Cartoon and Video Game Character Face Painting with Mara Zegers

Bring Popular Characters to Life with Fast, Fun Face Paint Designs

If you've ever had a line of kids asking for their favorite video game or cartoon characters, you know the challenge: creating recognizable designs that look amazing but don't take forever. In this exciting webinar, talented face painter Mara Zegers from the Netherlands demonstrates how to paint four popular character designs that kids absolutely love, from K-pop sensations to classic gaming icons.

About Mara Zegers
Mara Zegers is a professional face painter based in Holland, known for her crisp line work and ability to create impressive character designs quickly. She's a returning favorite at Facepaint.com, having previously taught a popular animal masterclass. Mara specializes in creating designs that balance artistic quality with practical speed, making her techniques perfect for busy events and birthday parties.

Product List

Here are 5-8 specific products featured in this webinar:

1. Kraze FX Puppy Split Cake - Used for skin tones in character designs
2. Kraze FX Thrill Split Cake - Purple shades for character hair and details
3. Kraze FX Bright Neon Split Cake - Vibrant backgrounds and accents
4. Kraze FX Fundamentals 6-Color Palette - Essential colors for line work and shading
5. Kraze FX Meadow Split Cake - Green tones perfect for Minecraft Creeper designs
6. Kraze FX Glow Split Cake - Neon orange for bold character features
7. Blazing Brushes Round Brushes (Marcela Bustamante line) - Sizes 3-5 for detail work
8. Aliyah Brushes - Various sizes including #2 liner and #6 flat for versatile painting

Four Character Designs You'll Learn

Mara walks through four distinct character designs, each with its own unique challenges and shortcuts. Whether you're working a busy event or a birthday party where you have more time to impress, these techniques will help you deliver characters that kids recognize and love.

Rumi from K-Pop Demon Hunters

The webinar kicks off with Rumi, the purple-haired main character from the popular K-Pop Demon Hunters movie. This design showcases how to create anime-style characters with distinctive features like elaborate braided hair and demonic lightning marks. Mara demonstrates smart color choices using the Kraze FX Puppy Split Cake for skin tones and the Trill Split Cake for that signature purple hair. The key to making this design work quickly is strategic shading with blue tones and keeping the demonic marks intentionally asymmetric, just like in the movie. By using larger black circles for eyes instead of painting full white surrounds, you save valuable time while still capturing the character's essence.

SpongeBob SquarePants

Few characters are as universally requested as SpongeBob, and Mara's approach makes this classic cartoon accessible even for painters who struggle with character work. Starting with white circles for the eyes and building the iconic square body with textured edges, this design comes together surprisingly quickly. The secret is in the details: creating that spongy texture with simple dots, using proper four-fingered cartoon hands instead of realistic five fingers, and adding bubbles to the background to really sell the underwater setting. Mara emphasizes that hand-painted character designs at birthday parties create a lasting impression on parents, who often book you for future events when they see what you can create without stencils.

Bowser from Super Mario

This design tackles one of gaming's most iconic villains with a methodical approach that breaks down complex features into manageable steps. Mara shows how to build Bowser's distinctive snout using the same skin-tone colors from the Rumi design, then adds his trademark green scales and orange eyebrows. The tutorial covers tricky elements like creating dimensional horns with a twisting brush technique and giving Bowser his characteristic angry expression through strategic pupil placement. Working with multiple colors including whites, greens, and oranges requires careful attention to drying times, but Mara provides practical tips for working efficiently even when paint is still slightly wet.

Minecraft Creeper

For the finale, Mara demonstrates the fastest design of the session with the beloved (and feared) Minecraft Creeper. Using the Kraze FX Meadow Split Cake for varied green tones, this angular character comes together in just minutes. The genius of this design lies in its simplicity: bold geometric shapes, strategic white pixel dots, and that unmistakable pixelated face pattern. Mara notes that the Creeper is especially popular in the Netherlands and points out that slightly wobbly lines actually enhance the scary nature of this character, making it forgiving for painters still building confidence with line work.

Pro Tips for Character Face Painting

Throughout the webinar, Mara shares valuable insights from her professional experience. She recommends using four fingers instead of five when painting cartoon hands, as five fingers tend to look unnatural on stylized characters. For designs with multiple colors, she suggests working strategically with drying times by moving to different areas while wet paint sets. When creating backgrounds, simple elements like bubbles or geometric shapes can elevate a design without adding significant time. Perhaps most importantly, Mara emphasizes adapting designs to your working environment: at busy events, use shortcuts like larger pupils and simplified elements, but at birthday parties where you have more time, impress parents with detailed hand-painted work that showcases your skills.

Essential Products Featured

Mara's product choices demonstrate why Kraze FX has become a go-to brand for professional face painters. The split cakes like Puppy, Trill, Meadow, and Bright Neon provide color variations that add depth without requiring multiple paint loadings. The Fundamentals palette offers essential colors with excellent opacity for line work, while the Glow cake delivers vibrant neon tones perfect for bold character features. For brushes, Mara relies on Blazing Brushes by Marcela Bustamante in sizes three through five for general work, and Aliyah brushes including a number two liner for detailed line work and a number six flat for backgrounds and filling larger areas.

Building Your Character Design Skills

What makes this webinar particularly valuable is Mara's honest approach to teaching. She openly discusses which designs work better in different situations, admits when something is challenging, and offers multiple options for achieving similar effects. Her teaching style encourages painters to understand the "why" behind each technique rather than just following steps, helping you adapt these designs to your own style and working conditions. Whether you're just starting to build a repertoire of character designs or looking to refine your existing techniques, these demonstrations provide a solid foundation for creating recognizable, impressive face paint characters that keep kids coming back.