Laser Cut Wood Portrait

Materials/Tools

• 3 mm Baltic Birch plywood
• 3/4" Plywood for the Canvas
• Acrylic Paint and Paint brush
• Polyurethane Clear Coat
• Laser Cutter
• Wood Glue

Programs/Software

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator

Open Photoshop

Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Artistic then select Cut Out

Number of levels (8)

Edge Simplicity (0)

Edge Fidelity (3)

Play around with the slider to get the effects you want.

Note: Background lightning and color of the picture affects the filter result in Photoshop. Try to use natural lightning when taking a picture.

Shape out all pieces and think of them how it will look like in the wood when cutting.See Here

Remove the background and cut your Canvas same size as your portrait and then paint it black.See Here

Note: You can keep the background if you want but for this guide remove the background so that the portrait showcase the whole person's face.

Start Tracing.

Note: Try to use the maximum cutting area of your laser. The bigger the better and easier to trace the pieces and putting them together.

After Painting just glue the pieces to your canvas

• It took me around 20 hours to paint individual pieces.(Mostly mixing paints takes the most time.)

Note: Do some samples in small part of the plywood and let it dry and see if the color is good enough for you because when the acrylic paint dries in the wood sometimes the colors comes out differently(discolored).

Use a clean sponge and water to wipe off any excess glue.

I use a Polyurethane Clear Coat to protect the paint and it brightens the color.

Previous Work