1st Place

Carolyn Manchulenko-Streifel

I got my face painting start when I was attending esthetics & make up artistry school in 1990 and was asked if I might want to try doing face painting for the local Berry Festival so I spent all week trying to come up with ideas to paint different animated berries... I found out quickly that kids were happier with super heroes & butterflies lol.
I went on to have 3 children of my own & have done the face painting at a lot of their school carnivals. It wasn't until the last few yrs though, that I have gotten a lot more into face, body & pregnancy tummy painting. I also now coordinate a face painting booth at our local community ‘Party in the Park’ every Friday night in July & August. Our town of Chilliwack, BC, Canada sponsors this great weekly event with local bands providing the music, & there is a huge kid’s zone. We have around 3-4 thousand people there every week & so the face painting booth is quite busy. I have a great crew of incredible 17 yr old art students that I have trained that rock the kid’s zone every week, painting around 300 faces each night. It’s super rewarding!

My day job is as a nail technician & artist, working in my home studio & I also make reborn dolls & dabble in photography. I also paint wall murals, with my daughter Miranda’s bedroom being my fave project by far. I have 3 great kids & a wonderful partner. He is very supportive of all my artistic endeavors! J

My favorite brand of paints is Diamond FX. I started out all those years ago with Kryolan & love the metallic colors but I love how the Diamond FX dry & don't smudge & the colors are just amazing. Lots of glitter & bling is good to!

My favorite things to paint are organic shapes, flowers, trees, birds, butterflies & the like.

See more about this awarding winning face, body and pregnant belly painter

2nd Place

Alision Kenyon

At age 21 (1992) I joined one of the nation's first modern burlesque troupes, and it was in our vaudeville shows that I met professional performers that inspired me to go to circus school and learn contortion, trapeze, acrobatics, clowning, magic, and fire swallowing. I got into clowning full time in 1993, knowing that face painting would be my main focus. Along with being a clown and a face and body painter, I was also "Ms. Cherry Bomb" the circus artist; performing an acrobatic/contortion/
belly dance with 3 balancing bowls of fire, and a fire swallowing finale. I retired it in 2007. During this time I was also lead makeup artist / body painter for a San Francisco-based circus troupe called Velocity.

WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE THAT? In high school I twice won a summer scholarship to attend a summer semester at Academy of Art College in San Francisco. I also won a trip to study art in Europe through a juried arts panel.

WHAT DO YOU NOW BESIDES FACE AND/OR BODY PAINTING? "On the side" I'm a certified personal trainer, specializing in
Russian style strength training and joint mobility using kettlebells and body weight exercises.

WHAT PAINT BRANDS ARE YOUR FAVORITES? WHY? For the first years it was all Kryolan. But after my first convention I discovered Wolfe and switched over. I love the opacity and durability. For individual clients who come to me for a longer appointment, I still get out my entire arsenal: some Fantasy Worldwide, some Kryolan, Mehron metallic powders, and a lot of Mac makeup.

My "everyday kit" is 90% wolfe, with my favorite Kryolan copper, Cherry Bomb red from Paradise, Kryolan "youth red" blush,and a snazaroo magenta color that I really like.

My favorite thing is always changing. I'll get obsessed with a design element for awhile, and try to get it into as many designs as possible in as many ways as possible, then I'll find something else to be obsessed with. For awhile it was hammerhead sharks. After that; craggy mountains in the style of Bob Ross. Then it was painting everything in a monochromatic color scheme. My most favorite, though, is being challenged by the super-active imaginations of children.

I always strive to make each face different, and really fit the person. I've been called the "psychic face painter" by many different people who have said "surprise me". I've decided that being artistically fulfilled, and not compromising on quality is the thing that will keep me loving this art form - and keep me feeling young- for the rest of my life.

3rd Place

Lilly Walters

I am best known as an expert on the world of professional speaking. I have written several books on the subject, and others, one of the best selling being about how to type with one hand.

I got into painting by doing those silly painted Christmas yard sign. Now we have one of those tacky homes with a zillion painted yards signs for every holiday (see videos of our house at Christmas). The more I painted, the more I loved it. Next I tried stencils, and other types of patterns. Finally I tried a few simple things freehand. This lead to my first art book, Cobblestone Cottages From Junk Jars, then an ebook, Paint A Cobblestone Courtyard On Your Cement Floor. Now I have all kinds of paint patterns for sale on-line and a book on how to paint on fabric. Then one day my church asked me to help at a Festival painting faces. "Oh, I can't do that!" They insisted, and I fell in love. At the Festival we do from 600 - 850 faces in two days. I train their volunteer staff of painters and help coordinate it all.

But this once a year event was not enough to get my fix. So, I created a little website for my face painting, to see if anyone would actually PAY me to paint! Today I am very fortunate, my phone rings just about every day with someone wanting to hire a professional face painter. Now I get to say, "that's me!"

Although I use just about every paint, except Snazaroo, my favorite paints are mostly Diamond FX and pressed powders.

In June of 2008 I founded the West Coast Face Painters, which is a support group for other professional face painters.

See more about Lilly Walters, Face and Body Painter