Funktional, indeed -- pretty, elegant, pro looking... well, not exactly. On the other hand, making stuff work is what it is all about. I think it looks more professional than high end stuff. This construction is by a bona fide working starving artist, right?  :-)

If you're an artist, have you ever drooled over some of the professional field easels? And then hesitated, as the cost is more than you really want to pay, and then shipping overseas isn't exactly budget friendly either. Feel free to copy or borrow ideas from my design.

I've found that when there is need for a solution, there is also an imagination at work on how to solve the problem. I had Daddy's old lightweight aluminium camera tripod, which I use for photography, so it was important to keep it functional for the camera, which means every addition had to be reversible. It took some "headology" to make it work, and work it does!

In the picture below, A shows the easel components, tripod, canvas/board holder, table with the tripod handle on it. Setting it up, going from A to B, takes about a minute, and most of that time is taken up by turning two screws. (After seeing artists set up the so called French easels, I swore to never engage in a close encounter wrestling match with one of those, as the FE won!)

















C, with insert, shows how simply the shelf is attacked -- a hole into which the center pole fits, and when the pole is lowered and locked, the shelf can't tilt or tip on its own. And, the shelf can be swiveled around independently even in the locked position. Notice that the canvas holder's bottom horizontal bar sits a good distance over the shelf. It is much more comfortable to have it above sleave-dragging-in-pastel-box level. The shelf will get velcro strips on it, to hold pastel boxes securely to it.

The canvas holder started life as a table top display easel I'd gotten as a present (1). It is foldable, so it gave me the idea to use it as if it was indeed folded together. A scrap of wood attached to the back at the bottom keeps it together (2), and the top has a a bit of sawed off 'leg' from the original easel to secure against sideways movement (no image, but a hint of it in 5). I didn't want too many fragile parts sticking out during transport, so the bottom bar of the canvas/board holder is attached to only one side, and can be swung down, as show in (3) and (4).




This part is as versatile as I could make it: it tilts slightly forward (5), back (6), and even nearly 180 degrees upside down! (Have not figured out a use for that -- yet!)

The middle strip of wood, which has the top cross-bar attached to it, can be turned upside down, which gives a range for hight of canvas/board from 0 to 63 cm (almost 25 inches). While a big board/canvas wouldn't be very stable, it would be stable enough for situations when you don't want to bring the huge studio easel.

The easel, and I, in full Plein Air action. Note the equally 'elegant' shopping bag on wheels. I've been given it, and it is probably from the 50s. They made good sturdy things back then. I can put all my gear into it, including water bottle, lunch, extra sweater, camera, and other small stuff. The very lightweight chair was  carried from the car. I usually paint standing up, but the tripod legs can be shortened with three easy clicks, for sitting and painting.

Next project will be to construct lightweight but yet sturdy boxes, for the pastel sticks. I bring about 100 hues and tints and a few shades. The green box on my shelf holds that amount easily, especially as I bring no larger bits than thirds of sticks. The 'board' holding the painting is a sketching pad, and it serves for holding pastel paper, interleaved, finished pastel sketches too. The sketching pad can be sketched in, with a pencil (what a surprise... ) Bulldog clamps holds it all securely, and the PA sketches survive just spendidly being transported in the bag, even over rougher terrain. With 3 Tombow brush pens, I can do quick notans on location, in the sketching pad. By making the pad serve so many uses, I've trimmed down weight and number of things to bring, as this is all my PA gear, plus a terrycloth towel and weat wipes.

Materials used for building tripod easel:

• tripod
• plywood (shelf)
• foldable display easel
• scrap of wood
• sawn off bits from easel
• screws
• glue
• and a 'hole', the kind of nut that is inserted at bottoms of cameras, for attaching the holder to the head of the tripod.

The cost was basically nothing, as I had all the things, including a 'dead' camera I could slaughter to get the 'hole'. (The 'hole' was tricky, contact me if you want to know how I handled it.)

I realize I was lucky to have a tripod this old-fashioned, so the shelf was easily attachable (remove center pole, stick pole in shelf, stick pole in tripod, lower, lock). As the weight is centered, the tripod is very stable. I see absolutely no need for attaching the whole thing to anything while being out, it would take a gale to tip it.

With a more modern tripod, you can hang a box or a shelf on it very easily. A very good solution is by James M Coulter, scroll down to see his smart box. It is the handles at the back edge that is all that holds the box to two tripod legs.

I have  a plywood shelf I attached to a watercolour field easel (I used it for oils), working according to the same principles as Coulter's box, but it isn't strong enough for heavy pastels, or rather, the whole thing becomes unbalanced and risk tipping forward. Though, one idea is to support the shelf with a telescoping leg, or a telescoping walking stick, the kinds that allow you to exercise your arms as you walk.

Oh, yes, I built it all by myself. The electric saw, drill, and the whole toolbox are mine!