DIY light box

Okay, so I'm sure you'll agree that making art can be an expensive pursuit.  Fortunately, there are many frugal and creative artists out there more than willing to show their personal hacks for DIY art equipment.  I found these two links for VERY inexpensive tutorials on making your own artist light box (which can cost into the hundreds of dollars at the art store) for under $20!

This one uses 2 glass picture frames and a light piece from a lamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCRzCrsnLnw

But, let's say you only have an old lamp, a cardboard box and 1 glass picture frame.  No problem!  check out this instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Your-OWN-professional-arttracing-ligh/

I'd be interested to know if you've tried either of these, or maybe some other hack has helped you out, let us know in the comments.

Making a maquette with clay

Had a pretty good weekend, the weather was lovely and I got a rare opportunity to give myself a much needed mani-pedi, no polish this time though.  And was thinking about this skull.

I'm having issue with the back of the skull.  Something about it just doesn't look right.  The face is going well, but it looks like a completely separate piece, not a complete skull.  So, I thought I would try the maquette again.  But because the playdough worked so well last time, this time I went to the local dollar store (Yay Dollarama!!) and bought myself some clay.

And it's GLUTEN FREE!  This really wasn't an issue since I wasn't intending to eat it, and really, why would clay have flour in it anyway?!

I also bought some clay modelling tools ($5 - Michael's - cheaper at Curry's but a MUCH longer drive).  I referenced how to make a skull out of clay - thank you Google, and started work this morning.  As it turns out, I have absolutely NO skill in working with clay.  I thought this would be as simple as playdough, but clay is a much more resistant material.  Don't get me wrong, that's exactly what I wanted, but it tended to dry out much more quickly than I expected.  The tools were awesome though.  I could get the detail and definition I wanted (with my limited skills) with moderately little effort, getting into crevices my fingers couldn't reach.  Here's the result so far.

Looks creepy don't he?!  You can see the partial drawing in the background - I obviously have a LOT of work still to do, but I'm beginning to see what may be going on in the drawing already.

After working with it for about an hour or so I decided it was time to put it away.  It was getting drier by the minute and harder to work with.  I figured I didn't want it to dry completely since I want to come back to it later, so I thought I'd try the old trick of a damp paper towel in a ziplock bag to keep it moist.  We'll see how that works out.

I needed a break, so refreshed with some juice and cleaned my desk of clay.  I pulled out the crocuses again to continue the line drawing (no pic today) for the remainder of the day.

Here are the links I used for how to make a skull out of clay:

• www.ehow.com/how_6223673_make-human-skull-out-clay.html
• http://www.ehow.com/how_7804155_build-human-skull.html

If anyone has any tips on how to work with clay or how to make a skull out of clay, I'd be really interested to hear them!