Pencil lesson Number-X from HomeSchoolArts.com

Building A Shadow Box

    Building a shadow box will help you to see how the light and shadow effects any given object when light is focused from the different positions that you assign. We will use a shadow box in our drawing lessons throughout the HomeSchoolArts site for our still life and object drawing lessons.

    For the first shadowbox all you will need is a cardboard box, some white paint, a box or art knife and some tape. I used a cardboard box that measures 20"W X 20"D X 16"H. This will enable me to put some larger objects in the box. If you are a home school student please have a parent or guardian help you with this project.

    The supplies you will need are a clip on or portable low wattage light, a desk lamp, flat white acrylic house paint, acrylic gesso or white foam core board some clear packing tape, scissors, box or art knife and a ruler for each of the shadowbox options.

Cut the top flaps off of the top of the box and discard them. Then on the widest side measure and mark two lines 2½ , then one line 2¾ along the bottom. Using a box cutter or art knife cut out the section of the box as indicated in the pictorial example.

Using the flat white paint cover the inside of the box in white on the three remaining sides and the bottom of the box. If you decide to paint the interior of the box make sure that you tape over the bottom flaps on the inside of the box to hold them down and in place. In this case I used white acrylic gesso because that is what I had around in my studio, it dries fast and I know it has a flat finish.

This is what the shadowbox should look like when it is finished

This is what the finished desktop shadow box will look like.

Another type of desktop shadow box can be made from foamcore or art board. See the next page for this plan.

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