Clowns, Clowns, Clowns

What good is a clown costume without the clown face?  Clown costumes are really rather unremarkable if special care isn’t taken with the clown face.  Getting a perfect clown face is easy, but there is an art to it.

First step: get a big, colored wig.  Big, bright wigs are a vital necessity in clown faces.  I cannot imagine a clown with short brown hair.  Can you?  No, clowns need big bright red or green wigs on.  Get a good wig first, and then worry about the actual clown face.

Once you have a wig, next you need to paint your face.  Start with simple white makeup as a base.  Paint your entire face white so that no skin shows.  After your entire face, including your ears and neck, is painted white, get some bright face paint.  Once again, clowns faces are all about bright colors on a white field.  Red is a traditional color, but blue or green or even purple or orange or any other bright, simple color will work.  Paint a big outline well outside, but following the contours of, your mouth.  This gives the illusion that you have a huge smile, and is a look very often associated with clown faces.  Apply this same color to your eyes.  When you’ve finished with the makeup, you should have a totally white face, with bright colors highlighting both your mouth and eyes.

You’re almost done, but there is one important part of a clown face that we haven’t addressed yet: clown noses.  The clown nose is the most recognizable part of the clown face.  Many clowns choose to purchase a plastic red nose, while some choose rather to paint their noses red.  For some reason, while there is some flexibility in the color of the wig, mouth, and eyes; clown noses are almost always red.  Choosing a plastic red nose carries the added benefit of allowing the nose to honk when squeezed.  This is funny and never fails to delight children.  On the other hand, with a plastic clown nose, you have to worry all day about your nose falling off.  Clowns who choose to paint their clown noses on don’t have to worry about this.  It isn’t quite as whimsical, but it’s an effective way for people to paint clown faces without a lot of unnecessary trips to specialty stores.

Clown faces are easy to paint on.  Because of this, people may be liable to rush it or do a bad job.  If you take special care—get a good wig, good face paint, good clown noses—then your clown face will be the best clown face