For the last year or so I've gotten by using an old rickety easel, the single-mast triangle profile you might have used in your elementary school art class. It was free but perfectly awful: adjusting the shelf required enormous physical effort, and once adjusted the shelf sagged precariously, leaving me perpetually ill at ease. It was hopeless for larger paintings, so I often worked on the wall, propping paintings on 5-gallon buckets and straining my neck in 180 degrees turns when painting from models.
Good easels are extraordinarily expensive -- and I needed a large good easel, something that would retail for well over $1000. I donate most of my income to my art studio and apartment landlords, so there's never been much left over for equipment like this. I looked in the art supply stores and admired other artist's easels, but made do without.
Last week, as I started work on a big canvas, I decided there is a third option besides doing without an easel and spending a fortune on one. With $50 invested in 2x4's, hinges, and bolts -- and three plus days of work -- I built an enormous, fully-adjustable, wonderful working easel. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but who needs stained oak when you'll be splashing paint all over it anyway? The mast rises ten feet off the floor and the shelf is over four feet wide, big enough to handle almost any sized painting. It glides around effortlessly on four sturdy wheels, and is heavy enough to stay put where I leave it. It's professional. I love it. I hope to show you some new paintings on it soon.
