Looking back on Cookie’s wardrobe, I’m surprised so many things went right with this paper doll, considering how many things could have gone wrong. For one thing. I was out of my depth. Up until this point I had never drawn any contemporary fashion paper dolls that were stylish in any way. And Cookie is very stylish.
So a lot of what I was doing with these pieces was pure trial and error and fixing mistakes as I went along. You can see by the copyright on these plates that I actually did them in the fall/winter of 2015, so my memory is slightly hazy, but I do recollect that I struggled.
Most critically: use the right tools for the right job. My biggest mistake with these plates was one I should have learned long ago: you can’t paint intensively on cardstock! A million years ago when I painted my 19th century paper dolls, I exhausted myself fighting with the cardstock. So I’m not sure why I repeated the mistake. I guess I was being thrifty? Looking back it doesn’t even make sense. I have piles of watercolor paper that was paid for 20 years ago. The real waste is in not actually using it for, you know, painting!
Using the cardstock is great for Judy or other black and white or marker dolls. All the Star Wars dolls are on cardstock. But this is why I’m putting the runway dolls on real hot press cotton watercolor paper. I don’t want to fight with the materials any more!
[Click this link or the picture to download a printable .pdf for this doll]
