As we count down the days to DragCon NYC, we continue our Fan Art Friday series with RayRayCross. We decided to highlight these amazing pieces as they brought us so much joy once we saw them! We are always so blown away by how talented the fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race are! As the show gains more fans and followers every season, it’s clear to see that Drag Race has clearly inspired everyone to test their limits and reach new heights with their imagination and creativity. These paper concoctions are no different.
Below, you’ll enjoy seeing and reliving some of the iconic moments from Rupaul’s Drag Race through a new medium: paper! Our very own Alyssa Edwards, Nina Bonina Brown, and Katya (and more!) have been turned into the most sickening paper dolls we’ve ever seen.
We had a kiki with Rachael to talk all things Drag Race, what she loves about working with her hands and how she’d attend DragCon NYC! Shut up and take a seat because these are not your mother’s paper dolls!
My name’s Rachael and I’m from Loughborough, England. Which is in the middle, pretty much. A town famous for socks and having a name that’s hard for non-British people to pronounce.”
I get a whole lot of my artistic influences from animation and film. Especially stop motion animation, like the films Ardman Studios and LAIKA make (Chicken Run, Coraline). I started making things out of paper and glue about four years ago and just started to experiment with the material and figure out how to get the shapes and textures I wanted. After a while the paper stuff turned into fan art about a year ago and now I’m having a lot of fun making paper Drag Queens.”
I’m a graphic designer by day and studied to be an illustrator. I also love working with animation and making my paper sculptures. I paint, I draw, I carve, I’m kind of an artist of all trades.”
I love working with my hands so making paper sculptures is kinda natural to me. Drag Race fan art just made sense. I love Drag Race and there’s something about the creativity and transformation that happens in drag that seems to lend itself to the way I can bend and transform a piece of paper into a figure. I take something flat and boring and mold it into something entirely different and exciting by embracing the materials. It’s a quirky way to make art, but I like that about it.”
Bianca Del Rio, Alaska, Trixie Mattel and Vander Von Odd to name just a few!”
Girl, I’m a broke artist, I can’t afford to fly! Maybe one day, if someone sends me $10,000 via PayPal.
Trixie Mattel, Laila McQueen, Stacy Lane Mathews, Kennedy Davenport, Ongina. How many can I name? I could keep going.
For more of Rachael’s artwork, be sure to follow her on Instagram and Twitter where you can see even more of her paper drag queens, illustrations and her love of all things Drag Race!
Check out the photos below for your fix of Li’l Poundcake, Sharon Needles, and more!
[Images provided by RayRayCross’s Instagram]
