Choosing Studio Easels

This is achieved by their triangular footprint, which maintains a good degree of rigidity, even with an art canvas up to about 5 feet tall.

The Single Mast studio easels are ideal where you need a reasonably stable item for painting quite large (up to about 60 inches high) canvasses, but which can, within a few seconds, fold up and store flat after each painting session. Apart from its compactness, it's the most affordable of the studio easels.

The 'A' Frame is one step up, being rather sturdier. This too can fold up, but not quite as easily as the Single Mast. It runs a bit pricier than the Single Mast, but its greater rigidity and stronger design makes it more attractive if you're looking for something a bit more robust.

Many colleges use an 'A' Frame quite happily and they stand up to a good deal of wear and tear, as you can imagine!

It's main drawback against the 'H' frame is that the latter can take much bigger canvasses, though as I've said already, at an added cost.

H frame studio easels tends to be much heavier and normally have additional supporting struts either side, to keep your painting steady when working towards the edge.

You can see here why the H Frame type gets its name. Compare it to the 'A' Frame and Single Mast pictures.

The'H' Frames also have at least two parallel feet that give tremendous solidity in all directions.

This is important if you are reaching to paint the corner areas of a large canvas or you are putting on heavy impasto paint with a knife where you tend to press harder.

Equally, if you have a somewhat enthusiastic style and you tend to launch yourself at the canvas to attach your paint, you want the easel to meet you half way and not retreat under your advances!

If something gives way at the crucial moment you pick up lots of paint all down the front of your sweater as you fall onto and slide down the canvas.

This is bad enough.

However, it's when the friend or family member suggests the sweater is now the better piece of artwork, that it really hurts....

Many of the better easels of all styles also allow a slight forward tilt of the canvas, thus reducing glare and allowing you to more easily reach the top of a large painting. The illustration on the left shows what I mean.

This is important for using pastels as well, for example, so your arm doesn't touch the lower part of the work and pastel dust doesn't drop on it either.

The really heavy-duty studio easels often have a winding device, either manually or electrically operated, which adjusts the position of your canvas safely without removing it.

Be careful about 'maximum canvas' sizes quoted. Sure, most easels will accommodate large works, but some only by the bottom of the canvas being uncomfortably near the floor...

If wide landscapes are your preference, look out for an easel that is wide enough to support this format.

A wide canvas on an easel say, only a quarter of its length, will make for entertaining painting sessions as you battle to keep it from tipping one way or another in between (or more likely, during) brushstrokes.

The Giant studio easel is generally a bigger version of the 'H' Frame, but often incorporates some aspects of the others, for example, two parallel single masts.

Like many 'H' Frame studio easels, it usually comes with art supply drawers, an easily cleaned painting tray and hoist for easy repositioning of your work, etc.

It will also probably have castors for easy movement around the studio (to stay with daylight for example).

Make sure that the front castors are lockable so you don't chase the easel round the studio as you paint.

If you want the qualities of an 'H' Frame or Giant, but are really, really stuck for space, why not consider a decent wall mounted version.

In various sizes, a larger one may you set you back about $500.00 but it protrudes from the wall by only about 14" and has a generous forward tilt, taking canvasses up to about 88" tall.

It needs someone who knows what they're doing to secure it to the wall, but offers a solution where quality is paramount and space is at a premium.

Equally, if you prefer a flexible solution for a variety of painting media, consider a Convertible or Hybrid studio easel.

These offer a conventional vertical easel position, but also tilt to the horizontal and all angles in between for various painting techniques or varnishing finished works, applying gesso to canvas, and so on.

As with many art supplies, studio easels are a long term investment. Many come finished in attractive polished solid wood of various types.

As a large piece of furniture they will dominate a studio or other room in your home. So don't overlook the fact that a studio easel can be be a focal point or just as easily, an eyesore.

It pays to sit down and think what you really want, or how your painting hobby or career might develop, before you dive in and buy your easel.

Hopefully, these notes will give have given you some food for thought before you part with your cash.

Good Luck!

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