Tools Of The Art Trade: The Easel

Even if you are serious, a big’un and a small’un is probably all you’ll ever need.

I have two easels I use alternately.

A smaller one and a massive one.

Having more than one is handy when you are painting a lot. Fact is that paint needs to dry.

So you can prime one support while waiting for a paint layer to dry on another. You get the picture (geddit lol).

If you use them alot, they’ll get paint on them anyway. But try your best to work clean. Excess paint on an easel will clog the gears and moving arms, or will make the platforms the painting sits on off-level. You’ll constantly be wanting to adjust and shift these.

Measure the height of your workspace, and find something that maximizes vertical reach whilst being operable within that space. If you’re not careful, you might invest in one billed as a having a certain maximum height, but that you can’t even take advantage of as the extendable rail will bang into the top of your ceiling. Take note of if your easel will be standing on a bench or sitting on the ground etc, and whether you’ll be standing or sitting.

Look online for secondhand deals. That’s where I found my bigger one, and it was probably less than half the price of the equivalent one new instore. I drove out 1.5-2 hours to the outskirts of Ballarat (country Vic) to buy mine from an old lady who couldn’t paint anymore because her arthritis was failing her. It’s proven to be an incredibly worthwhile investment that’s lasted years. The advantage of the bigger easel is that it’s easier to scale down than scale up. As you can see I use planks of wood to shrink the size. The advantage of the smaller one is simply portability. You can’t manipulate its vertical reach so much, but you can move it around to different parts of the room, house, outside. All handy things.

If you are really gung-ho, you can try and build your own. I’ve never done this, but some basic carpentry knowledge 101 will be all you need to get it done. You can get the simple brass fittings down at the hardware store. Wingnuts. You’ll want wingnuts.

Think about your back and body movement. If you don’t work properly you’ll sprain a muscle or pinch a nerve. I’ve been there, it’s not fun.

You’ll also want to step forward and backward a lot. And store things conveniently.

If you are starting out, substituting an easel for something like stacked milk-crates or your desk and back-wall can be done, but will only get you so far. Possibly C/G-clamps, gator grips and the like can also be tried.

Be careful with the DIY alternatives though. Vibrations cause things to knock over, you won’t be able to paint with much force or energy, you’ll get paint on the walls and piss off the landlord. Your work will suffer, it’ll cause you grief. I’d say for the beginner, getting one equivalent to my smaller one (which is really more of a medium) is ideal. I still use it. It was about $50AUD at the time and holds a 40-45cm surface (will confirm). Anything smaller will probably find you too limited (unless you really are that space-poor, but mine was fine for an apartment spare-room for years and before that even in my own bedroom in a sublet). Don’t go for the really big sized one unless you find a super-hot bargain or you are really committed to the activity long-term. Getting the accumulated art supplies are expensive, and I reckon I’ve contributed pretty heavily to the bank accounts of my local ones over the years.