How to Paint a Clown

Clowns should be painted with exaggerated features to convey emotion.

Whether you are dressing up as a clown for a costume party or will portray a clown in a theater production, proper paint application will make your clown costume realistic. Your clown face should have exaggerated facial features to make it look like the clown is always smiling and bright-eyed. You should always use cosmetic grade face paint and glitter to protect your skin from reactions to tempera and craft paints that many people paint faces with. Refer to pictures of clowns for inspiration when creating the design for your own clown face painting.

Things You'll Need

• White face paint
• Red face paint
• Black face paint
• Blue face paint
• Pink face paint
• Cosmetic sponges
• Small paintbrushes
• Cotton swabs

Instructions

1. Create a base for your clown face by applying a thick layer of white face paint with a cosmetic sponge and allow it to dry completely. Be sure to cover your eyebrows, leaving only your eyes and lips exposed.

2. Draw an outline of an exaggerated smiling mouth with a thin paintbrush and red paint. Feel free to design the mouth however you wish, but clown mouths are usually at least one inch bigger all the way around your lips.

3. Fill in the outline for the mouth with red paint and a cosmetic sponge or paintbrush.

4. Draw eyebrows one to two inches above your natural eyebrows with a thick layer of black paint. You might make dramatic arches, bright rounded arches or create your own design.

5. Fill in the eyes below your painted eyebrows with blue paint and a paintbrush. If you don't want blue eyes, try another color or use different colors for each eye.

6. Give your clown a flushed, rosy look by painting small pink circles on your cheeks.

7. Paint a red circle on the end of your nose to complete the basic clown features.

8. Add definition to the mouth, cheek and nose paint by outlining with a small paintbrush and black paint.

Tips & Warnings

• Try adding face glitter in the same color to some of the features when the paint is still wet. This will make the face appear extra bright and define the features from far away.

References

• Face Painting Fun: Face Painting Designs
• Beauty and the Bath: Clown Face Painting Pictures for Adults
• Easy Face Painting: Face Painting Supplies

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish