After drawing the ladybird onto the Welsh slate plaque I lightly chisel in the lines before starting to shape the ladybird. I must admit that I will often blow up a reference photograph to the size I want and then use some of my trusty carbon paper stash! You can also get something similar to carbon paper in yellow or white which works brilliantly on slate.
Note that you do lose the lines as you carve so its a constant task of rechiselling them in as you go deeper into the slate.
I like to leave the light chisel marks in my carving as it can help give a bit of movement to the carving and an indication of all the work thats been put in.
The next decision is which bits are gilded? I could have opted to gild the part that is usually red but am glad I decided to gild the spots, legs and head instead.
Once the gold is in place it needs to be left at this slightly messy stage for the size to dry.
The finished plaque.