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Tabletop Easel for Outdoor Sketching

I am enjoying my tabletop easel on the back porch this summer. After experiencing a blistery, cold winter full of snow this year, I decided that needed to get some fresh air and set-up my studio outside. Rather than worry about getting the outdoor furniture full of paint and other art materials, I bought myself a used table with locking wheels to use outside. This summer, comfort was going to be a top priority. My rolling table cart, with a middle shelf, perfectly accommodates my tabletop easel and art supplies. In addition to painting, I do a lot of drawing using Prismacolor Pencils. With my new state of summer mind, I am getting into the mindset of Monet – capturing my surroundings at different times of day.

For outside the studio, I really like the Utrecht Tabletop Sketch Box, which is a combination tabletop easel and paint/drawing box. It has a convenient divided, slide-out draw where I can store my art supplies. It is neat and easy to carry about, whether it is just outside the house or to some other location, due to its carrying handle and brass clip closures. It is nice and compact, measuring 16 1/2″ x 15″ x 4″ when folded. It can accommodate canvases or drawing pads up to 34″, compared with the Richeson Sketch Box that expands to 33” in height. Here is a picture of this neat little tabletop easel:

For practical purposes, I tend to not keep my supplies in my tabletop easel, but in a separate art box. The reason is that I would rather keep my trays clean for each project and use it them only for organizational purposes. As we artists know, art materials can become very messy and I’d rather work with clean trays, where I can switch my materials in and out easily. Charcoal and pastel dust is sometimes harder to clean up than oil paint, so for those items, I like to keep them isolated from them rest of my supplies. So, that is my fetish.

If you are looking for a tabletop easel that costs less, you’ll most likely have to sacrifice some height. Less expensive desktop easels generally don’t expand much higher than 24”

Written by Brenne Meirowitz, BA, MA, MS
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