First step is to prep and paint. I clean my tiles with alcohol prior to painting. Then I put on thin coats of spray paint usually starting with the lightest color and finishing with a layer of black. Let coats of paint dry in between coats, I usually wait 30 to 45 minutes between coats. Four coats is the most I do. Yellow, orange, red and black for some. Silver and blues. Yellow and browns. Mix it up, try different color combinations and even the order you spray them to get different effects. You can even go as simple and a light color topped with a dark color. Once you finish with your painting allow your tiles to completely dry. I wait at least a day before I engrave them.

Next you have to prep an image at imag-r.com I have a full "How To" on processing images for burning. You want to select Norton White Tile Painted Black as your material. Download your processed image and move over to the laser. I've included a couple of already processed images you can play with from laser-pics.com that are free to use.

It doesn't matter if you are doing tile or canvas, the settings are the same. I usually burn between 50 and 65% at 100 speed. The power will vary depending on how many coats of paint and how thick the paint is sprayed. Using Lightburn I select pass through since the images have already been dithered in Imag-r. It is VERY IMPORTANT to not use air assist and to remove your air assist nozzle. With air assist on I couldn't get any images to engrave properly. When I turned air assist off images started to burn properly but then found black streaks starting to form. The paint that was burning off was building up on the end of the nozzle and then deposited back on the tile or canvas. No assist or nozzle and everything works out nicely. 6x6 inch tiles take about an hour and 8x10 canvases take about 2 hours. Some people have done multiple passes at different power setting to get different effects. Go ahead and play around and see what you can create. Tile cost about .40 cents, so it won't break the bank to throw a few in the bin if they don't work out.

Once done make sure to rinse your tiles or canvases in the sink, wiping with a wet paper towel to make sure all soot and debris is cleaned off.