Advice on purchasing a light table

[Badeye]

Hi guys, i'm not part of your guild yet, so please forgive me for nosing in. I just don't know of a better place to find reasonable and informed art-advice on gaia.

My question is this- i'd like to buy a light table for the sake of drawing cleaner pencil work (doing the sketch on one page then the final on another). I mostly work on 8x11.5, nothing fancy. I don't know any good or bad qualities for this kind of equipment to have, so if you could drop some pointers or brands, i'd be awfully appreciative.

Thanks in advance.  

[Kieden]

I made my own out of a card board box with plexi glass, tape, and tracing paper underneath to disperse the light from an old lamp bulb. I prefer a flourscent bulb. Most lamps you could take apart and just have the cord and light piece at the end.

If you have a drill you could make it out of wood.

HOME DEPOT BABBEH!

When it comes to brands, I dunno. I alwayse made my own along with animation discs.  

[Errol McGillivray]

I would also suggest making your own. It's cheaper and you don't really need anything fancy. You just need something light shines though. If you want, you can just use a clear drawing board and use nail glue to stick some pegs on there. (If you want pegs for animation.)

I am planning to use an end table (when I find one on the side of the road) and cover it with cardboard around the legs and just stick a lamp in there. I would keep my legs on the outside of it anyway, so it should work. If not, I'll design something else.

Part of the artist experience is manufacturing your own unique tools that work well for you. It's fun, lets you use that problem solving skill, and saves you money.  

[Freiheit]

yup, unless you plan on doing animation, you don't need anything particular. If you make your own, then buy one of those eco-friendly compact lights. They have some pretty intence ones, and the nice thing about them...is that they don't make as much heat...which comes in handy if you dont want to be stuck turning off your lights table every half an hour xp  

[mischievous_pixie]

Yes, I also use a fake light-table. I have a square lamp that gives off natural sunlight (so it's really bright). I use that and never had problems with it  

[Folken_Schezar]

if you don't feel that you can put together a homemade one i'd suggest finding a used photography one. you can usually find them pretty cheap