Low Poly Fox

A laser-cut wood portrait of a low-poly fox.
low_poly_fox
DIY
Laser Cutting

Intro

As a frequenter of r/diy I have seen several submissions of wooden low poly art. Low poly art is a class of artwork that renders real-life images (usually of nature or animals) as a collection of distinct polygons and complementary colors. One day I found this low poly rendering of a fox and convinced myself that I had to take a stab at creating a wooden version of it.
2d rendering

Project Overview

This is the outline for the project:
  • 1. Create an outline of the fox in Inkscape.
  • 2. Use the outline to laser cut the fox out of wood.
  • 3. Paint the wood to match the digital image.
  • 4. Build a wooden background and stain it white.
  • 5. Glue the fox onto the wood background.

Step 1: Vectorize

I first loaded up this image into Inkscape, a photo editing software. I proceeded to outline all the polygons using the pencil tool. I also added numbers to each tile. This will prove to be very useful later on.
vectorized image

Step 2: Laser Cut

Through my work, I have access to a laser cutter for free! I picked up some one-dollar scrap wood from Home Depot that worked perfectly for my needs. I cut out the edges of the outline and etched the numbers into the wood. The numbers made it much easier to re-assemble my fox once I painted it.
laser cut image

Step 3: Painting

This was the most time-consuming part of the process. I first did two coats of primer, then one to two coats of paint. I used acrylic primer and paint for this.
painting image 1painting image 2painting image 3

Step 4: Wooden Background

I bought a plank of common wood from Home Depot and used a circular saw to cut out three equally sized segments. After some sanding, I proceeded to stain it with a dark walnut stain and then multiple coats of a white a wash stain to give it a weathered barn look.
wooden background image 1wooden background image 2wooden background image 3

Step 5: Gluing the Fox

When I cut out the fox, I kept the original sheet of wood. I used that piece of wood as a frame to hold the individual tiles together while gluing. I went tile by tile until they were all glued to the background.
gluing image 1gluing image 2

Step 6: Profit!

It's all done and looks better than I had hoped for!
final image
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