Pastel Plein Air set up

 The drawing board is painted black to cut down on any glare from reflected light.

 Board is hollow to hold pastel paper.

 Pastel box mounted on tripod.

 Opened pastel box. Center and right hold the pastels. The left is for miscellaneous items.

Complete setup with Guerrilla Painter panel holder. 

November 2019

While driving through Arundel/Kennebunk yesterday, I passed a herd of belted cows just as the sun was setting low in the sky. Inspired by the fall colors of the trees behind the cows and the reflected color of the setting sun, I knew I had to try to capture the mood.

Belted Pair

9 x 12

Pastels

Brant Rock

9 x 12

Pastels

MyPad Easel

Easel built to approximate the size of an iPad.

Components minus the torque hinges and metal canvas slides.

Panel holder section is heavy so mounted it directly to the tripod.

Opened showing canvas slides attached to magnets on the panel holder. Note: Canvas slides can be mounted either horizontally or vertically.

Side view showing deep palette.

Three coats of linseed oil where put on the palette, the rest of easel received one coat.

Folded on the tripod.

The size is 7 1/4 by 10 1/4.

Easel Brush Holder

Easel brush holder.

Cut the top off a condiment/squeeze bottle. Drill two vertical holes one inch apart. Thread a zip tie through the holes. Drill a hole through the spring clamp and thread the zip tie through it and tighten it. Do the same for the other bottle and attach to the other side of the clamp.

The cost to make this is about $12, less than half the cost of the commercial brush holder sold on Amazon.

Butterfly Easel

 Opened to 18 x 7 inches.

Closed to 9 x 7 inches.

Top view with optional attachment showing.

Bottom view with tripod mount and attachment screw.

Easel opened showing magnetic clip lower left, top left a binder clip for brushes, clean and dirty water containers on right hand side of attachment.

Watercolor set up with 6 x 8 watercolor block. Easel can accommodate 9 x 12 blocks as well. 

 Easel with 5 x 16 watercolor journal.

August 2019

Marsh Morning

6 x 8

Oil

Used small easel set up, photos to follow.

Marsh Morning

6 x 8

Oil

After listening to a podcast with Michael Oberman I followed his suggestion of mixing color on the palette then putting that color on the canvas with the palette knife; then moving the paint just laid down with a brush. This puts more paint down in a more painterly fashion and the under layer is not as disturbed as much as with a brush.

Marsh Grass

9 x 12

Oil Pastels

Woodford Flowers

3 1/4 x 3 1/4

Watercolor

Woodford

5 x 6

Pencil

Biddeford Pool August 2, 2019

5 x 7

Watercolor in Pentalic Journal

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.