I use the glowforge in my art projects. I had to invent new material to do it (unless someone can point me in the direction of commercial material that is similar).
This image is just engraved no paints or added colour just washing the burn off.
this is beautiful, Could you tell us a little about the material you invented?
6 layers of bonded coloured card stock on a 2mm support like mount board, hard board or MDF. This is engraved at 350 fp vary 90lpcm… I then brush off the burn using a toothbrush and running water and varnish when dry.
This must be solid colored cardstock, not white-core, yeah?
Turned out surprisingly well. I’m impressed. What did you use for laminating the sheets?
yes solid colour. The different depths of engraving gives a different colour.
50% exterior waterproof PVA wood glue. Takes 2 weeks to dry flat at RT in a press. If you take it out sooner it curls.
Thanks for sharing your innovation. I can only imagine how many trials and errors were involved to get to this point in your creative journey. Do you create your art and then build the material so that the colors are layered correctly or do you produce the material independent of a finished artwork in mind?
Yes a lot of trial and error with different card stocks and glues etc.
I could do the one where the colours correspond to the art. however I like the random approach, just pick out one of the sheets and engrave: much more exciting
You’d probably like @shogun’s layered paint projects.
And others.
I love it!
Your city scapes are particularly eye catching.
3d is very apparent very tactile with up to 2mm depth best viewed in sunlight.
I have also done engraving on painted surfaces but generally you just etch away the paint using a single power setting rather than revealing different colours at different depths with a variable power setting depending on the grey scale.
I’ll let @shogun speak for it exactly here but if you had uniform paint layers you should be perfectly able to reveal depths just like you’re doing here with vary power.
Ha this is something I was asking them for a number of years ago. Essentially a rainbow ply, where engraving different depths would result in different colors showing through. Cool to see someone actually do it
Great in theory. Very difficult in practice. Paint dries very thin and unevenly unless you do thick pouring. I tried that first. It uses a lot of paint and lots of drying between layers. I am not that patient.
It really depends on how exact you want to be, but layers of paint and vary power yield some very nice results. I think it would be a little more random than what you have though. You get some very nice contrast with your technique. It’s really lovely.
uh…
No way would I be patient enough for 2 weeks 
Thanks Yours are cool. How big?. You probably get bleed between layers so contrast would be subtle.
I tend to do from 10 cm sq to about A4 size.
I tend to do 6 A4 sheets at a time. It takes about 1hr to glue them all. Then it is just a waiting game.
So you only have to be patient for the first 2 weeks. You can speed it up if heated but then you have to be more careful with uneven drying and warping.
