Laser Art Workshop

Friday, Nov 20, 2021

Brainstorming and intro to laser basics.

(5pm-8pm)

I have found this evening session to be a really great way to make our Saturday sessions more productive. It is meant to be very low-key and you don't need to bring anything. 

I will show you some basics of working with the laser and we will discuss some projects you would like to pursue. Both you and I will then be able to prepare ideas and materials for the next day so we can all get right to work

Saturday, Nov 21, 2021

All day to play with a lunch break. 

(9am-noon & 2pm-5pm)

There will only be 4 artists in this workshop. This is so I have plenty of time to work with each person individually and so everyone has ample time on the laser. 

There are plenty of lunch options near by and parking is plentiful. 

Supplies, music, studio space, espresso, and great company included.

1. I make a doodle of a cool design I might want to use in my art.

2. A quick picture with my phone and I send it to the computer where, in seconds, the laser software turns my doodle into a digital path for my laser to follow - a vector.

3. There is a cool splotch of alcohol ink on the scrap of Yupo paper I drew my design on. I set the laser to cut my pattern small enough that it fits within the splotch of ink on the paper.

* In less that 5 minutes I have doodled my design and cut a mini version of it out of Yupo paper. Kind of cool but the story continues.

4. I spend the next hour or so putting different materials into the laser. It takes seconds to change power settings for each material and a couple more seconds to change the size if I want to.

* Now I have a variety of sizes of my design cut out of plywood, denim, plexiglass, craft foam-core, cardboard, paper, styrofoam, and illustration board. I could start a collage, use the styrofoam as a structure for a plaster relief or fill in the negative spaces on the plywood with resin or acrylic paint. I could cut out 100 of them and hang them as an installation. The possibilities start to stack up. 

There's still more low hanging fruit to experiment with.

5. In the laser cutter software I repeat my design 5 times in a radial pattern. I can pick and choose which lines to engrave and which to cut. I end up with both cutting and engraving in the same project. On the blue plexiglass I fill in the engraved lines with white paint.

Cool little keychain object or foam sticker I could sell on Etsy but not really studio art stuff. I like the repeated pattern though.

6. So I spray a thin layer of acrylic paint on two pieces of gessoed canvas (one black and one pink) and use the laser to engrave my pattern onto the canvas. The power is set low and just enough to remove the black or pink paint to reveal the gesso beneath.

7. For the pink I set the power level lower so not all the pink is removed. I like the way this breaks up the design and isn't as graphic as the black one. I think I'll use this as the first background layer for a portrait I have in mind. 

The process continues but this is a good place to end my story.