[Lunatique]

This problem's been bothering me for some time now, maybe you guys have some suggestions.

When I work on the computer, I need to have the ambient light in the room turned low so it doesn't glare on my screen(also, when the ambient light is brighter than my monitor, my eyes hurt). BUT, sometimes I want to look at some reference material(magazine, photos, costume design bboks..etc), but if I turn my ambient room light up, I can't really work on the computer because my eyes will get uncomfortable.

So, how do you guys(especially you super realistic guys that use lots of reference)handle that problem?



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www.ezsf.net/enchanted

[Knowledge]

Hey ya i know what you mean i spend Entire days On my Computer and man i Get Serious Red eyes my Eayes burn (Ok maybe lack of Sleep has a small part in there ) But anyways i fixed that problem i bough a Anti radiation, Glare thing. Its a Thing that you put on your Screen It kinda of Enhances the Colors, Blocks 99.9 % of Radiation and takes glare out of the Screen, Ever since my eyes are not Hurting and i dont have any Reflecting Light Bulbs in my Screen It only cost about 100 $ or so. you can getone at www.fellowes.com Look around they have some. Hope that i was of some Use ;P

[Freddio]

use a spotlight on your reference..

[RoadMaster]

I agree with Freddio, spotlights are probably your best cheapest solution, I have a simple desklamp in my basement (although usually I work with images I've scanned in or something, because I hate looking back and forth between my screen and desk). It's also good if you have objects your drawing, and want directional lighting on them. Now if only I could make some room on my desk to actually put my lamp to use, right now I have perfect illumination of my wacom, and the wacom tablets cable is always too short for me to move too far without blocking my keyboard, which has even less chord room.

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The Elves, EVIL sinister elves...

[Lunatique]

I like the spot light idea. I just have to find a way to position it so I can look at both the monitor and the illuminated reference comfortably. Thanks for the help!

Yes, looking back and forth between monitor and something else IS a pain in the ass. I hate it too. But when you use multiple references for inspiration(for example, looking at a Sargent book for his brush strokes), you can't excatly scan in all that!

About the positioning of the Wacom: I used to put it in front of my keyboard, but now I've gotten more used to is, I just leave it on my right hand side with the keyboard on the left.