How to Paint a Happy Clown Face

Be a happy clown by choosing bright colors to paint your face.

Clowns can have a variety of emotions and themes displayed through their painted-face designs. There are sad clowns, scary-looking evil clowns and even confused clowns. The secret to face painting a happy clown is to use light and bright, sunny colors. Sparkles also help to give a friendly and lively twinkle to a clown face. Happy clowns make everyone smile, so paint a cheerful-looking clown face that will delight and amuse all who see it.

Things You'll Need

• Face-painting sponges
• Pink, white, yellow, and orange water-based face paint
• Water
• Soft-bristled wide brush
• Soft-bristled small round detail brush
• Gold, silver and/or multi-colored loose face-painting sparkles

Instructions

1. Load a face-painting sponge with pink water-based face paint by dipping the edge of the sponge in water and then rotating it in paint. Lightly dab pink over the cheeks to give the clown a rosy complexion.

2. Load a soft-bristled wide brush with white paint by dipping the brush in water and then rubbing it around in paint. Paint an arch over each eye. Put a line below each eye joining with the bottom edges of the arches to form semi-circles. Color in the semi-circles with white paint. Paint a wide large smile over top of the mouth with white paint.

3. Outline the semi-circles around the eyes and the smile around the mouth with yellow using a soft-bristled small round detail brush. Double load the small round brush with yellow and white face paint by filling the entire brush with yellow and then rotating the tip in white. Starting at the top of the bridge of the nose and going upward onto the forehead, paint three upward teardrop strokes. This is done by pressing the tip of the brush against the bridge of the nose, then sliding upward, pressing slightly as you slide. End the teardrop stroke by pressing fully down on the face.

4. Use a small, round brush to paint orange lines going upward from the base of the eyelid to the eyebrow like sunbeams shooting out from the eye. Paint an orange circle on the nose. Sprinkle gold, silver and/or multi-colored, loose face-painting sparkles on the face.

References

• Leslie Wandell; Professional Face Painter and Owner/Operator of Face It Transformations; Kingston, Ontario
• Carrie Whalen: Professional Face Painter and Owner of Young Artists of Kingston; Kingston, Ontario
• Jennifer Zwiers; Professional Face Painter and Owner/Operator of Face Invaders; Napanee, Ontario

Resources

• Snazaroo: The World's Favourite Face and Body Paint