Artist Easel – What is an Artist Easel and How Can a Painter Best Use One?
In general terms, and artist easel is just a simple three-legged rack used for support. But for artists like you, it’s a very friendly tool which is extremely helpful while painting or displaying a canvas. A well designed artist easel will allow you to easily adjust its height by its well designed fitted pieces and knobs. If it poorly designed, definitely you will be frustrated by the time and effort it takes to adjust. In worst cases, a painting may fall to the floor unexpectedly.
Artist easels are available in two designs. ‘Tripod designs’ with three legs and ‘H-Frame designs’ with four legs. Three legs may have crossbars to make the easel more stable and an independent mechanism to allow for the vertical adjustment of the working plane. H-Frame designs are based on right angles. All posts are parallel to each other with the base of the easel being rectangular. The main portion of the easel consists of two vertical posts with a horizontal crossbar support, thus giving the design the general shape of an “H.” Variations include additions that allow the easel’s angle with respect to the ground to be adjusted.
Generally artist easels are made in such a way that they can be easily adjustable to different angles. To prevent sliding, built-in anti-skid plates are used on the feet. They are collapsible and very slim in stature to fit in small space. Some easels are easy to carry too mostly if it is of ‘table-top’ type.
Artist easels can also be used as Studio easels or as Field easels. Studio easels will have limited need for portability. Where as ‘Field easels’ must be of portable type for outdoor long painting needs. Easels are not only good for painting, but also used for displaying finished works, known as ‘Display easels’ with less adjustable fitting needs. ‘Mini easels’ can be used if you want to display photos or flyers. French easel also available in the market today and it is a three-in-one easel with a sketch box, easel, and a canvas carrier. The legs and canvas-holding arm collapse to make it easy to carry. The angle at which you work can be varied between vertical and horizontal.
If you want to buy an artist easel, costs vary greatly depending on the type of easel and size parameters. Again the type of easel will be depends on the kind of painting you do the most. If you want to work on large-scale canvases by standing long time, then a floor-standing easel is suitable. If you only work on a small scale, then a table-top easel will be more ideal than a floor-standing or heavy easel. If you want to paint with watercolors, you probably go for a canvas which can be adjustable to 90 degree. But rarely will you find this kind of artist easel. Look for something that’ll be easy to adjust the angle at which you’re working. Oil paintings or Acrylics should be held vertically or near vertical because they will collect less dust.


