It is iconic, the way a painter himself is always portrayed in front of his canvas and painting away in front of a wonderful view. But the most neglected part of this whole scenario must be the easel that holds up his canvas. These easels are an artist’s aide since the ages in a way such that they have essentially that same design and the same basic function.
True, there have been many new uses of this apparatus in modern times in more technical areas, such as the easels used to hold mechanical designs in factories and manufacturing lots and such, but essentially they are the same.
The best example of these must be the Tripod variant which is the most widely used and is the most portable. But the other variants and uses of this simple yet versatile little utility remains untouched since the first century when Pliny the Elder described a canvas on a wooden easel.
Easels for artists are mostly wooden because they are light weight and easy to place at the scene of the painting. Moreover the wooden variant works better with the delicate canvas materials due to the avoiding of wear and tear from metal or other materials that can be used for this particular utility.
Different Types of Easels as per design
As with anything the basic use of any article will have certain stringent as well as loose uses such as in this case. There are mainly two types of Easel designs that can be of any particular importance. They are as follows:
- The Tripod Structure
The more common and widely used type of wooden easel is the ones with a tripod structure. These are very easy to move around places and equally easy to shift into congested areas. They are very lithe as per their build as they are typically made of very slim plywood in a tripod structure with support mechanism.
There is usually a central axial wooden piece that allows adjustment over the height of the canvas. The panel for the base of the canvas is fixed and is only changed through adjustment of the support leg of the tripod.
- The H-Frame Structure
This is a more stationary purpose design of the easel where that basic design is based on a set of rectangles. The base is made of two parallel planks connected centrally and in an anti-parallel manner forming something of an H shape. This will hold the easel upright while the part holding up the canvas is a similar structure with a fixed base as in the case of the tripod.
These were typically built for the use of stationary painters or artists taking up more space and are more structurally sound. Built to last these are mainly built for studios to be used for portraits. These are not very well suited for outdoor use.
Differences and Uses
As with many things easels have found their use branch out in many different areas other than the typical use of the artist in the studio. Although these remain the principal use of the artifact there are areas that have use for it otherwise. Following are some of those uses:
- Artist’s Easel
These are the principal and most common ones with highly adjustable parts. The adjustments are of heights and angles, engineered for the comfort of the artist. The structural integrity may be forgotten in most cases as portability and accommodation take the front seat.
- Paint Station
These are more structurally strong easels that are principally built to last in studios for their girth and strength. These have many holders for paint buckets and brush holders. Canvas settings are more detailed in this form of the easel.
- Children’s Easel
These are typically smaller in size and hold smaller articles of canvas boards for children often being attached to dry cleaning boards or chalkboards as the case may be.
- Display Easel
These are scaled down or enlarged versions of the typical easel that are used to provide a display arrangement for finished work.
An imperative when it comes to the requirements of an artist, whether in the studio or in the outdoors, this age-old apparatus still has as strong a following as it did in ages past.