How I make my papercuts
From art planning and idea sketching, to fine cutting paper and final painting. Here’s a detailed step-by-step tutorial based on the DTIYS art challenge example.
Final result
My papercutting method of work is by no means the “correct” one. Frankly said i don’t even thing there is one that can be caller right or correct. I found my style and method by lots of trial and error, which is heavily based on my previous art experience (I did watercolours).
There are lots of papercut artworks that I did just for myself, without sharing them, purely for practice of technique. There were lots and lots of mistakes made with paper and knife choices: like when paper was too thick and blades were designed for something entirely different then papercutting (which of course I discovered way too late into the process).
I will be showing everything on the example of DTIYS art challenge from @loish. I think the draw-this-in-your-style challenge is great way to show the reference, sketching, and cutting process.The whole process can be summarised in a few steps: Step 0: Planning
Step 1: Idea and sketching
Step 2: Tracing to the final paper piece
Step 3: The cutting process itself
Step 4: Spraying work with black paint
Step 5: Make a nice picture, and it’s done!
Step 0: Planning
Before starting any artwork, it’s good to keep in mind that the whole creation process will take at least 8-10 hours. Count about 2h for sketching and tracing, and then about 4h. And then some time for taking photos and video editing, which would usually take around 1-2 hours in total.
As I have a day job, I make my papercuts in the evenings, so it takes me about 2 evenings to make an art piece. The final photo I usually take is in the early morning, since it’s always nice to see the art piece in a good light.
So before I start cutting, and especially if there is any deadline I should respect (like for instance for client work or when doing an art challenge with a deadline) I usually make sure I have a few evenings free and only then start my work.
Step 1: Idea and sketching
Original image reference
With DTIYS art challenge you get a main reference from the artist who is hosting the challenge. The idea is to take this artwork as your baseline, and in a way redraw it in your style. It is not uncommon to add/remove additional elements if this represents your style or manner of work better.
In my style, I don’t use that many abstract forms (here in Loish’s artwork you can see she’s using the floating bubbles to balance her composition), and instead I rely heavily on elements like flowers, stars, or some additional patterns in garments.
Here stars and flowers will not fit visually, so in cases like this, I find it very helpful to look for some more detailed references of the elements that are already present in the artwork.
Back to the floating bubble. Apart for the reasons mentioned above, I cannot really cut out the nice floating bubbles – or something similar looking – that easily. One sheet papercut always needs to connect to at least one other element. Everything always has to be connected, at least in my style of papercuts So I decided to replace the bubbles with some additional fish. This would allow a bit more balance in composition and bring it closer to my way of drawing. I have hardly any idea how fish anatomy works, so I had to google for some references (Pinterest is my friend here).
Instead of a traditional sketchbook, I prefer to sketch on my iPad as it saves me lots of time with sketch iterations.
For me, the best approach to come up with nice shapes and compositions is to draw again and again over the initial sketch. So I create sketch 1, add a new layer, and continue with sketch 2 on top of sketch 1. Usually, I need about 4-5 iterations till I am happy with the result.
Note: you don’t really need an iPad to do this work. You can easily work with traditional means, like sketchbook, and use tracing or carbon paper for layering. I did just like this before switching to my iPad, and it worked just fine. Working with digital software is just quicker for me.
I pay extra attention to the balance of the whole artwork, not only from the composition point of view, but also keeping in mind the physical weight of the paper.
While sketching I am always keeping in mind I should have enough “connections” between the elements, so when the papercut is lifted – for instance for taking a photo – the artwork doesn’t break under its own weight.
For instance in this drawing the circle frame around the girl and fish would act as a balance for all the elements. It will make sure that the weight of paper is distributed relatively equally.
If I would not have added the frame, then when I would have lifted the drawing say by grabbing it by girl’s hair – then the hair element could have gotten damaged. The hair lines are way too thin to support all the heavy swim suit and fish on their own.
Step 2: Tracing to the final paper
When I am happy with my final sketch, I export it to my laptop and send it to be printed. When printing I consider a few things:
I decrease the drawing’s opacity so that my printer uses less ink. I have pretty strong LED lights in my light box, so I don’t really need much ink to have a good contrast.
Sometimes I would adjust the size of my image (you can do so in the print settings). Here it was not needed, but every now and again you may want to make your sketch bigger or smaller depending on your final vision.
Sketch is printed and ready to be traced using a light box
At this point I am transferring my sketch to the final sheet of paper. I am using 120gsm office paper of light grey colour. To find out more about my materials please refer to “My toolkit” page.
Even though the sketch I’ve printed is a “final” one, I still have a chance to make some final adjustments (which I often do).
Step 3: Cutting process itself
This is where the fun stuff happen! But before we dive into the process, there are three important safety things we have to consider:
Blades. While overtime you’ll get more handy with your knife, it is still very important to remember that there is a reason a paper knife is sometimes called a “scalpel”. The blades are very very sharp. I did manage (by accident) to cut my fingers a few times, and trust me when I say that the only way to avoid it would have been to be more attentive to how my knife moves. Sometimes I forget that it is knife, and start treating it as a pen or pencil, which is definitely not safe. Closing your knife with a safety cap when taking a break is a must.
So, first and foremost: be careful with the blades.Light. Cutting is a pretty long and very attention-seeking process. You have to work on lots of tiny details, which sometimes are not easy to spot. So make sure you have a good lamp to help your eyes to keep the focus.
Hands. I am not sure how this term is called medically (it’s time to google!), but if you’re using one muscle again and again, and don’t give it time to recover – at some point the muscle will demand a break and will just stop working. In case of papercutting that would mostly be your thumb and your wrist. So make sure you make regular breaks and do regular hand and wrist stretches. I make sure I have a break every 45 min. or so. I believe this is something that differs per person, so see what works best for you.
I always start with eyes, followed by face. This is the most important element in my papercut.
I usually continue with hair, as it is typically one of the most detailed areas.
I cut out the main shape, so I know exactly where the fish should overlay
Finalising all the details 😉
A few thoughts on cutting itself
Every papercut has different elements, and of course there is no single guide for them all. But there are some main principles which I apply to every papercut I do.
Start with most important area first. In my case this is the face. If the girl’s face – eyes, nose, and lips – would be by accident damaged or will turn out differently, I would retrace the image on a new piece of paper and start cutting again.
Starting from the most important element will make sure sure that you spend very little time on re-doing it if something goes not according to plan.Straight (or somewhat straight) lines are easier to cut then curves or spirals. So if you can replace say a spiral element, like a snail’s shell, with a bit more geometric, like a star – that would be easier to cut.
Curves are easy to cut as soon as there are not too many of them. For instance here her hair is relatively straight and has a “flow” effect. So it turns, but doesn’t get into spiral patterns. It took about 1h to cut all hairstyle. But if her hair would have been curly – so lots of spirals and different angles – that would have been at least 2h of work.
Always work with smaller elements fist before moving to bigger ones. The smaller the element is – the more “support” paper area around it it would need. For instance if I would have cut out her hands and fingers as a very last element – after cutting out all the big empty areas around the frame – I would have probably damaged a few of her fingers as the knife would drag through paper rather then cut it.
This is unfortunately one of those things that is very difficult to describe, so please try out (maybe on some leftover paper) a few different ways of cutting, so that you feel more confident and knowledgable when cutting out your final artwork.Remember that you can always cut more later. So if you’re in doubt if you should cut out certain element or keep it – leave it and come back to it later.
For instance in my papercut I was in doubt whether the girl’s swim suit should be black (and thus I should not cut it out) or if I should cut it out and thus make it white. If I would have cut it straight away, I wouldn’t have a chance to revisit it later. And as you can see, the black one worked significantly better for my composition.Cut out the border/frame as the very last thing. I had so many situations when at the very last moment I decided to add some extra patterns to the border to make it look richer by adding more plants or flowers to the background. Also, in case you’ve changed your composition in the cutting process – not advised, but can happen – having some extra paper space would allow you to balance your composition if needed.
Step 4: Spraying work with black paint
I know lots of artists are cutting straight away on black paper. But for me personally cutting on a light(-er) paper first and then covering it with black paint works better. Main reason: I am making lots of sketch iterations and only then trace my final sketch to the paper sheet that I’ll be cutting. Since I am using light box for tracing, it quite difficult to trace black lines to black paper.
I give my papercut at least two coats of paint, from both sides. Every paint would be different, so please check the label, but for me it takes on average half an hour for each side to fully dry. If, for whatever reason, I am in a hurry then I can always help it dry with a hair dryer.
Step 5: Make nice picture, and it’s done!
The only thing left to do is to make a nice picture.
If you feel like sending it as a present, then shipping in a carton envelope with a transparent file around your papercut is the best.
Carton envelope will ensure that the artwork doesn’t get bended. And the transparent file will make sure that if by accident the envelope will get wet then the artwork has bigger change of surviving.
If you’re like me, and you do your art for the sake of art, and mostly keep it to yourself, then the best way to store it would be the typical office folder with transparent files. This way you can see the papercut, and because each papercut is stored individually in its file, they don’t get tangled and are safe.
If you feel like sending it as a present, then shipping it in a carton envelope with a transparent file around your papercut is the best.
A carton
envelope will ensure that the artwork doesn’t get bent.
The transparent file will make sure that if by accident the envelope gets wet then the artwork has a bigger change of surviving.
If you’re like me, and you do your art for the sake of art and mostly keep it to yourself, then the best way to store it would be the typical office folder with transparent files. This way you can see the papercut, and because each papercut is stored individually in its file, they don’t get tangled and are safe.
Final thoughts
I hope you found this helpful!
I strongly believe that the only way to learn is to make mistakes. I hope that this small overview will inspire you to try new things, make your own mistakes, learn new things, and most importantly enjoy the art process.
If you have any questions about the materials I am using – please check the “My toolkit” page. There I write extensively about my material and tool choices (e.g. paper, knives, mats, paint, etc).
If you have any further questions about my cutting process or would like to discuss any topics related to papercutting – please drop me a message, either through an email or as a DM in Instagram. I am always happy to help ❤️