Easels for Sale

Whether you are a budding young artist looking for your first artist easel or an experienced veteran wanting to upgrade or add to your collection, there is always the question of what is the best easel for me. It is quite natural to want to get the best product for your needs and get the best deal so you are wise to do a bit of research on the subject before you jump and make a purchase.

Do You Need an Artist Easel

The benefits of an artists easel might not be obvious to a new artist just starting out and the expense of purchasing an easel may be hard to justify. The benefits are many though and you will quickly see that working vertically on a painting mounted to an easel means that your painting is in the same plane that it will eventually be hung or displayed. You will find that the scale and the details will be easier to perfect than if you are working on a painting or a sketch in a horizontal plane. Then don’t forget that the risk of soiling your creation by spilling or dropping something on it will be reduced to almost nothing. The benefits start to become clear.

If that isn’t enough of a benefit to justify the cost of an artist easel then you must also consider that working at an artists easel is also much easier and efficient on you. You can elect to sit on a stool and paint or you can stand in front of the easel and easily step back and check colors or scale or shadow if you are sitting or standing in front of it. Anyone who has recently moved from a table to an easel will tell you that it is simply much more comfortable to use an easel than not.

Types of Artists Easels

So the question now changes from whether you need an artists easel to what is the best artists easel for your needs. The good news here is that there are several different types and hundreds of styles of artists easels out there on the market so it isn’t a question of whether the right one for you exists, simply which one is right for you.

Table-Top Easels
You might be in a cramped space like a small apartment where you don’t have a dedicated room to paint and you may need to repurpose the kitchen table or a desk somewhere. So if space is an issue then a table top easel is a great alternative. They fold up and you can store them in a closet and you can set them up in just a few minutes. These are available in a variety of sizes and styles and we would recommend that you consider the height of the surface that you are setting it on and whether you will be sitting or standing while painting before making a purchase. Be very cautious if you will have to bend down to paint as that is very hard on your back over time.

Studio Easels
When you think of an artists easel then chances are you are picturing a traditional studio easels. These are the large, free standing floor easels that artists use for the large canvas paintings that they create and it is traditionally the type of easel you see in movies. They come in a couple of varieties including a tripod (3 leg) design as well as a square foot (4 leg or H frame) design. The tripod seems to be more common but the square foot are more stable and less apt to tip over if you bump it inadvertently. Depending on the model that you purchase, studio easels can be very large, heavy and quite expensive. If you are working on the big canvas paintings, then you will need one but do your research.

French Easels
You may not have heard these referred to as a french easel but chances are you have seen them. A French easel is the swiss army knife of easels and is a three-in-one easel. It contains a sketch box, an easel, and a canvas carrier all in one. The sketch box holds your art supplies and palette while the legs and canvas arm break down to make it very simple to carry and be portable. This style of easel is very convenient if you often work in multiple places and need to take your easel with you. Perhaps you go away on the weekends or you attend classes or just like to paint at a friends house.

Sketching and Display Easels
An easel that you use for sketching or to display your art are typically portable and lightweight that are handy to move from place to place. You will want to check any easel you are considering purchasing to see if it folds down small enough for your needs. Display easels are intended to display your paintings and tend to be a bit too light to work on for very long. They are intended to hold the weight of a canvas and display it for all to see but that is about it.

Sketchbox or Paintbox Easels
These styles of easels are typically table top easels that have a sliding drawer or “box” that you can store your painting or drawing supplies. These are often a table top style easel and can be often be purchased with a limited amount of paints and brushes and supplies inside the drawer already. In that version it would be considered a starter kit type of configuration.

As we said earlier, there is no shortage of styles or variations of artists easels but when you find the right one of you, then you will know it. It isn’t just a piece of furniture or an accessory but rather it is as integral as the correct brush and paint to the finished product. Your art easel, whether it be a studio easel, portable easel or a table top easel should feel like an extension of yourself, and you are well on your way to finding the perfect artist easel for your needs.