As an illustrator, I have learned a lot about commercial printing and production. To show how a simple illustration serves as a pattern for a fancy die, here are four images I created for embossed die imprints for gift bags. The brush-rendered butterflies were options given for a style choice. Ultimately, a simple line-drawn style was chosen. Here are the four final ink drawings that I completed, plus a photo of one of the final gift bag embellishments for which they were used. The company: Marcel Schurman, now Papyrus. These illustrations are also now available for licensing. Email me for this information.
A heavier inkline indicates the deepest, primary outline of the die. The finer inkline indicates the shallower level of the design. Note on the photograph below how the single leaf motif translated to the two-level die that was created to emboss the copper.
Jocelyn Curry 