We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristina Robak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristina below.

Alright, Kristina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I got into face painting in 2005 in Orlando FL. I worked for a 3rd party company at the theme parks. They gave me 2 weeks of training and then it was trial and error for what works for me. With knowing what I know now I’d absolutely do it again. Met some amazing mentors and got real experience before I went on my own.
The most important thing you can learn when face painting is the line work. And doing the same faces day in and day out helped drill the perfect twar drop into your head. I really dont know where i would be without this experience. Way back then learning more was looking at others work and copying.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well I’m a artist, or I like to think of myself as one. I’ve done art all my life. After high-school I went to cosmetology school and I really loved the makeup part of it, not really the normal makeup though. I decided to move to Florida and see what I could do with myself down there and found a job as a face painter in the central Florida theme parks. I loved the work, meeting new people every day, working with the young and old. When I moved to North Carolina and started my own business in 2010 things have been great, providing face and body art, henna body art, and glitter tattoos for birthday parties, festivals, and every other client you can think of. I think my quality and speed set me apart from others in my area. I try to give each person a personal experience, but still be able to fit everyone into the time frame I an given.
I’m blessed to be able to do this for a living, and I want everyone to know that I try to make everyone’s face and body art special and custom to what they want.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

One issue I see with society and artists, or well face and body artists is the fact that most just see this as a hobby, they ask what you do for real work, or offer to just give us exposure for the work we do. If they would just treat us the same as they would any other high paying creative out there.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a face and body artist is seeing the joy on the faces of your clients. I get children in my chair, who parents tell me hate touch, and I can help them just a little with face painting, letting them feel the brush and sponges. Then seeing hiw big their eyes are when I show them the results is the best feeling in the world to me. Letting them become what they imagined even for just a little while is amazing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/volcanicpunk
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/facepaintingbykristina