My wife designs Halloween costumes for a living, and that's the way she does it—some time ago, she drew up several "models", and she just copies and pastes them into her new files when she draws up a new costume 
So it's not cheating: it's the same kind of trick the pros use!
Me, I'm not even skilled enough to achieve what Artemesia did 
Your wife has an awesome job. But since you will not use paint, you now must post pictures of yourself disguised as your characters. :-P
