Just wondering if anyone had trouble in the beginning with finding just the right face. I've done three faces and
haven't settled on one yet. Did anyone else have this trouble? I want my face to match my personality and costume. Help! :-?

Mercy:

Great question! When I first began developing my character I spent many hours drawing faces and perfecting the look I wanted. In the end I came up with a great look that I was more than happy with the very first time I put it on.

I wish this was the end of the story. I found that manychildren were afraid of my first charcter as he was a full white face. After experimenting with a few other characters (three others - with different faces) I changed the original character (Loopy) into and cross, auguste/hobo and he became Loopy's brother "Patches". This accounts for the similarities between the two.

I have since noticed much fewer children being afriad since "Patches" shows much more real "people" skin on his face. A lesson learned and thankful for I must say. :-)

For me it took several years to find a clown face that I was 100% happy with. I tried 2 different comedy whiteface designs and 2 August face designs before finding one that was right for my character. Just keep working on it and you will eventually get there :-P

Clowning

A few. I started as an Auguste, and tried several variations of that until I found a face that worked. When I did Birthday parties, I used a whiteface. That one has never really changed; I might make some changes when I replace the costume and probably the only thing I reuse is his name-Rusty.
Rusty was a grotesque whiteface in a one piece costume...Not my thing anymore.
My main Character,Scruffy has not really changed in twenty years, and with the exception of the eyes the makeup is pretty much the same as the first time I put it on. I think when you find the face that works it's almost a magical experience. For me the face has always been the easy part. Costuming, now thats another story.

I looked at pictures of clowns I liked, determined what it was about them that I liked (eyes, mouth, etc.) and made up a face using this clown's eyes with that clowns mouth. The design worked well with only subtle changes,( line thickness, blending). Originally I had a black mouth but after my first meal I changed it to red. That way if makeup wears off, it's still red underneath!

part if it is deciding on your character. I have some physical limitation and knew I did not want to be the slap stick clown or the one to get pie in the face, that's an auguste, White is the pretty, more serious clown. In my troupe there are only 2 white face and the others are all auguste. It took many tries before I was happy with my face. and now I get lots of compliments. I always thought we did well with costumes until the last conference I went to and found out about the 3x3 rule , try to use 3 colors only [a print counts as 1 color] and repeat it three times.