At the beginning of the year - the new year's day to be exact - I decided to update my light table once again. I have told about my inking and colouring process in the past (and more about that can be found here) which necessitates me to use a surface with a light source to trace the penciled lines with inks and paints (and lately, ink washes). This is nothing out of the normal; light tables are a illustration staple, but since I have no money or room for a professional one I have had needed to built my own.
My very first light table was nothing more than a piece of glass put on top of two bar stools with a table lamp directly below it shining up. This was rather shit since the lighting power of an ordinary table lamp was hardly enough, especially since I could never get it close enough to the glass. I also could not lean into the glass in fear of it breaking.
The first permanent light table I did was built out of scrap wood - you can see it below. Sorry for the shabby photo.
It used to have a picture frame, a slight bit bigger than A4, on it that I built the whole apparatus around. Underneath I used the same table lamp once again, but now as it was flat against a table and this monstrosity on top of it, the light power was much higher. I could also lean into the wood frame without fearing it would crack and break.
However the table lamp still wasn't ideal since it has very narrow spot of light and didn't really light the whole paper at once. I needed to move it around whilst inking which made it much more difficult to perceive the whole image.
So my next step is the one I already showcased in the article linked up. Here it is again:
As you can see, the glass is this time from an old, broken down light projector - ideal since it's meant to be leaned into so it's not real glass but of some type of durable plastic solution. The frame was an old stool I nailed together and used the seat part housing the new light: a worksite lamp that is really powerful and nicely square so it gives a very even light to the whole surface of the glass. The borders I use to hold the papers in place are only glued in but they have stayed together nicely this far.
This is what I have made all of Bianca and the Satanic Witches with. It worked pretty well and I was happy with it until it started to break down a little. The nails I used weren't really long enough to keep the thing firmly together so it started to slink a bit; especially since I needed to move it into the table and out again all the time. In the end it hardly kept together.
So on new years eve I bought some nice metal bits from a hard ware store and next day built this beautiful monster:
As you can see, the lamp is still the same - as is the whole upper part with the projector glass and the glued down wood bits that hold the papers. But the whole frame I built from metal and put together with screws. The upper bit only rests on top of those screws with a bit of blue tack to hold it in place.
Now it is really durable and even more excitingly, changeable if the needs be. It's not even much heavier than the wooden one which was surprisingly substantial. The worklight rests on tiny metal corner bits and the legs are similar ones with soft paddles glued to them so they don't scrape up the table. The only thing I think still should be added are few handles to ease the moving around of it, but otherwise I think this is pretty much it: now I'm finally happy with my light table for the foreseeable future.
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