I’ve had my laser cutter for a while now and I’m starting to see where I can fit it into my gaming projects as well as some new projects of a more generally creative nature.
This recent project was based on something I’d seen recently where people would cut out comic book covers and create sort of more dimensional versions of them using wood. A lot of folks just opt to engrave the detail on to the wood and stop there. Others (like myself) have added color to the cut pieces to create something more like artwork than a wood print.
My first stab at this was to do a simple, iconic comic cover from my youth (well, I was 20ish when it came out and that feels like youth now) - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1.
This was a perfect subject for my first go (or so I told myself) as Batman is a silhouette and there are few overall elements. The paint will have more to do to really sell the image. So I decided that I would have three levels of elements. The background, the title and lightning, and Batman.
It wasn’t all that bad. Cutting everything out was relatively simple, Most of the paint was easy (I even found a really good go-to color for the night sky) but the real hurdle was the title. My first time around I hadn’t put anything on the background that would help me line of the lettering and the end result was.. not great. You could tell that the lettering wasn’t perfect. So I called that a good first try.
On my second go I decided to etch the letters into the background as well as cutting them out. That way I could place them like puzzle pieces into the background. This definitely helped. It wasn’t quite as simple as I had imagined but the final result still worked out great.
This is the first of what I hope to be many of these kinds of projects as I’m planning to sell them. You can have this first one for $120 plus shipping. Just contact me via the website and we can arrange payment.