I am doing a smash cake for a 1 year old boy. Mom wanted a clown because they are having a clown for the party. I used the sports ball pan to make just the clown face. I used all buttercream so the little guy could just dig in and not be distracted with fondant. Now that it's done, I'm wondering if it's scary. I'd hate to traumatize him! Is there anything he's missing that would make him look better? I'm just not thrilled with him at this point! Thanks!
My 4 year old says she's scared of it, but my 7 year old says if you filled in the red part around the mouth to look like a giant smile it would be more friendly looking. She also says if you put a bow at the neck that would make it more fun looking.
what about this? I happen to be one of those people that just thinks ALL clowns are scary for some reason..........all I did was make the diamonds on the eyes more elongated and fill in the smile, add the snowflake sparkle things and a bow.
I think he definitely looks more friendly now!
I think he's cute but I can see how a small child may find him scary. You may want to consider filling in his lips sort of like this one: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1269240 and also add a bow tie and alter the eyes a bit to be more like this: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1288990 - i know you used buttercream - just scarp the pieces off you want to change and repipe using a star shape for the eys with a white dot it the center.
Here's what I would do in addition to KHalstead's adjustments...
Make the whites of the eyes larger and place the pupils more like they are looking down rather than staring directly at you. Also, make the nose larger and add smile lines to side of mouth. Possible even make the hair a little fuller.
I think he will look just fine once you make the changes. He was a littel scary to start with. I like the bowtie and the bigger smile and the eyes do help a lot. Much less scary. In fact - friendly would be what I feel when I look at it with the changes.
I'm clown-phobic, too (what's up with that?) -- and I think juleebug's changes make it way less scary. It's actually sort of *gulp* cute.
As an aside, how cool is it that we can post a picture of something we're not happy with and let people a zillion miles a way fiddle with it and help? SO cool. Gotta love technology! And also helpful, talented folks!
Cheers,
paula
HORRIFIED OF CLOWNS, so for me, all I see is scary, scarier, and scariest. Maybe you should ask the mom and see what she thinks. She probably will know if her son will freak out or not.
Maybe a little sugar cone hat as well? You could just decorate it with BC. I like the tie and bigger features.
For the record, I once had to do my wife's makeup, at the last minute, for a children's safety fair. Little did I know that the only clown in my memory was John Wayne Gacy. She looked truly frightening.
Maybe a little sugar cone hat as well? You could just decorate it with BC. I like the tie and bigger features.
For the record, I once had to do my wife's makeup, at the last minute, for a children's safety fair. Little did I know that the only clown in my memory was John Wayne Gacy. She looked truly frightening.
LOL...but seriously, I would have fainted!
coulrophobic from way back. 
..i see the original and all i see is stephen king's pennywise the clown. lol. i love the changes tho. looks a lot more like a carnival clown and not a creepy clown. the bigger eyes and nose did it for me. but i agree, ask the mom if the child likes clowns or not. some kids aren't afraid of anything.
Jaime that would be fun wouldn't it???
My DD and I play a little game like that, she just turned 6 and can draw quite well...she'll draw a shape, just some random shape and then I add something and then her and it's always cool to see how it morphs into something totally different!
One time she made the first shape and I thought it looked kinda like a whale, so I drew the spout thingy on top and then she drew some trees around the bottom and I was like "huh???" she said........"it's a volcano!!" and then all of a sudden I saw it and it DID look exactlly like a volcano and the spout was the lava spewing out of the top!!
Would be fun to do that with a cake huh?
I hate clowns, but the last edit is cute. I think the bigger eyes help a ton.
Okay, had to quickly throw together one as well haha. I really like Sweetmom's suggestions as well. With the original image all I could think about was that he has no eyebrows. I know, I know, typically clowns don't but they do help to soften the look and make the smile a bit warmer. Here's my 5 minute quickie (I'm at work and don't want to be questioned about clowns on my screen haha!)
This is by far the funniest thread I've seen in ages. I've been sitting here in side splitting laughter. Thank you all!! I've been home sick all week and hubby's had to be out of town working. I needed the laughs! And it helped loosen the crud in my chest. Ü
Why are so many scared of clowns??
I've never liked clowns myself. They don't scare me, but I tend to shy away from them. I watched parts of that Stephen King movie and to this day I don't like even the mention of it. But the "eeks" and "scarey, scarier and scariest" comments just cracked me up. And THANKS ALOT for reminding me about Gacy!!! LOL I'm not laughing at your fears, it just strikes me funny is all, since this IS about a cake.
Back to the cake. If the mom is planning a clown for the party I hope this means her child has been around a clown. If the clown scares the child she'll know soon enough. So will all the other parents, I guess.
The doctored cake looks better than the original. If you have serious concerns about the clown part maybe you could scrape off the clown and do the cake with brightly colored balloons instead. I bet that clown will be doing balloon animals for the party.
WOW! I'm glad this thread is a great enjoyment and I love all the photoshopping! That is too cool! I went to work, thinking I was going to have to come home and scrape everything off and start fresh but when I saw your ideas I was able to salvage what I had (with a little scraping involved!) By the way, I have never seen the Stephen King movie but I was afraid the clown might look like that. I'm going to blame this one on my husband b/c I kept asking him what clowns looked like, etc and he gave me the ideas--I'll be coming here first from now on 
In his defense, he just tries his best to help! Anyhoo, here is my updated clown cake. I didn't feel like I had enough room for the stars from the original photoshop. I definitely feel like this one is friendlier. Feel free to keep playing it! Thanks again!!!
Angela
As an aside, I realize his smile is crooked, but I'm going to say that it adds to his charm 
Totally cool. He looks less scary now 
And the crooked smile is a charmer. Whenever planning out ideas for cakes, I come here first and if I don't find what I am looking for I google it. But I always add 'cake' into the google search because I like to see what it looks like in cake form. As we all know, the actual cake almost always looks different from a real life photo! Great job!
Did you make the cake? I was thinking the eyes like this and put m&ms in the bow, the kid would love it. I remember my mom once made a clown face and put chiclets for teeth.
Now this looks cute & friendly!
Worked briefly as a producer of theater for young children and we were forbidden to use clowns! The reasoning at the time was that we learn to read faces when we are very young and a child cannot "read" clown faces (neither can adults) because their features are "frozen"/painted on. make sense?
I still find the eyes disturbing - I really like Sweetmom's eyes - the black part quite large and looking to the side are not so threatening. The m and m's in bow are a good distraction, too.
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