Negative and Positive Space Scherenschnitte

Sometimes my inspiration for work comes from what I am teaching.  My fourth graders are currently learning about negative and positive space.  That's what I am concentrating on in this piece.

Here was how I began.  I sketched my design on the back of the fadeless paper, planning where I had to cut in order for the piece to not fall apart.  Most of my snips are cut so that no piece of paper is attached apart from the main design.  Every piece of paper is connected to the whole.  That takes some planning.

This is a self portrait, by the way.  I'm always an easy model for myself.  You can also see how the image is reversed from the sketch to the snip.  That's how I goofed up on my last piece.  Oops!

paper cutting
scherenschnitte    5" x 7"