The Sorg Easel

Sturdiness

The first quality, sturdiness, is probably the easiest to find. Simply avoid the lightweight easels. Sometimes people will try to get double duty out of their field easel, using it inside. This can work with small sized canvases and panels, but they'll start to shake with anything larger. Perhaps the worst happens when you accidentally bump into a part of it, probably one of its front legs. The whole painting/easel assemblage is already top-heavy and can easily topple. A sturdy model becomes increasingly important as you increase the size of the canvas; otherwise each stroke will start the canvas vibrating.

The heavier the easel, the more stable it will be, assuming quality construction. If you're considering a tripod style easel, make sure that it doesn't use its rear leg as the method of adjusting the angle of the canvas from leaning away from you toward the vertical. As you get closer to vertical, (these type of easels don't allow you to adjust them beyond vertical) they draw the rear leg closer and closer to the front legs. They get less and less stable, and can easily fall over with the slightest touch from the front or back.

The better easels are usually of the "H-frame" style, a design which has four legs, usually attached to a base. The H-frame is a stable design, the most common available, and should include casters on the base. I think these casters (wheels) are almost a necessity, as you'll often want to adjust the position of the entire easel at least slightly to get a better position for a still life or model. And you'll probably want to roll the whole thing aside from time to time.

Adjustability

All but the least expensive easels offer some degree of adjustability. It's very important to get the greatest degree possible. Consider a vertical format canvas, 36 inches high; sometimes you'll want to be painting in a seated position, sometimes standing. Keep in mind that part of the time you'll be working at the top of the canvas, part of the time at the bottom. This is a wide range of heights, and you don't want to be reaching too high up, or stooping down low to work.

Oil, acrylic, and pastel painters will want to adjust the tilt angle to suit them, usually close to upright. Pastel painters should look for an easel that goes past vertical so that pastel dust will drop to the floor instead of the lower parts of the paper. If you're an oil painter using overhead skylights or lighting, you may also prefer to tilt the canvas slightly past vertical to eliminate the glare of wet or shiny paint. Especially on large canvases, this makes a nice difference.

Most of the better easels come with a paint tray that is separate from the bottom canvas support. This adjustment is very convenient, as you will usually want to have the tray lower than the bottom of your canvas, especially when you're standing.

Ease of Use

This is my biggest complaint with the vast majority of other available easels and what led me to develop my own. I was not alone with this, other artists had the same gripes. You can see my answers to this by clicking the "About" page, but let me to tell you about your other choices.

The most common adjustment you will make while painting is the height of your canvas or panel. Virtually all other easels require that you unscrew and slide the top canvas support up, then remove the canvas (or risk having it fall to the floor). Next you loosen the bottom canvas support and raise or lower it to the height you prefer. If you're lowering it, you may first have to lower the paint tray to get it out of the way. Finally, you replace the canvas, and lower and tighten the upper canvas support.

You will usually have to jiggle all these parts up and down, which is a pain. The paint tray can be quite heavy to try to move, and many manufacturers have come up with winches, screws, or rack and pinion methods to adjust the tray. None of the winch systems I've tried has worked very well (and this has included some $1,000.00+ models). They often stick, or bind, on the way down, and require help from your other hand.

I have only tried one rack and pinion model, and it worked very well, except all the weight was on a pin you had to pull out first, while holding the crank or it would whip around while the tray was heading for the bottom of the easel.

The screw models work best, but are by far the slowest; you will crank and crank to move the tray more than a couple of inches.

And speaking of the crank, this is its own problem. If the crank is on the front of the easel, it sticks out and gets in your way, even painfully so, if you forget that it's there. One manufacturer solves this by making the crank fold flat, but now you have to unfold and fold it each time you use it. The other solution that's used is to move the crank to the side of the easel which works fine with smaller canvases, but requires that you walk around to the back side to use it with wider canvases.

Finally...

As an artist, your single biggest expense will be your easel. Though a quality easel is not inexpensive, we're lucky that it's a relatively small amount when compared with many other professions and hobbies. Beginners, if you can, avoid the common course of buying a cheap easel, quickly discovering its deficiencies, upgrading to another model only to find that you and your requirements are better than that, and finally looking for quality. You will ultimately save money and frustration by going with the high quality in the first place.

Any of the better easels will last a lifetime, but no matter which one you buy or where you buy it, get a guarantee of satisfaction from the seller. Assemble it in your studio, try it out, make sure it has the qualities you desire. After all, you'll hopefully be spending many, many enjoyable hours with it.

Blatant advertisement: Let me be obvious by saying that I truly believe that my easel comes pretty darned close to being the perfect studio easel. After years of using various designs and talking with lots of other pro's and serious amateurs, the design of the Sorg Easel has more going for it than other easels that cost far more. Please click on the "About" link to learn more.