Hello everyone!  

I’m Ashley Pickin, your friendly neighborhood face painter.  I was recently contacted by the Art Factory to start writing for them!  How cool is that?  I’m not sure if I know what I’m doing on here.. but I’m super excited and enthusiastic about it!  And that’s what really counts, right?

For any of you who have never met me, I’ve been in the industry for 13 years as a face and body artist.  I’ve painted at parties, clubs, festivals, fairs, shows, day cares, schools, churches, restaurants, trade shows, conventions, expos, editorial shoots, magazines, fabatv, real tv…. you name it, I’ve probably painted there.  To say the least I’ve been at this for a while and it’s pretty much my favorite thing ever.  I’ve met my favorite people, found my favorite colors(hello Global dark blue, anyone?) and discovered that if you’re passionate and dedicated, people will invite you to cool places and you’ll get to talk about your favorite colors and stuff to other people.  It’s down right magical.

To be honest, face painting is pretty much the only “real job” I’ve ever had.  I worked at a pizza shop and then a fabric shop as a teenager, and painted folk art replicas at a gallery for a hot minute, but really it’s face painting that I’ve always done.  It’s how I paid for college and now it’s how I pay for, well, pretty much everything.

Along the way I’ve learned a lot.  I learned face painting.  I learned balloons.  I learned temporary tattoos.  I learned airbrushing.  I learned caricatures.  I learned name painting.  I learned a lot.

This meme is a pretty accurate representation of me for the last 10 years or so.

I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, what’s worth time and money, and what isn’t, and now I’m here to share that knowledge with you.  Each week I’ll be back with a new post and hopefully you’ll be back as well!

I’m looking forward to this new journalistic journey!  Please let me know if there are any topics that you’re interested in reading about in upcoming posts(you can tell me in the comments.)

  Thanks so much and happy painting!

    -Ashley

p.s. find me on things!
facebook profile
facebook page
instagram for my face and body art
instagram with face art, crafting, my dogs, and everything else