Hey guys, so in this video. I'm going to show you some ways on how you can make your own lightbox.
This is my lightbox and if you don't know what a lightbox is it's a little
box
that lights up so here
let me dim some of my lights here, so if I turn it on, it lights up (snaps) and the purpose of it (snaps again) is to
trace your drawings, so let's say you have a nice sketch you did, and you want to trace it on to some nicer paper.
Ummm, that's what you would use this for. I do that all the time,
I always do my sketches either in my sketchbook or on computer printer paper
and then I trace it onto my marker paper later.
And that's because I have a pretty heavy hand when I sketch and so I don't feel comfortable sketching directly on the marker paper,
So yes turning my lights back on here (Baylee laughs)
This one actually got as a birthday gift
from my boyfriend several years ago, I don't even know if these ones are made anymore.
There's no brand name or anything on this.
I tried looking up the serial number and everything could not find it online anywhere, (Baylee laughs again)  but um yeah
it's just a pretty basic thin light box.
I
personally think the thinner it is the better because then
your hand isn't way up on the on
top of some big box if you get to the edge of it your hands kind of falling off
I don't know. I know you can just shimmy your paper over but thin ones I think are more convenient
So that's my light box, but I want to show you some ways you can make your own at home
So this first method is not actually making a light box
It's just using something you have at home as a light box. So if any of you have a tablet at home,
then you can easily turn it into a light box.
All you have to do is go to Google search white and it will bring up a bunch of pure white images like this
save it to your computer and all you do is open that image full screen and the screen is pure white and
here, let me just do a little demo. I always have to dim the lights before you use your lightbox.
Alright my lights are shut off.
Lay this down and as you can see you can see
perfectly through the picture and make sure your screen brightness is turned all the way up
so you can see pretty well,
But obviously not everyone has a tablet at home
And if you didn't have one that would be pretty expensive and way more expensive than just buying a light box
but I just wanted to mention it because it is something a lot of people do have and
so that is something you can use you can really use anything that has a screen
But things that are flat like tablets are the easiest to use because you can lay them flat
I'm just going to turn back on two of my lights because there's no point in me turning these on and off
for this whole video this next method is kind of a combination of methods if you will
So it involves taking some kind of plastic container and putting lights underneath it. So you need any kind of plastic
container
that you have
Preferably something that has a smooth surface, so for example this lid not ideal,
it's got these bumps here, and you can't really see that well through this area, so the bottom is much better.
It's much more clear, the only problem with plastic containers is there's always this little bump in the middle,
There's another little textured circle here
There's the recycle symbol then there's the logo for the brand so it's not 100% ideal
But it's definitely usable another option would be if you have clear storage drawers at your house
I have a set of three little drawers that I use to hold paper
So it'd be super easy to just pop the paper out flip it upside down and there you've got your surface, but again
There's logos and that kind of thing that do interfere a little bit, but if you're using a light hand
It doesn't matter that much or you could just kind of move the paper around as you trace and another thing
I thought of was to use this baking dish, so it's made of glass so it's see through obviously
this side is completely smooth however this side has a bunch of text embossed, so umm,
Not ideal
But it does have a smooth half and what you would do with something like this is you would put lights underneath it
First thing you're going to want to do is lay down some white paper if you don't have a big sheet you can just lay
a few smaller sheets of paper lay that down because that's going to help reflect light back upwards.
Then I'm going to take my lights and
here's what I have. So if you're using the technique where you're flipping a container upside down
There's usually not any open holes at the bottom. So if you're using a light that has a cord that plugs into the wall
It's going to make it uneven and this is going to kinda rock a little bit if you're okay with that. That's fine
but a good option is to use lights that run on batteries.
So the height of your container is going to dictate how big your lights can be. I
Personally like the thinner containers because as I said the flatter the light boxes the easier it is to use
So I wanted lights out to fit underneath
So some options are these kinds of lights that you press to turn on you can find these pretty much anywhere
I got these at Walmart. I think you can even get them at Dollar stores
So they're pretty cheap and easy to find and other lights
I found again at Walmart, these were all in the nightlight section by the way
I got these lights these were a little more expensive though. Here in Canada these were
$25 for a pack of 2
so not the cheapest, but these work really well, they're nice and bright especially compared to these ones, so
yeah, and it's white light instead of this yellow light and these have a flat base
so they just sit nicely like that, so what I would do I'd probably lay them this way
Put my container over top of it dim. Hey!
These have sensors on them. I don't understand them. Oh, I think they're motion activated or something
I don't I don't understand so all you do is dim your other lights
Put your paper on there, and there you go you can see through it. Let's test these guys out
I feel like these under ones don't work very well, but I want to see how much light I can get from them. Oh
yeah, that's not too bad either and uh
It is a little bit dimmer, but not bad at all so as long as you're in a dim room. you're okay
you might have to leave if there's people in the room with you who need the lights on you might have to go crawl into
another room by yourself
[but] that's actually the beauty of the battery-operated lights is you can really take your setup anywhere?
So yeah, that's my technique of flipping over a container, so this next method is
Using a picture frame because it's flat perfectly smooth
No logos no recycle symbols not so it's a lot smoother than a plastic container
So you depending where you are frames can be kind of expensive or kind of cheap. I got this one at Walmart it was
$15 but I'm sure you could find cheaper ones elsewhere um
Yeah, so you have this you need to prop it up by the way if you use a shadow box
That would be a pretty good idea because it's already deep but with this I can't fit my lights underneath it
So I'm going to need to prop it up on something so y-you can prop it up on is up to you
I was trying to brainstorm because I was like well, not everyone's gonna have a block of wood or bricks those would work great
but I
Know I don't have that kind of thing liner on the house
So you could use any kind of small boxes that would fit on the edges or I was even thinking bread pans flipped upside down
woodwork or what I found in my cupboards ziploc boxes
So I can lay these down
Let's put my lights in between
turn these suckers on and
Then I can place the glass over top of it
Dim my other lights
Place on the paper and look at that works perfectly, right?
So yeah anything you can use to prop it up by the way most frames will probably have a backing you'll have to take out
and if that's the case if the frame is
Facing upwards the glass will fall out the bottom so [you'll] actually have to flip your frame upside down to keep the glass from falling
Out yeah, these are somehow motion activated
I don't understand these you know I kept a wave in front of them for them to turn on or something
[yeah], that's the case
I would also recommend maybe taping down the edges of the glass so it doesn't pop out too easily
This is the kind of frame where it's double paned glass and so there is no backing and no matter which way you flip it
The glass will not fall out, so that's pretty nice
And you actually don't even need to keep the glass in the frame if you'd rather just take it out [of] the frame
That's totally up to you you might get a little sharp. I'm just going to leave mine in the frames
[alright], so just [to] wrap this video up
I
Think this is the easiest solution is to [use] a tablet if [you] have one, but other than [that]
I think using a picture frame is the option because it lets you use lights that have cords and
It lets you
Have a perfectly smooth surface compared to a plastic drawer
But I hope that gave you guys some ideas on how [you] can make your own Lightbox at home for your drawings
These lights are kind of a fail, but honestly if you can find something similar, that's not motion activated. That'd be great
I did not realize these were motion activated when I bought them and they [shut] off so quickly
So these are not very good. Do not recommend, but any small lights that will fit underneath will do so
Yeah, I hope you guys found this video helpful. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in my next video, babe
Why?
Babe, hey you mess [up] my workstation putting your butt on people's Thank-you cards