Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Better Easel


What began as a chair ended up an easel, and was a spider for a little bit in between.

Chair, Spider, Easel, Better Easel

The original intent was to make something for an art exhibit, Have a Seat for the Arts back in 2011. I made a bar stool then made a spider out of that. When it didn't sell, I decided to piece together the lumber to create an easel, because normally they are relatively expensive and hard to find. The picture on the bottom left was the easel I used and carried around for a while. 
I take my art all over to work on or to show, and don't like to be limited to a small sketchbook. However, in my travels, the old easel hasn't held up so well. Sure it fit in my car, but there weren't enough screws to hold everything together and it kept biting me. Some parts came unattached or fell off as it was lugged around. Designed specifically for a certain canvas, I thought it would work for everything but did not. And besides its ability to hold canvases, the old one didn't look much like an easel.


Easel, holding a 16''x20'' canvas

This is the third time I tried to rebuild this easel. It was still worth it to make my own because this one's custom made. It looks more like an easel now. There are supports on each side and a bigger base on the bottom. I had to cut the supports at a wacky angle to fit the height I already had and the base I wanted. The middle is still a track for the holder to go up and down.


Spider Head

I repainted the whole thing and added some decoration. I painted the new parts yellow and blue to go with the pink. The line designs painted on top ended up changing as I went. Doodles are fun. I also gave the spider head some eyes and teeth.

Back side closeup

 It’s a lot better now that everything is secure. It works for big canvases as well as smaller ones. Carrying it around is easier too because there is a beam on the back to hold on to.





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