Little by little, everything comes together until I have a finished cutout. :)
While each piece always comes with it's unique challenges, these are the basic steps I tend to walk through while working.
Before I start cutting my paper, I like to sketch out a few variations of my idea until I find a design I like. This helps me see what kind of shapes I'll be working with as well.
I've recently found it more efficient to sketch my final idea at the same size my cutout will be, then do a clean trace with tracing paper to get the major shapes. This way I can work on any part of the piece and not have to worry about something coming out wonky and misaligned.
sketch
trace sketch
After transferring my sketch to tracing paper, I'll cut out each shape and use these as my guide for cutting up my final design.
Here, I've already traced his head, so now all that's left is to cut it out with a sharp x-acto knife and do the same with every other shape that makes up my final design.
If I'm working on a person, I usually like to paint the features of their face before I get too far along gluing and piecing it together because I like to know I've gotten their features just right.
Paint details
cut out
transfer paper
cut final paper
piece it together
Once I paint the details, the rest is like piecing together a puzzle.
​
I use double sided foam tape to add depth in places to create some nice shadows once it's displayed. :)
My materials can change depending on what I'm making, but these are some of my go-to's.
TOOLS
