Can anyone suggest a decent light for painting? I'm setting a hobby corner and need a decent light to paint with. I'm willing to put a bit of money into it. I already grabbed a small TV and a chromecast (plus a pre-existing Plex server) to have on the side when I'm hobbying. I used to put a tray on my coffee table and paint in the living room but I want to be able to leave things for a couple days and not have it in the way. The back of the bedroom was a dumping ground/undefined storage area before hand. Also I do people have a prefered work surface. I got a new desk and thinking of putting a glass surface for easy of cleaning incase of a painting accident. Last thing i'm looking at is a removable spray booth for my airbrush, but I may wait a little while. I don't use it enough to warrant a permanent set up for it.
If you really use the airbrush that much, I'd make some variety of spray booth a priority. Box fan, furnace filter to fit, etc. I have a halogen desk lamp and one of those old clamp-on desk lamps, plus two 100w-equivalent compact fluorescent bulbs in the room's light. I also have a pair of halogen photo lights for my light tent, but those get really hot if you leave them on for more than 5 minutes. I should probably chase down some daylight CF bulbs for the room and clamp-on desk lamp, maybe one for the halogen desk lamp too.
I'd recommend Alzo Full spectrum bulbs, if you want a cfl type. These https://www.amazon.com/ALZO-Joyous-...pID=41Q1UcfNKzL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch I use them for my parrots too. The trick is to make sure the bulbs get adequate ventilation. For my lamps, I drilled additional holes in the lamp hood, and used reflective tape on the interior... I find the articulated desk lamps with the weighted base to be more convenient than the clamp on kind. You'll note the white plastic painting board. That's my preferred surface.
Oooh, that's not a bad idea! And 4 bulbs will give me one spare. 750 lumens each makes for one hell of a lot of light, one of my 'tactical flamethrower' flashlights only makes 250 and is bright enough to leave you seeing spots for probably half an hour! Forgot to mention that I've been looking at getting a desk lamp with a magnifier lens in it, but those are really expensive for daylight spectrum lights.
I made slight mistake in my first post. I Don't use the air brush that much, mostly for Tags, remotes & terrain which I already have most already done.
Glass is a good thing, you can clean it with acetone, you can put any card below it for color, and you can also get matte glass if glare is problem. Add a plastic film strip between the glass and table, like a skirt, for when paint drips out of the edge. Or even cover everything around, if you fear exploding pots. For lamp, the magnifiers tend to get in the way of depth perception. The tri-tube lamp you can see in multiple blogs is 3450 lumens IIRC; it gives a nice spread source. But keep the room lights on. As for LEDs (you can find the tri-tube frame with those), I'm in the "wait and see" when it comes to quality. Phosphor coating is settled manufacturing, LEDs not so much; the power savings (a bit over CFL, barelly nothing against straight tubes) are not worth the quality lotto.
I wanted to get a light that was little nicer and I found this one and it the light quality is very good for painting. I can put it on my side reaching over in front of my forehead angled forward, giving anything in front of me tons of light, and not have it in my eyes. The actual light is about 5-6 inches long so when painting a model about 8-10 inches in front of my face the light hits it from an arc of about 30 degree angle with minimal shadows. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01NADV5AY/ref=pe_3034960_236394800_TE_dp_1 I appreciate the feedback, you guys went a little technical for me. I'll post a photo my set up later, I still need to sort a couple things sorted out. I still need the glass top for my desk and I have an airbrush booth on order which should be relatively easy to set up and take down when I need it. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075WVC8KH/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1