How to Make a Hobo Clown Costume

Step 8 Makeup

What's a clown without his or her makeup?

We searched for affordable great quality make-up, as the “cheap stuff” is usually greasy and hard to work with, but couldn’t find anything that fit the bill.  So we took a trip to Wal-Mart and bought a clown makeup kit, complete with nose (although, we opted to use different noses found at a party store because they were more comfortable).  In this clown kit, you must make sure to have black, white, and red grease pens as well as at least the white and black color in a palette form.  Also, make sure you have plenty of triangle makeup sponges on hand.

1. Start by making a white outline with the white grease make-up pen around the mouth in a kidney bean shape with the arch facing down.  Feel free to follow natural lines in your face when doing this to make sure the proportions look like they fit you.  Fill in the lines using a makeup sponge, covering your lips and all.  White may be the hardest color to work with, as it is very important to get full, even coverage with the white, but also very difficult to do so. 

2. You will then want to outline the white with the black grease pen to prevent unwanted smudging between the black and white makeups. Then, make another outline with the black grease pen starting at the top end of your sideburns, curving down and back up to follow a natural line that an unshaven beard would make, and ending at the bottom of your nose.  You then want to fill in the beard with a makeup sponge and the black grease palette makeup.  It is much less important to get an even coat of the black.  In fact, you don’t want that at all.  Use your fingers and the sponge to smudge the black all the way down the face and neck, mimicking the look of a textured five o'clock shadow. 

3. As for the eyebrows, you want to follow your natural eyebrows with the black grease pen, thickening and filling it in with short controlled strokes.  Then, create the illusion of an upturned sad brow by extending your natural brow line upward towards the center.  As long as you remain straight-faced, this will give the illusion of sad eyes.

4. Now use the red grease pen to lightly line the top of the beard line on the cheeks.  All great Emmett Kelly style hobo clowns have rosy flushed cheeks, and this is how we get ours.  Carefully smudge, using your fingers, the light red line upwards until it fades into your natural skin tone.  You want the ending color to be a nice pink, not red.  

5. The very final touch adds a little bit of definition to the mouth.  Simply use the black grease pen to lightly smudge on the inside of your lips so that your mouth doesn’t get lost in all the white.  Put your hair up, if you have any. When your makeup is complete, your own mother wouldn't recognize you. She'd just think it was a hobo asking her for money, not her kid!

We're almost done. Let's go to the next step and put it all together!