I’m going to be working on an art project that is going to require multiples of the same drawing.
So I decided to make myself a light box table to draw and copy with.
I’ve made one of these before for a friend who does tattoo art, I must say, I was regretting not making two the second I parted with it haha.
For those that don’t know how easy it is, I’ll show you…
First up knock together a box, I’ve used MDF board and Oak for the legs. As you can see I haven’t gone all fancy on it with the joins and what-not as I’m going to paint over the hole thing. Plus, my colleagues and I wanted to see how fast we could get this completed.
Obviously, you want the internal surfaces white so that light reflects more evenly.
Next, drill a hole in the center and add your light bulb. I’ve just gone for a standard LED bulb, less chance of heat damage. In the interest of up-cycling, I stripped the innards from an old broken lamp. You can use whatever lighting you want. I find it’s all relative to how much you want to spend. You can use T8 light bars if you are prepared to pay for a more even distribution of light. For a small table like this it isn’t really necessary.
Here you can see the table is lit up with the top on. I used aluminium extrusion to make a frame and glued in clear acrylic. The base underneath is opal white acrylic screwed to the table. As you can see the light is even enough and quite bright.
Not essential information but I painted it with a shabby chic finish so it looked like a miniature old school art bench.
Tyrion R and Tyrion L hangin’ talking about the important ladies in their lives 😉
All up the table took around 2hrs to construct, an hour to paint and about 30mins to complete. Very easy project with a tonne of possibilities. I have to say that Pinterest has pages and pages of ideas on useful ways to utilise a light box. You should definitely have a look and get creative!
As you can see here, I got the table home and my little Tyrion thought it was purpose built for his own personal use.
Even the older two have been using the drawing table to enhance their images. I call that a victory, even if I have to book a time in between kids. At least it means they will be being productive 😉
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