Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Cole.
Katie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve always been doing art ever since I was a kid. I didn’t take it serious as a career but in college, I took a basic drawing class for fun while I was majoring in biochemistry and I started to realize I was much happier when I was doing art. I dropped biochemistry and switched my major to art.
At the time, I was working as a busser at a bbq restaurant and one of my old friends mentioned to me that Disneyland was hiring face painters. She knew I liked art and suggested I apply. I applied even without any experience with face painting and I got the job the same day! This changed my life completely (I didn’t know it yet though). At first, it was tough, I had no experience painting on squirming children so I thought I sucked at it. This just made me practice more so that I could feel good about my face paints! I practiced on myself everyday. Nothing big, just little flowers or dinosaurs, whatever the kids liked the most. I started to work as a freelance face painter for private parties and I quit Disneyland to move to Northridge with my boyfriend at the time. Once I was in Northridge I felt really lonely. I left all my friends and family down in Orange County and my boyfriend was always at school. This is when everything changed… I started to paint on myself more and more and got more elaborate with each try.
I started to post these looks on my Instagram and got really excited to see that there was a whole beauty community on Instagram where lots of people also painted their own faces! I became obsessed and never stopped painting myself ever since. That was in 2015 and now here we are in 2020 and I have 146,000 followers on Instagram and 180,000 on TikTok. If someone would’ve told me that when I started, I would’ve said they are crazy! What started as a fun hobby became my full-time passion. It took five years of posting every single day, giving up going out with friends to stay at home and paint myself. But to me, it was worth it because I still love what I do and don’t see myself stopping any time soon.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say it was anything but a smooth road. In 2016 I broke up with the boyfriend I lived with in Northridge and moved back in with my parents in Orange County. I went through a really bad depression that year and all of 2017. I even stopped painting for a few months which was crazy for me because I was painting almost everyday before. But painting was what slowly got me back to myself. Even at my worst, I still wanted to paint. Once I was a little better, I began putting all my energy into my Instagram but this came with so much anxiety and self-doubt. I second-guessed every painting even when my family and friends would say it looked amazing. I still struggle with self-doubt actually, and I’m not sure it will ever go away but I have learned to ignore it and post my looks anyways.
Please tell us about Fancyflutie.
I would say my specialty is body painting and I also mix in a lot of makeup. My followers really started to know me for my skull makeup and character body paints. I love when they request a character they love and I can bring it to life for them. But what I’m most proud of is the fact that I’ve done 31 days of October for three years in a row. What’s that you ask? It is when I post a brand new look every single day of October. In 2017 and 2018 I was actually painting every single day in October and then posting the next day and that was exhausting. For 2019 I started my October looks in April and painted all 31 of them throughout the months in between my other looks. This was also equally as exhausting, hahaha. But I think my fans really recognize my work ethic and how much effort I really put into everything and they appreciate it. And I appreciate them for supporting me and keeping me motivated.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Definitely, the times I would go to my grandma’s house after school and she would let me print out fairy pictures (the Art of Amy Brown) and I would try to draw those pictures. I probably have over 100 fairy drawings from when I was younger. This was really when I started to try hard at drawing and started realizing how much I loved it. My grandma would light up with excitement every time I showed her a drawing and it really motivated me to keep going.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Instagram.com/fancyflutie
- Facebook: Facebook.com/katcolebodyart
- Twitter: Twitter.com/fancyflutie
- Other: TikTok.com/fancyflutie
Image Credit:
Katie Cole
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