Layered Paper: Whimsical Perching Bird

Start by scanning a page from the (©2013 paper!) Whimsical Designs Coloring Book and opening it in GIMP:

Mary says the book is intended for appliqué quilting, which seems close enough to layered paper for my simple purposes.

Select the black lines and grow the selection to about 1.5 mm wide:

After some editing, convert the selection to a path, then save the path as SVG to create the Black Mask layer.

Clear the selection and bucket-fill the outlines with cheerful colors:

If you’re fussy, you might devote a sheet of black paper to the eye, but I just dabbed a dot of black marker.

Load into LightBurn and knock out paths on successive layers:

Stack sheets of colored paper in the appropriate order, Fire The Laser, paste the layers together, and frame:

After working through the Cornell Painted Warblers, it really was that easy!

Stipulated: I cannot draw even simple Art, but I enjoy my time in the engine room.