Meet CopperDrake, a collaboration between Jeff Tome of Audubon Community Nature Center (concept), Sandhill Bill (woodworking and paint prep), and me (design and detail painting). This three-part dragon cut-out slithered out of the backyard pond at ACNC during the Dragons & Fairies Festival last weekend. I wanted a picture of him by the Stone Tower at Alleghany State Park (built in the 1930's by the CCC) but figured Bill wouldn't be keen on dragging the dragon all that way for a photo shoot, so I photoshopped the tower into the photo—and added some make-believe fire for fun! 

 Gardens are planted and warblers are quiet, so I'm back to work and enjoying some cut paper projects as I continue creating my next body of work. Here's how I approached this project.

Preliminary sketch to painting. 

I did a drawing in my gray sketchbook of a sea turtle eating jellyfish.  From this sketch, (top), I did a gouache painting (bottom) to develop the design in a more  "painterly" way. This reference will become the pattern for the final artwork.

The selected colors were inspired by a traditional William Morris design...teals, browns and white. I traced the painting to make a pattern to capture the looseness of the brushwork. 

The papercutting began with a series of layered papers to make the composition.

Using archival Canson mi teintes, Colorline, and some hand-painted papers, I recreated the painting using knives and scissors. This session was done working outside on the front porch on a calm summery day. Ahhhh....

The translucent jellyfish had me thinking about vellum paper from the very beginning.

The vellum jellyfish were so fun I considered this final layer my reward!

After months of planning I finally got to emboss the fluid motion of the painting into the lines on the vellum. I love it when a plan comes together!