June 2019

Santa Fe Railroad Station

6 3/4 x 8 3/4

Watercolor

Plein Air Bug-out set up

This is a lighter set up than the "Gurney" easel I sometimes use. 

Over shoulder bag and tripod.

Gear from bag.

Simple design using regular hinges. No need for torque hinges.

9 x 7 inches folded up. 7 x 2 1/2 inch piece added for support. 

The tripod mount screw was placed on one side with the screw and finger nut for tray.

Underside of the easel.

Mounted on a tripod.

Set up with sketch journal, watercolors and auxiliary tray.  Tray can be used as palette for gouache, and casein.

Metal watercolor box held in place with bull dog clip magnet.

Set up with watercolor block.

Auxiliary tray attached to easel.

Opened easel with gear.

All neatly packed away.

James Gurney style plein air set up

Everything except the tripod fits in the bag on the left. 

Easel prototypes

Revised on March 5th, 2020. Added magnets to pallet to hold metal pencil box. Panel holders were cut from sheet metal and attached via magnets.

[6 x 8 Plein air sketch using the above set up.]

The above is the final version out of all that have been tested so far. It is the simplest design for the functionality I am looking for. It can hold up to 9 x 12 panels.

Prototype final version

9 magnets added for horizontal or vertical configuration.

Slides set up for horizontal placement.

Vertical panel loaded.

Previous prototypes.

MeGo easel with slide bars.

MeGo easel with magnets attached to hold metal bar taped to back of drawing/painting board.

Guerrilla paint box screwed directly to tripod making for a very stable base. 

Shoulder bag easel with tripod mount attached and folded for storage.

Opened wide enough to hold sketching journal and watercolor pads.

Easel opened and pallet extension attached.

Opened with sketch journal.

(See the Butterfly Easel post for the final version.)

Sandwich bag attached to tripod to be used to hold water for water media.

MY Go 2 Pochade box designs

This is an adaption of several pochade boxes already in production. I used magnets in the panel holder to hold the steel bars in the three slots. The slots are necessary to keep the attached panel straight.

A torque hinge is used to hold the palette/tray in place.

I used  a horizontal format here and upon reflection I could have added vertical slots for portrait panels.

The tripod mount is on the top section for stability to the painting surface.

Another method for creating the panel holder.

Three holes were drilled into the board and magnets were inserted into holes reinforced with a heavy duty epoxy glue.

A steel bar was taped to the back of a gator board. Gator board was used because it is light weight, water resistant and strong. 

Various materials can be taped to the front of the gator board, watercolor paper, canvas, panels, etc. Or, if using a panel, just tape the piece of metal to the back of that.

The gator board/panel is attached to the front of the panel holder with the magnets.