Laotian Design Studio Project

The iconic image of a clown has much more meaning today than it did fifty years ago. The perpetual smile and entertaining antics of the old Barnum & Bailey Circus performer has been adopted by the counter culture and it has become the poster boy for latent maliciousness that runs deeper than basic childhood delinquency. The clown with a painted face can be traced to the masked tricksters from Greek tragedies. This mythic character is, at times, the outspoken voice of reason in the face of hubristic endeavors. This character has also come to be viewed, in the Western European tradition, as a representation of everyman as he puts on an outward appearance of happiness to hide the sorrow within his soul.

         I chose this particular image of a maniacal clown from the characters created by my younger son. He is keenly interested in comics and all their manifestations from the Sunday Funny Pages to Miyazaki’s anime masterpieces. This version is a portly acrobatic performer seen at the moment of springing off a ball towards the viewer. The voluptuous contours are played against the ragged regularity of the decorative leaf pattern that demarks the margin. The contrast between the two major elements is also marked by their historical and cultural differences. The pattern is an interpretation of traditional vegetative and floral designs from Laos. These types of graphic representations have symbolic and historic connotations often used to decorate official buildings and temples. There is iconographical meanings attached to the patterns but these have been largely usurped in this image by the decorative alignment and intentional somber colors. The predominant culture exemplified in this splash page is the current comic style of appropriation and redirection.

            The clown in graphic comic terms is often a malevolent misanthrope intent on inflicting some heinous scheme upon a particular victim. The perpetual smile is as much a mask as Batman’s cowl or Clark Kent’s glasses. The makeup provides anonymity and with it the luxury of implementing the necessary steps to carry out his intended crimes, but comics are morality plays and this means that this chubby jester will see some form of justice eventually- this is built into the Joey (comic)/Auguste culture. The duality of funny/evil is echoed by those of good guy/bad guy and crime/punishment.

            The colors of the solitary figure are the most clean and bold of the illustration. Primary and secondary colors are traditionally associated with “happy” clowns in the west and in this case they add to the mask that this character hides behind. The background and pattern colors are muted complements following examples from 19^th century circus posters. These were printed before process colors or inks were developed and subsequently have a strong neutral cast to them. The integration of the Laotian design parallels the similar appropriation of traditional European patterns common in advertisings and posters in the early days of commercial printing. The variegated leaf pattern was altered and inserted behind the figure and the ball to add a threatening element as well as to add visual depth. The drawing and color application followed the old style of hand compositing used before computers made their generic impact on illustrating. This piece would have qualified as a color trial for a character study and would be refined by reworking the image with more appropriate techniques, specifically pen and ink to give it a smoother look that would afford greater visual impact.

            The colors are meant to suggest an impending nightfall with glow of the afternoon reluctantly ebbing. Comic book evildoers often commit wicked deeds in the dark of night because just as it not only hides their actions it adds to the malevolent aura attached to their position. This clown is displayed with only allusions to evil. It is suggested through his expression, positioning and tools of the trade. It only hints at the badness that may come later and that badness may be very grave. Lon Chaney, familiar with the value of makeup and the advantages of playing the fool to achieve his goals, is credited with saying, “there is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight.”