How to get artwork on the cabinet/control panel?

[screaming]

Hello there!

  I'm considering my options for getting art on my control panel and the side of my cabinet.  Here are my options and list of pros and cons for each.. Do you people have anything to add?

  I'm currently leaning towards getting painted art done, or doing the painting myself because I think that will afford me the most creative control and be reletively cheap.

Plain (black) paint:
  Pros:
    - Nice and easy! Pour paint, roll, repeat.

  Cons:
    - Looks plain
    - takes a couple days to get a couple good coats on there

Plain (black) laminate:
  Pros:
    - Looks better than paint
    - Less mess
    - relatively quick

  Cons:
    - Expensive!
    - requires special bit to cut
    - hard to get matched up correctly to the dimensions of your cabinet/control panel

Printed vinyl:
  Pros:
    - Easy to apply
    - Graphics look great and professional
 
  Cons:
    - Expensive
    - Requires artistic talent, or funds to 'borrow' someone elses talent
    - Takes a couple days for initial coats of paint to dry and artwork to get printed before you can apply

Painted:
  Pros:
    - Cheap!
    - Looks great and professional, if done right

  Cons:
    - Requires artistic talent, or funds to 'borrow' someone elses talent
    - maintenance factors?
    - hard to get done right

??

/Steve

[Sephroth57]

ill probably end up doing vinyl graphics, i know a guy that does cars so i can probably get a good deal. also it requires you to have no talent and opposed to painting is probably less expensive

[Stingray]

My cab is still very much in the planning stage, but at the moment I'm thinking of painting the side art myself. I own an airbrush and think I have sufficient talent to pull it off. I don't see being able to get good looking side art any cheaper than the cost of the paint.

-S

[bluGill]

In art class they had us take a picture and "overlay" it with squares.  Sometimes by drawwing lines, and sometimes by tracing onto graph paper.   Then we would make a scale of it by putting the same squares on a bigger piece of paper, and use the smaller one as a guide.  It works surprizingly well, even someone with no talent like me managed to get a nice copy.  

I would think you can do the same with paints for low cost, assuming you can find some free art you like.  
con:
  time - a lot of time is needed to make the copy.   OTOH, you can do just a little each day and after the rest of the machine is done.