundreds of people painted in a very short time window. Donna's philosophy is simple — fill the face as much as you can, as quickly as you can, while still making the design look good. She demonstrated three of her top corporate speed designs: a princess crown, a unicorn variation, and claw marks.

For the princess crown, Donna built the entire base using a single one-stroke loaded angle brush. She explained the technique of working at different clock angles — two o'clock, then three o'clock — to fan out the crown shapes on each side of the forehead, then bouncing the brush down beside each eye to extend the design across more of the face. The key, she emphasized, is that none of the shapes require any twisting of the brush. Every shape follows the same tiger stripe principle: start on the tip of the brush, apply pressure in the middle of the stroke, and lift back to the tip for a clean finish.

To fill in the crown quickly, Donna offered two approaches. The first uses a petal brush loaded with a double dip to stamp flowers and petals across the crown area. She demonstrated her drag-and-drop technique — dragging a thin line with the tip of the petal brush and then stamping at the end — which covers large areas of the cheek with minimal effort. The second approach uses a larger round brush for teardrops and swirls, which she recommended for painters who are more comfortable with line work. A few white dots in the flower centers, a coat of glitter, and the design is complete.

To prove the speed, Donna brought in her daughter Jennifer and painted a full princess crown on her face while being timed. The result: one minute and forty-six seconds for a clean, glittery princess crown that would delight any corporate event attendee.

Claw Marks: The Fastest Boy Design

For boys at corporate events, Donna's go-to speed design is claw marks. She demonstrated two methods for loading the brush. The first uses a pre-made split cake like Silly Farm's Pirate Red, which has red and black built in. The second — for painters who cannot source that particular cake — involves fully loading an angle brush with red paint, then lightly dusting just the edge in black and blending them together on the back of your hand.

The claw marks themselves are simply tiger stripes done with the loaded one-stroke brush. Donna starts each stroke on the tip, applies pressure with a slight wiggle for texture, then lifts back onto the black-tipped edge to create a sharp, tapered end — like an airplane taking off, as she described it. She painted a full set of claw marks on Jennifer's face in approximately one minute, demonstrating that a near-full-face design can be achieved at incredible speed with this technique.

The Business Case for Speed Painting

Donna made a strong case for why face painters should embrace speed painting for corporate clients rather than viewing it as beneath them. She explained that by putting the customer's needs first — getting everyone painted quickly — rather than prioritizing artistic ego, she has secured corporate clients who rebook her team fifteen to twenty times per year for four- to five-hour jobs. That kind of repeat business adds up to guaranteed, reliable income. The designs may feel simple to the artist, but the client is thrilled because every guest gets painted and the event runs smoothly.

Birthday Party Strategy

For birthday parties, Donna shared a clever business strategy. She arrives early and paints the birthday child before the other guests show up, giving them the full premium treatment — stencils, one-stroke work, double-dip flowers, glitter, highlights, the works. When the friends arrive and see the birthday child's elaborate face paint, they inevitably want the same thing. Donna politely explains that the birthday child gets extra-special treatment because it is their birthday, then hands the parent a business card and suggests they book her for their child's party to get the same VIP treatment.

This approach has generated a significant number of repeat bookings for Donna. The children want to feel special on their own birthdays, and the parents are happy to book because they have already seen the quality of work firsthand. It feels natural and not pushy — it is simply the service Donna offers.

Half-and-Half Designs: Spider-Man Meets Batman

Donna wrapped up the class with a crowd-pleasing technique for pay-per-face events and parties: the half-and-half design. When a child in the queue cannot decide between two characters — a common scenario — Donna tells them they can have both. She demonstrated a half Spider-Man, half Batman design that combines two popular requests into one face.

For the Spider-Man half, she used a filbert brush loaded with the Pirate Red split cake to lay down the base, then outlined the web pattern with black line work and added teardrops for the web details. For the Batman half, she used Face Paints Australia Sunny Days — a bright blue she prefers over black because black is notoriously difficult to wash off. She built the bat wing using one-stroke twisting techniques, starting at a two o'clock angle and twisting the brush as she swept downward to create the pointed wing shape.

This half-and-half approach accomplishes several things at once. It surprises and delights the child, making the experience memorable. It showcases the painter's versatility and creativity. And at a pay-per-face event, it means more happy customers talking about the amazing face painter — which drives more people to join the queue.

Pay-Per-Face Events and Social Media

Donna shared her perspective on pricing and marketing at pay-per-face events like fairs and festivals. She typically charges six to seven pounds locally and focuses on doing quality work at a fair price rather than maximizing per-face revenue. Her reasoning is strategic: she has repeatedly gained corporate clients and birthday party bookings from parents who saw her work at local events. One example she shared involved painting a child whose father turned out to have connections to a major corporate brand, which led to a team booking of four painters for a large event.

On social media, Donna encouraged painters to try something unusual and different rather than posting the same princess and butterfly designs everyone else shares. Her own TikTok success came from painting bald men's heads — a quirky, unexpected type of face painting that went viral and directly led to a paid corporate gig with a head-care product company in London. The takeaway: creativity and personality on social media can open doors to income streams you never expected.

Practical Tips from the Webinar

Throughout the class, Donna shared several practical gems. For brush cleaning during speed painting, she uses a somewhat controversial method: the dirty brush goes into a holding pot until the next client sits down, at which point she runs it through her three-pot cleaning system and a fresh rinse well. Since the brush needs to be re-wetted anyway, this saves a few seconds per client without any hygiene concerns. For menu boards, she recommends using word-based boards rather than photo boards, which gives flexibility to adapt designs on the fly — and she noted that no client has ever questioned what the final result will look like. She also advises keeping speed boards limited to designs you know you can execute quickly, and avoiding putting full-face designs like tigers on speed menus since clients will expect both sides and whiskers.

One more tip that resonated with beginners: whenever you load a petal brush or round brush with fresh paint, the first stamp or stroke will likely be messy due to excess paint on the tip. Donna always dabs the first one onto the back of her hand to remove the excess before touching the client's face.

Products Used in This Webinar

PXP Ruby Red Face Paint — Donna's go-to red, used for claw marks and Spider-Man
Silly Farm Pirate Red Split Cake — Red and black one-stroke used for claw marks
Face Paints Australia Sunny Days — Bright neon blue used for Batman base
Face Painting Hub 3/4" Angle Brush — Donna's main brush for one-stroke shapes
Face Painting Hub Round #6 Brush — Used for line work, teardrops, and swirls
Leanne's Rainbow Flower Petal Brush — Used for double-dip petal stamps and drag-and-drop
Banana Gum Round Brushes — Mentioned as a new brush she's testing
Party Explosion White (Peter Tranza Edition) — Donna's preferred white for detail work