So if any of you have been keeping up you know I’ve been very preoccupied. Work is undergoing some major changes and in the midst of it my grandma got very sick. She is thankfully recovering at a rehab center now but her spirits have been very down. I made a quick sign to give her and the wife painted it in her favorite colors. Needed some kinda masking technique to make the lines clean but idk what the best option is (maybe post down below your thoughts)
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If the material is smoother you can cover it in masking tape and cut through it. Then selectively paint each section as you remove it. Takes a bit of planning but should work pretty good.
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I don’t know of any way to get clean lines in wood that is both rough and checked. You might be able to cut a mask like Ryan suggests and then lightly dust (multiple coats) with spray paint. You might also experiment with a bit of stain. I’ve found that, with some of my projects, the v-cut art takes stain differently than the uncut wood creating some contrast.
If you are using smooth, unchecked wood, in addition to the method that Ryan suggests, you can over paint and then sand away the paint from the surface to reveal clean lines.
With both solutions you must seal the wood before applying any paint or stain. If you don’t, the paint or stain bleeds into the grain of the wood, making the artwork looks fuzzy.
In addition to masking tape, there are masking products. The one I see mentioned most is Oramask. It is the product I will try when my current product that I am using runs out.
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Oramask 813 Stencil Film 12.125 Inches x 25 Foot Roll For Cricut, Silhouette, Cameo, Craft Cutter. I use this all the time clear coat or base coat first then mask then spray and if neeed be remask and rince repeat.
Not sure what happened with my font but🤣
What you have done is spectacular though and from the heart i would not chang a thing
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Yes texture will be a problem with that but you make beautiful things with what ypu have 
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I hope your grandmother is ok and your job worries turn out to be opportunities.
I agree with the others that the texture looks like it is coming from the wood texture. If it is soaking in more in some places than others, you can seal it before painting. But if it just the valleys and troughs of the wood, you would have to fill those to keep it from spreading. Tighter wood grain (maybe maple or even MDF/hardboard) is probably the easiest. Filling tha gaps with resin is probably the hardest. Maybe just lean into it and try to make some sort of stain show the difference. Or maye a sign like that from multiple layers and paint them individually.
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Thank you all for the kind words. I should have clarified on the wood. This is definitely a rough piece of scrap. Masking would still have helped some but I knowledge the surface was too rough for it to completely help. In the future I hope to be using quality stuff but this was something I needed to make in the moment with what I had on hand.
I hadn’t thought about just normal masking tape. I have ready access to that… I had heard about oramask but know some say it can be expensive
Looking at the prices (rounded down numbers)
Oramask - 12 square inches per $1 US
Amazon oramask knock off - 20 square inches per $1 US
Masking tape (1”) - 50 square inches per $1 US
Premium masking tape (“2) - 30 square inches per $1 US
First three are for regular comparison last is my curiosity (please also note this is all public prices) the tape actually works out even better for me as work I get a discount.
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