Need Recommendations for light boxes

[Xevious]

I was reading several articles about how some comic book artists would ink on a light box. I was looking at light boxes at the art store and I found that there are a lot of them. Some of them seem more geared for photographs and others seem sturdy enough to trace on.

The artograph light tracers look good but they are slanted at an angle. I was wondering if that is a factor when it comes to inking with a metal quill pen (Will the ink run down the page?).

So I was wonder what light boxes do you guys use? Maybe you could post some recommendations. Since light boxes are not cheap, I really want to purchase the right one..

[Grief]

make your own?
its cheaper and gets the job done.

also: this thread may help
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=116850

497590

[Mirana]

There's another semi-recent light box thread floating around too...a lot of good info on building them as well.

I own that light tracer and it works fine (ink from a QUILL running down the page...?? Exactly how much ink are you loading in that thing? ;) ) but my major complaints were #1 the slant sucks when you're trying to ink a page that is portrait and not landscape and #2 it's small. If you plan on doing comic pages, you will get cramps from balancing the box and moving the page about. I did use it by itself for yrs, though and still do when I travel or ink small pieces. It was the only one that was cost effective. Other boxes can run very, very expensive.

Nowadays I just ink using a desk lamp turned to project upwards through a small glass-top table. It works perfectly. The only downside is that over long periods of use the top will get heated and the paper will start to warp, but once it cools it flattens back out (and about the time this happens I need a break anyway).

[Sanny]

I can say that Ikea now has created a drawing table with has a ligth board section on it its name is Vika Blecket, (allso warn that the leggs are named vika artur and they are one peice of legg in the boxes that are sold seperatly)

[Mirana]

Is the light box built in, or is it just a glass section you can shine light through?

[VulgarDragon]

Check this thread out for how to build yourself a homemade lightbox.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=128542&highlight=lightbox

Someone should make this a sticky.

[Opilione]

I agree with the make your own suggestion, though I cheated and commissioned my dad to build me one so she's a solid wooden thing with a sturdy removable lid. The test run had multiple globes and a fairly short box and didn't work out too well because the light wasn't diffusing enough, so the finished piece is quite deep and heavy (not good if you want a portable one, but fine for me) and the globe I use is a ring globe. Depending on the light in my room I can sometimes find the glass not diffusing the light enough in the box, so I have a sheet of baking paper I stick on the underside to increase this if needed. It helps to paint the inside white, too.

[Mirana]

Yeah...the inside surface of the box needs to reflect/diffuse light in some way or there's no point. I believe the cheapo light tracers have a metallic paper insert (you can buy similar paper in craft stores).

[rpace]

I built mine into my first drawing table. It's been serving me well for over 10 years, even though, with the experience of making this one, I'd probably make slightly different choices on the materials and tools I used.

The glass store I went to only had pebbled glass, which works as well as frosted for light diffusion. I painted the interior of the box white with semi-gloss latex and I smoothed out the corners with a thick caulking compound to keep the light from trapping there. Instead of plug in lights, I used fixtures and put a nice brass on/off button on the front of the box.

Doing it again, i probably would have used a router for the bevel (I used a chisel at the time -- ugh) and a lighter wood, or even masonite for the box.

I think it cost me between 30-50.00 CDN to do the lightbox.

Hope this helps.