Inside My Studio

Posted on October 20, 2009

Since I last posted photos of my ‘studio’ (aka: desk) I’ve since upgraded to a new ‘studio’ (aka: spare room), so I thought I’d post some pictures and let you see my working environment (while it’s still relatively clean)…

My painting, tracing and drawing spaces...

Above is my three work places. On the left of the above photo is my easel (with painting still attached), my laptop beside the easel (for reference while painting), in the middle is my homemade light box which is used with the worktop on the right that is for drawing. Above the light box is my spotlight, this is a special daylight bulb which gives off pure white light, not yellow light like most home light bulbs emit.

my painting area...

This is my painting area (above). On the left you can see a (white plastic) watercolour palette, a cropped milk carton (which I use for water), a Pringles tube (tacked down) for my brushes, my easel (complete with loo roll for wiping brushes on), in the easel drawers are all my pencils and pastels, my glass palette (with oil paint still on it, oops!) and last, but not least, my laptop. You can probably guess from the way it’s set up that I’m left handed, so I can look at the reference photo (on the laptop, to my right) while sloshing my brushes about in the water (on my left). In case you’re confused, I use Artisan oil paints which use water, rather than turps or white spirit.

My big box of tricks...

This photo shows my big B&Q (hardware store here in the UK) toolbox which I store all my painting stuff in. The lid (which is up in this photo) has some pencils in it for quick access. The removable layer, which you can see above, has my oils in the top half of it, the bottom half has my watercolours (on the left) with my tub of (as yet unused) masking fluid, and on the right my new Atelier acrylic paints, which I’m still trying to get the hang of. The inside of the box has some spare (old) brushes and more pencils and pens.

My drawing area...

And here’s my drawing area. With my new mannequin on the window ledge. Lately I’ve been doing webcomics so needed a nice drawing space away from the painting. All I did was get an old worktop, lean it on the window ledge, lean the bottom edge on the chest of drawers (which contain all my paintings and drawings) and bolt it down. Voila! One sloped drawing area! On there is my A3 drawing pad, an A4 pad on top of that with a mechanical pencil on top. Beside them is a group of pens and pencils (putty eraser, several technical pens, one brush pen and a dip pen) and on the right of the desk is some in-progress sketches.

My homemade light box...

And lastly, my homemade light box. While throwing out some old furniture, I kept a drawer, cut the sides sloping downwards, cut the back of drawer in line with the lowest part of the sides (what used to be the front of the drawer is against the wall in the photo), painted the entire thing white, lined the inside of the drawer with tinfoil, cut a sheet of perspex to cover the open drawer, sandpapered the perspex to give it a frosted effect, screwed it down to the drawer (frosted side down), cut a hold in the side of drawer to slide a strip-light in to (enough to have the on/off switch sticking out) and, voila! One light box! Very handy for when you do a rough sketch and want to quickly duplicate it. Putting the original down first, put a fresh piece of paper on top, switch the light on and you can easily trace the original on to a new page. Also handy for when I do roughs for comics, I can put a new piece on top and ink the final version without touching the original sketch. Very handy.

So, there you go, that’s a quick tour of my little studio.