Improving Laser Etched Acrylic Panels with Acrylic Paint

Step 2 Paint the parts of the design

Now you can paint the various parts of the design. I use standard art acrylic paint. High contrast uniform colors work the best. I've tried metallic colors as well, but those are more sensitive to stroke direction, evenness, etc. So they won't look as professional. (Although I've had some nice effects using that technique.) You don't have to paint carefully, just make sure you get the colors down into all the nooks and crannies.

You can use any color you like, and paint different areas different colors, etc. Here you can see me making a set of gear dials with different colored accent lines. I'm sorry this doesn't match the previous image of what I was laser etching. I wasn't originally trying to document this process, so I didn't take a picture of every step. Jim said I should make an instruactable about it though, so I am, minus the original laser etching/cutting image.