Sandy,
I work on an easel...and I stand up.  My studio faces north and west. 
Recently I  took down my ceiling fan and installed two color corrected 
fluorescent  fixtures on the ceiling. I work between the two so there are no 
shadows thrown on my work.  It is the very best solution I have come up 
with.  I can now work into and through the evening with no trouble and on 
cloudy days the lighting creates a "daylight" ambiance.  Just another 
alternative.
Jane
PS. I ordered the bulbs via the web very inexpensively.  The major expense 
was for the fixtures and the electrician to install the fixtures.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Lana Johnson
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 9:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCIART] SCIART-L: Drawing tables and light sources

Karen,

I'm so sorry about the loss of your parakeet.  I had no idea they lived so 
long.

I'm also interested to see what other artists are doing about light sources. 
I use the same style you do -- a combo lamp -- and I'm truly concerned about 
the difficulty in finding incandescent bulbs.  I don't like the color cast 
by the Ott lights but it looks like we may not have a choice in the near 
future.  Does anyone have any other options they'd like to share?

Sandy Williams

www.soundofwings.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Ackoff <[log in to unmask]>
To: SCIART-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, Jun 11, 2014 1:16 pm
Subject: Re: [SCIART] SCIART-L Digest - 9 Jun 2014 to 10 Jun 2014 
(#2014-111)
I have an old IKEA drafting table... bought circa 1980. I've made a few 
adaptations to keep the table top at a set angle, and I angle it only very 
slightly so I can put my paints, water, etc. on it. Then I put a table easel 
on top of it. I use one of two...

Paper & Ink Arts (which cater largely to a calligraphic and crafts crowd) 
sell table top easels in two different sizes (or they used to... I only see 
the 18x24 size on their web site now). The adjust to an almost vertical 
angle, and the top is a white plexi, so you could place a light behind it 
and easily use it as a light table. They are very light and great for 
traveling.
http://www.paperinkarts.com/dbplx2.html

For smaller works, I like an easel that Koo Schadler's husband makes (Koo is 
a phenomenal egg tempera and silverpoint artist who works in the style of 
master paintings). It is heavier, which I like when I'm working at home. It 
is 14 x 20 inches.
http://www.kooschadler.com/egg-tempera-store.htm

For the record, I have a very old small drafting table, probably bought from 
Sears circa 1940. My father studied architecture, and it was his. In his 
won't, he later painted it white and black. I'm tempted to strip it down, 
although I'm sure it's made of inexpensive pine. But it still works just 
fine.

I'd be curious to know what kind of lighting people are using. I still like 
my old desk lamp better than anything... a combo of florescent and 
incandescent. But of course incandescent bulbs are slowly going the way of 
the dinosaur. Ott lights and lights of that sort are too blue for me, and 
they also seem to make things "flat".

My studio is also equipped with 2 black cats, both rescued from the street, 
who routinely knock things over. I find erasers on the floor in the corner. 
They also like to sleep on my router, despite all my attempts to the 
contrary. The dogs and birds live in the upper levels of my house. And just 
as an aside, I just lost my mustache parakeet, Nakeeta. He was 29 and died 
of liver cancer (he had liver disease for 15 years, and took his meds twice 
a day, every day, without complaint. Good-byes are hard.

K



On Jun 11, 2014, at 11:53 AM, Bruce Bartrug <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


What a great idea, Amy.  In the past, I used the same approach to change the 
height of a desk, depending on what I was working on.  It wasn't to allow 
standing, just to allow the work to get closer to my eyes, so I could remove 
my glasses and not have to bend over to get close to the work.  I'm more 
than a little near-sighted, as you may have guessed :).  That was before I 
gained a few decades and needed lenses to help with close vision.  The more 
I think about it, however, I may revive the arrangement.  I wouldn't need a 
coffee table either, just a wooden box of appropriate height.......
b

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Jennifer Gibas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Amy, I have a lightweight $30 IKEA Lack coffee table set on top of my 
desk, legs cut to fit my height.  There's enough room for my mouse, 
keyboard, Wacom drawing tablet and a cup of coffee. It's been totally great. 
I put it up and down to alternate between sitting and standing a couple of 
times a day. Because it's so light, no problem. I looked around for "real" 
standing desks before doing this, and didn't find anything that would work 
as well for what I do.
The listserv won't let photo attachments go through, so email me privately 
if you want to see it.
Jen Gibas

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