Calliope CLOWN Head sculpt

One of the things that fascinates me about the 19th Century is the fact that the Clown's of that time period were actually rather scary. I had bought a Carnival Organ for my Show and wanted to top it off with a Olde' looking Clown Head.

We are so used to seeing Bozo the Clown or a Ronald Macdonald sort of Clown... but I wanted to make something a bit more disturbing. 

I have many vintage books on circuses and clowns, and started to look at the type of clown that was used on Carnivals and in circuses from 1870 to 1905. There were many different types, but most were Auguste or Pierott clowns...... and THEN I stumbled upon the 'Grotesque Clown'!

In Europe back in the 19th Century, this clown was actually quite frightening.

The Great George Fox

Sometimes the clown's could be rather serious and pompous, coming across as sinister instead of playful.

So, I wanted a clown head for my Carnival Organ that would reflect that time period.

The sculpt started with a styrofoam ball and some paper clay.

preparing the materials

I took chunks out of the styrofoam ball until I had a rudimentary face.

It don't look like much... yet.

I then began to apply the paper clay to the styrofoam ball and started to sculpt a face. It was pretty rough and simple at first.

He starts to look like a head

The next step was to add some expression to the head that would be the basis to the detail later. His nose was so large it kept falling off during the sculpt, but after around 3 tries it finally cooperated.

He smiles.

I decided that I was going to use glass eyes in his head instead of wooden eyes, because I wanted his eyes to look alive and wet.

Now he can see...

When it came to painting him, I started with a dark purple as a under coat, because I wanted it to come through the lighter colors of paint I was going to add later.

I also added a lower set of acrylic dentures into his mouth, to give him a surreal look, kinda between Alive and Sculpted.

He seems very happy with his color!

And finally, I painted the rest of him and added the details. He is now seen on top of my 120 year old Carnival Organ. I will be bringing the Carnival Organ with me when I set up my Showman's Caravan... so that we have sweet carnival music to listen to during our travels.

My clown is complete!

I have many more projects on the go to get ready for the FIRST summer out with my Showman's Caravan... stay tuned!