PURPOSE: To form a smoothed coating film by forming a smoother to smooth a paint transfered to a flexible supporting body from a film-like elastic body whose one end Js made to be a free end and making the stiffness values of the tip part of the free end and the upper part different in two stages.

CONSTITUTION: A paint 7 is supplied to the inside of a paint pan 6 and a gravure roll 1 is rotated. The paint 7 is picked up to the inside of a cell of the gravure roll 1 and the quantity of the paint is regulated to be constant by a doctor blade 12. Further, the gravure roll 1 and a running flexible supporting body 2 are pressed and brought into contact with each other by a back up roll 2 and thus the paint 7 is transfered to the flexible supporting body 4. Moreover the paint 7 is smoothed by a smoother 5. In a painting apparatus having a structure like that, the smoother 5 is composed of a film-like elastic body whose one end is made to be a free end. The stiffness values of the tip part of the free end and the upper part are made different in two stages, and the stiffness of the tip end part is made smaller than that of the upper part.