Chest of Colors forum

I could use some advice!

I'm working with a laser engraver, doing deep etchings in wood. I want to paint these etchings in various colors. When I paint the etchings, it makes any engraved detail harder to see, so I want to add a black or white wash to the lines to make them pop out.

However, I just can't get anything to work reliably. Either I clean up all the paint, leaving none in the lines, or else I can't get enough of the paint off, leaving a blotchy ugly mess around the area I painted.

I've had the best luck so far with spraypainting the pieces, then doing a watercolor wash over them, but I could definitely use some advice on a more reliable way to do this. I'm working in fairly large pieces, but they're flat, so I'm hoping there will be some magic solution that will allow me to do entire sheets at once, rather than needing to detail-fill every single line.

Any ideas?

Photos would help, but have you tried the drybrush technic?

o hello on forum
end yes ther is solution
you just need to post photo of your work (cel phone ?? or somthing)
so i will actualy be sure that is what im thinking it is (or it will get iven mor messy if it the orther tech .. for wich thet is also tech similar to scraffite )
but show Photo first

Sure, let me share some photos. These pieces are laser-cut out of inexpensive pressboard. The material may be the problem; it's water-resistant enough that it doesn't evenly absorb the color of watercolor, but water-porous enough that, once a color has been on the surface for a minute or so, it never comes completely off.

This is the goal piece: my pristine Catan set. Deeply engraved and beautiful. I want to make it look as good as possible.
https://i.imgur.com/qYZiZ.jpg

Here's an attempt to do a watercolor wash. I couldn't keep it in the recesses, so the whole thing got stained.
https://i.imgur.com/4lRbP.jpg

This was an attempt to color the whole piece blue with watercolor, but it just ended up blotchy. I'm planning to use spraypaint for the whole-piece color.
https://i.imgur.com/yaZFn.jpg

This one was painted with acrylic paint, then after that dried, I applied a white watercolor wash. I got the worst of both worlds when cleaning up; no paint in the grooves of the text, but I couldn't get the white paint off the surface.
https://i.imgur.com/mfQkE.jpg

This piece was just silver spray paint, no wash, and honestly, it's looking the best. It's not quite as readable in real life though, without the camera flash.
https://i.imgur.com/kwIIq.jpg

As a lark, I tried coloring in the text with a crayon. Well, that didn't work.
https://i.imgur.com/Fjqye.jpg

I tried doing a black wash to bring out the details in this board's engraving. Well, it didn't bring out the details, but it did get streaks of black all over the surface.
https://i.imgur.com/pubqg.jpg

This is the one piece I've done that looked good. I spray-painted the piece, let that dry, applied a white wash, let that dry, then used water to remove the paint on the surface of the piece. The only problems here are that it took too darn long, and I haven't been able to reliably reproduce this success.
https://i.imgur.com/JPYlE.png

Well for me you are using the wrong tools, first you need to seal the wood then prime it

check this https://www.ehow.com/how_2311620_paint-wood-crafts.html

o - thr are two things at start hexagonal thingi is made out of Wood end rest is made of composite wood remains + glue = fibreboard
Wood wil get this awesome brown smolderings when fibreboard will actualymake a stink of burned glue

secound if you applay eny water dulited paint on raw wood it will sink in in a random thats due to how wood is constructed same works for fibreboard as it is mixed orgin (difrent wood parts, end glue)
the effect you get on "Twilight imperium" is actualy desired by meny person - you get ther a nice distinguished pattern wich is effect of how this fibreboard is made

but if you are going for a "clean" finish
well just prime wood
- you mey use a color less finisher like Gloss wernish or eny other wood sealer
when it dry it will seal the wood structure so you will not get unwelcome patterns

end then just colorize desired parts with acrilic

you mey also use oil paint but it will dry loooong (end thats difrent story .. end it will actualy work on un primed wood ... but well jusat try prime wood endthen acrylic )