Markers of all types have been in our bags, pouches and aprons for a long time! Sharpies© lead the pack! Everybody carries a black one. Do you carry a red one? What about blue or green? Even an orange or purple one? If you have time during the job to do a lot of art work, then I suppose it is great to have the multitude of colors available.
It’s a double edged sword when you have long lines. It looks great that you are busy and everybody wants one of your creations! It’s bad because you now have to limit how elaborate a balloon you can make. The terrific things that you make will have to wait for a different time!
When it comes to using the marker, I keep it as simple as I can. I have always had the belief, that if you made it right, you don’t need to use a marker. Well, I have mellowed a little since then. I might add eyes to certain designs or a little bit of markings to bring out the character of the desired animal design. But what ever will translate the design, and still be quick is what I will do. There are extremes. When I make something special for the special person of honor, I will devote more time to it. For example, my Pikachu not only looks like him, but takes around 8 minutes to make, but the art work takes even longer – around 10 minutes. You can’t spend upwards of 15 minutes on a single creation when you have a long line. It would be Anarchy!!! They would rush you!!! I save the big art work for the last balloon being made! Kind of as a special thank you for helping me control the long line and also, having a bigger fancier creation walking around definitely gets noticed! That is why I reserve the last 15 minutes of the job to do a special birthday balloon for the birthday child/person. That is the one that will end up in all of the family pictures! That is the one that will get you hired back for next year.
OK, a little disclaimer, I make sure that every child has an equal number of balloons so no one feels slighted. Then I will make what I can during the remaining minutes of the job.