Artistic Questioning?

[Libby]

Possibly in the wrong forum, but it's art related, so I figure I can borrow the ear of the artists who do it for a living, rather then a hobby, like me.

So, I've always wanted a lightbox for tracing. You know, those little boxes that have a light and a peice of plastic so you can trace. I am doing a comic, and I tend to do better work if I make certain panels and such on diffrent pieces of paper and trace them on..

Anyways..I want one, but I have NO clue where to start looking. I am on a slight crunch for time and completely overwhelmed by the amount that is out there. I usually work in a standard letter sized format, but lately I have been working on comic pages, which come in a 220x310mm format (my kookie Japanese comic panels, before I decided to drop the manga tilt on my art). So, I don't know what a good size would be, and I don't want the price to be over 50-75 dollars--cheaper if I can get to it, but I also don't want to be ripped off....sooo..other then using my window on a bright day, does anyone have one of these things, and possibly good advice on what to get..?

Edit- Although I would *love* to make one, I don't think that would be possibly, seeing as I don't have the tools and barely the capabilities to do so..so I may be out of luck in the DIY department.

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

Go to a hardware store and buy a small piece of plexiglass, and a piece of wood you can cut into two door stop shaped pieces. get some screws and screw the plexiglass onto the wooden wedges. then just shine a desk lamp under one side!

[Libby]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

Gloom- I don't have the glasstable, although if I did have one, I would definitely take advantage of it. (hence why I use the window on a sunny day) As for the tablet, I currently am only using it for coloring. Previous attempts to actually draw specifically with the tablet have turned out rather...hideous. As you can see. Although my actual coloring has improved, I usually scrap most of my attempts. But I will practice when I start to get more comfortable with my traditional mediums.

Crunk: I never thought about it that way. I found a DIY that used a florescent light with a wooden box and plastic, but I don't have materials to be able to cut wood (yet). But I like this idea. It's simple and easy! And much less then the 50 bucks for a professionally made one.

(Although I have found a light-tracer that looks pretty promising. It even looks pretty portable, and I could actually use it for my work as well as my art.)

[Sejon]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

I own 2 because I find them extremely handy (and having a spare is nice since I travel a lot). They're the small artograph ones.

I ordered one off amazon and the other I just bought at Michael's arts and crafts store.

[Adrian Foley]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

I'm poor, so I just use a clear plastic bucket + a very short lamp.

It's pretty ghetto, but works.

[Libby]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

Sejon- So the Artograph is a good brand? At my work, we have a Light-Tracer projector, and it only works in really dark rooms (nothing like a real projector, I would give my right arm for one of those), and I figured that it's a pretty easy to get brand. (I am adding this particular item to my Christmas list, so I wanted to do a bit of research on it.)

Adrian- I too can be very ghetto. If it wasn't for the fact that my parents installed a full glass door on the sun-up side of the house, I would be completely lost. I never thought about using the plastic bucket though, I may have to try that with my fish-tank bucket. Thanks!

[Sejon]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

Yea, I haven't had any issues with my artograph. Considering how much I use it these days, it's certainly worth the cost. I even use it to ink over pencil work so that I'm able to keep separate sheets for the pencils and the inks.

I've even done some silly little animations with it.

Ideally I'd like a bigger one to work with than the one I have, but I make do. Besides, next thing on my list to purchase is a Wacom Cintiq and that will require a lot of saving up ($1000 for the small lap version, $2000 for the regular size).

[Nixon]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

I have an old futura lightbox that works great. I've had it for about 11 years now. It's roughly 18" x 12" or so. I use it for comic pages, when I transition my rough layouts to pencil form. I work on regular 8.5 x 11 paper, and not the larger comic pages (like the blue line pro stuff).

[Owl of Parliament]

Re: Artistic Questioning?

Previous attempts to actually draw specifically with the tablet have turned out rather...hideous. As you can see. Although my actual coloring has improved, I usually scrap most of my attempts. But I will practice when I start to get more comfortable with my traditional mediums.

I just got mine four days ago, so I can relate. I can definitely see the potential for things one can do with it. My line work sucks though, I can't seem to draw a line from one point to another with it coming out all squiggly, I think it might be my brush, I just use the basic brush, I don't know. Anyways, I don't think your picture was all that bad.