Both my sons love art. They work together on an on-line webcomic. Jake got a degree in Multi-media design. And, they have all kinds of high-tech tools. But Jake was determined to have a light box to illustrate on. He went to the art store and they were $300-$400, which was way out of his budget. So he asked his Dad if he could help him make one.
"No problem," Lars said.
My husband is very handy and can build just about anything. So together my two guys built a light box.
The light is just a regular kitchen florescent light fixture bought for about $20.00 at Home Depot. The opeque white plastic cover was bought at Tap Plastics and you can get it any plastics store and it was about $20.00 as well. The light switch is about $3.00 at Home Depot. The electronic light switch enclosure was about $2.00 and the cord (loose end wiring) was about $9.99. You just wire it like a normal light fixture in your kitchen and you're good to go.
Jake's light box turned out so well that his friend Aaron asked him if he'd make one for him. So Jake and Aaron made another one. Now that they have the system down, they think they can build these boxes for about $60 in materials for 17 X 19 (which Jake wanted for professional comic book size pages), cheaper if they wanted to make them smaller. Pretty cool.
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4 comments:
What a neat project! I could use a lightbox myself. :)
I do rubber stamping and use a lighted table when I use stencils and such...it is very small and has a nightlight light bulb, so it does very little for making the details come out...I need one of these light boxes...
Just another way DIY can save you money...
what type of illustrating? how does the lightbox help? all very intriguing!!
DIY is always better-when you consider price. ;)
Cindy: My boys are into animation. They do their line art and then do filling on a new piece of paper so they can keep their original line art/inking.
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