Frequently Asked Friday - Process

Frequently I'm asked, how do you get the designs on the paper? Well, here's how I do it. First, I always carry a sketchbook with me most everywhere I go. Who knows when you might be stuck at Jiffy Lube or on the bus or in the middle of a field somewhere with nothing to do? A lot of my drawing time happens at church. It helps me listen, I promise. So, for this particular papercut, I wanted to draw the outline of a fox. I don't know what a fox really looks like. I don't own a fox. What I do own, or at least subscribe to, is the internet and I can search for the word fox and find an inestimable source of fox photos. Here's one I liked that helped inspire a lot of this drawing.

So now I've got the inspiration, what do I do next? Well, I draw. I drew this fox like five times before I got him how I wanted him. Then I drew in the lettering and scanned it into my computer. You can also draw right onto the paper you are using, but this gets tricky if you are cutting out words.

After scanning it, I adjusted the size to be the size I wanted the final product to be. Then, and this is important, if it has words, flip the design. Flip it! Or if it's facing a certain direction you want it to face, flip it! I can't tell you how many times I've printed something out, started cutting it and halfway through, turned it over to admire my handiwork and then let out a few choice words because the reverse side was in reverse. Here's what that fox looks like mostly cut out, see how the letters on the side I'm cutting are flipped?

Then, when all the cutting has been done, I scan it into the computer again! So much scanning going on!

The above picture was scanned without a background to show you what it would look like if you were scanning it, just in case you are from somewhere strange and don't know how to scan. Usually I scan the artwork in with a background behind it like the blue one below.

That's how I go about transferring my work. Do you do it a different way? I'll cover how to do something with a template another time.