Modern Cartoon Characters with Corey Morgan

Master Modern Cartoon Characters with Corey Morgan

When kids light up at the sight of their favorite cartoon characters coming to life on their faces, you know you've nailed it. In this engaging webinar, face painting master Corey Morgan shares his expert techniques for creating four of the most requested modern cartoon designs: Sonic the Hedgehog, Stitch, Hello Kitty, and Spider-Man.

Corey Morgan is a seasoned face painter who has taught at conventions across the globe, from FABAtlantic in Ireland to various events throughout England. His specialty? Cartoons and superheroes. With his signature approachable teaching style and willingness to answer any question thrown his way, Corey makes even the most intimidating designs feel achievable.

Why These Characters Still Dominate Request Boards

Even without new movies constantly in theaters, characters like Sonic, Stitch, and Hello Kitty remain perennial favorites. Boys especially love Sonic the Hedgehog, while Hello Kitty continues to capture the hearts of young girls everywhere. Corey emphasizes that having these designs in your repertoire means you'll always have satisfied customers, whether you use a design board or simply ask kids what they'd like.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Simple Yet Striking

Corey kicks off the class with Sonic, demonstrating just how straightforward this beloved character can be. The secret? You only need three colors: white, blue, and black. Using Mehron StarBlends white powder and a smoothie blender, Corey creates Sonic's distinctive large eyes. He then reaches for GTX Wrangler Blue, a shimmer blue that he describes as phenomenal for any design requiring blue, from Sonic to Batman to Captain America.

The design comes together with Sonic's signature spiky ears created as simple triangles, outlined with that gorgeous metallic blue. Corey uses a number eight round brush to efficiently cover the surface area, but reassures viewers that a size four works just as well. He outlines everything with waxy black paint, like FAB Luxe, which provides excellent definition. The finishing touch? White highlights along Sonic's spiky hair and his characteristic attitude-filled eyebrows.

One of Corey's favorite tricks is adding halftone dots using his custom stencil around the outside of the design. As he puts it, these dots are like bacon: you don't necessarily need them, but they make everything better. The comic book effect adds professional polish to an already crowd-pleasing design.

Stitch: Building on the Same Foundation

Here's where Corey's teaching brilliance shines. Stitch follows largely the same concept as Sonic, just with slightly different shapes. Instead of white for the eyes, he uses Superstar's Zebra Blue, a light shimmer blue that's perfect for Stitch's large, expressive eyes. The smoothie blender works beautifully with this paint, giving excellent coverage and control.

Stitch's long, floppy ears get painted in pink before the blue head goes around them, which prevents running out of space. Corey creates long teardrop shapes for the ears, starting thin at the bottom and widening toward the top. The GTX Wrangler Blue forms Stitch's head, wrapping around the nose which will become black later.

Using his Marcella Bustamante number three script liner, Corey adds precise outlines and those essential highlights. When a viewer asks about adding Stitch's nose, Corey confirms he always includes it, creating that authentic character look. The design finishes with blue and pink glitter gel, applied with fingers for easy, mess-free sparkle that kids absolutely love.

Hello Kitty: Sometimes You Wing It

In a delightful moment of spontaneity, Corey admits he hadn't planned to demonstrate Hello Kitty, but when his young model requested it, he delivered. This perfectly illustrates the reality of face painting: sometimes your best designs come from responding to what kids actually want rather than sticking rigidly to a plan.

Hello Kitty is beautifully simple. White powder or paint covers the area around the eyes (but not over them, because as Corey points out with a smile, the child already has two perfectly good eyes). A pink bow sits off to one side, created with just a circle and two triangular sides. Black outlines define the bow and face shape, a yellow nose adds character, and three whiskers on each side complete the iconic look. Purple glitter makes the final magical touch.

Corey shares a brilliant tip for getting better coverage with StarBlends powder: use a plastic scouring pad or even the handle of your smoothie blender to score the surface of the cake. This breaks up the powder so you can pick up more product, resulting in beautifully opaque coverage.

Spider-Man and Ghost Spider: Fixing Common Mistakes

Corey frequently sees posts from face painters struggling with their Spider-Man designs, so he dedicates significant time to correcting the most common errors. The session covers both classic Spider-Man and Ghost Spider (previously known as Spider-Gwen), giving viewers two designs in one.

The first mistake? Making the white eye shape too large. Corey only brings his white just slightly past the model's actual eyes and doesn't extend it much higher than the eyebrows. The second common error is bringing the point of the eye straight up to twelve o'clock, which makes Spider-Man look like he has cat ears. The point should actually sit between one and two o'clock (or ten and eleven on the other side).

Perhaps most importantly, Corey demonstrates the proper black outline technique. Many painters create a thin black line around the white, but that's not how Spider-Man's eyes actually look in any comic, cartoon, or movie. The black should be thick and form its own distinct shape that complements the white portion.

For the webbing, Corey emphasizes two absolute rules: the webs converge between the eyes, never on the nose. And above the eyes, web lines curve down and up like a U shape. Get these wrong, he says with good humor, and the design is simply incorrect.

Ghost Spider offers an easier alternative for girls wanting a spider character. The mask is entirely white (painted with a kabuki brush for smooth, quick coverage), with pink eye shapes and a pink haze created using his halftone dot stencil. This gradient effect mimics the actual character design from the comics and looks absolutely professional.

The Truth About Painting on Dark Skin

One of the most valuable segments addresses a question Corey frequently encounters: how do you paint on dark skin? His answer is refreshingly simple and delivered with patience. You load your brush properly. That's it.

Corey demonstrates this using his own family members as models, showing viewers that the red on Spider-Man and the blue on Sonic appear just as vibrant and opaque on dark skin as on any other skin tone. The key is using enough paint to create an opaque layer. He firmly debunks the myth about laying down white first, explaining that white plus red just creates pink. There's absolutely no need for a white base coat, and in fact, it would ruin your colors.

This straightforward, demystifying approach helps face painters feel confident working with all skin tones using exactly the same techniques.

Pro Tips from the Session

Throughout the webinar, Corey shares numerous professional insights. When using stencils with a sponge, load very lightly to prevent bleeding. When painting with both hands (which Corey does primarily to avoid blocking the camera), practice makes perfect. Always tap excess powder off your smoothie blender before applying it to prevent a "rain" of powder all over your model.

He advocates strongly for using whatever tools work for you, whether that's expensive professional brushes or ones from Walmart. What matters is the result, not the brand name. His personal favorites are Marcella Bustamante's brushes, which he couldn't resist purchasing at FABAtlantic despite already having plenty at home.

For glitter application, Corey prefers glitter balm over gel because of its consistency. It's easy to apply with fingers and works beautifully on both skin and over face paint, adding that extra sparkle kids request.

Tools and Products Featured

Corey works with a carefully curated selection of professional products throughout the demonstration. His color caddy, made by his daughter Noel, keeps everything organized and easily accessible. The featured products include:

• GTX Wrangler Blue for vibrant, shimmery blue designs
• Superstar or FAB Blue for lighter blue accents
• Mehron StarBlends White Powder for opaque coverage
• Smoothie Blenders for controlled application
• GTX Rodeo Red for Spider-Man's mask
• Marcella Bustamante Script Liner Brushes in size three
• Blazin Brushes by Marcella Bustamante for various techniques
• Halftone Dot Combo Stencils for professional comic book effects

Making Face Painting Accessible

What makes this webinar truly special is Corey's commitment to showing designs that viewers can actually recreate immediately. He's not trying to create museum-worthy masterpieces that take thirty minutes per face. Instead, he demonstrates solid, professional designs that work in real-world party and event settings, each taking ten to fifteen minutes.

His teaching style welcomes questions about everything from technique to business aspects of face painting to handling difficult customer situations. As he jokes, he's a master of "Mad Magazine snappy answers to stupid questions," making the learning environment both informative and fun.

The session proves that modern cartoon characters don't have to be intimidating. With the right techniques, proper product loading, and a few professional tricks, these crowd-pleasing designs become staples in any face painter's repertoire. Whether you're painting Sonic's spiky attitude, Stitch's adorable ears, Hello Kitty's simple charm, or Spider-Man's iconic mask, Corey's methods ensure you'll create designs that make kids smile every single time.