Working on a pop-up illustration

Pop-illustrations have always been traditionally reserved for children's book. I often work on pop-up books and I'd like to show here how an illustration for pop-ups is created.

First I receive a white mock-up (a three-dimensional structure created by a paper engineer) or photos of the pops made up to understand how the parts work.

I have also a cutter guideline to see how many pieces of art work is required and what is the shape of each pieces.

The cutter guidelines can be adjusted a little to follow my drawing but it's best if I don't stray too far from the original shapes.

Once the pencil has been approved I go to colour and each piece will need bleed around it to allow the cutter to trim it out cleanly.

 ...And here is my nephew Matteo inside the School Bus!