He subsequently changed his focus to painting and spent time in Provincetown, Massachusetts, studying with Charles Webster Hawthorne and Henry Hensche.

Following his education, he went to Spain to study briefly with Harry Zimmerman (protege of Paul Sacks), and then moved to France, where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

Following his service in Boston, he transferred into the Naval Art Section, to be an American official war artists, and was dispatched to Alaska, where he spent nearly half a year painting in the Aleutian Islands.

[1] After Draper returned from Alaska, he was requested as the artist for the portrait of Rear Admiral J.R. Beardall, then Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy.

After the Bougainville Campaign, Draper was assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10), and while on duty, painted the series of air attacks on Palau, the landings at Hollandia, and the airstrikes on Truk island.

[1] On returning to the U.S. after the war, Draper married Barbara Natalia Cagiati in Washington, D.C., where he completed three murals commissioned for the Naval Academy in Bancroft Hall.

After his military service, Draper started a family and moved from Washington to New York City, in a house that belonged to sculptor Daniel Chester French.