My 2021 Full Sheet Painting Setup
This post is supplemental to the one last week, and is about the setup I made to paint with on a full sheet while standing up. I’ve seen other artists’ setups before, and most of the time it’s a kind of old school french easel. The kind you might imagine seeing in a photo of an atelier from the 19th century, and what I see most oil painters still use. Like this-
However, as a watercolor artist, they don’t appeal to me. There are specific things one wants to do as a watercolorist. Most importantly, I want to be able to tilt my board, and to change the angle as needed. Sometimes, I want to paint flat too (while standing up, of course!). Obviously, I can’t do any of these things on a full sheet if I’m using an oil painters setup. Frankly, though, I also couldn’t do any of these things using my normal setup either. The board is just to big and unwieldy. So, in true Stevie fashion, I had to make my own! :)
This uses either of the tripods that I mentioned in the previous post. The stuff I had to Frankenstein together is the extension arm and the ballhead.
Sirui Ballhead- Amazon.com : Sirui C-10S Ball Head with Quick Release Plate, Supports 28.7 (13kg) : Camera & Photo
Locktite Blue Glue- Amazon.com: Permatex 24010 Medium Strength Threadlocker Blue Gel, 10 g Gel Twist Applicator: Automotive
Cut Washer- to help keep tension-
Still, even given all this, the setup isn’t without peculiarities. Most of all, the extension arm is clearly designed, on purpose, to not rest level. It always tilts up on one side slightly. I don’t know why. What’s my solution? For now I simply alter one leg of the tripod to be shorter, until the board levels out. It’s not elegant, but it’s stable and works just fine. With the extension arm and two ballheads as attachment points, one one good thing is that its very rigid, so the board doesn’t wobble around— something I hate. I can paint portrait or landscape too, which I like. And since I’m attaching things with the same velcro method, I can shift the backing around as I see fit. Besides all that, when I need to, I can fold it all up, and put everything away on a shelf. So it’s very modular, given how well it accommodates a larger canvas.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best I’ve found so far. I’d be interested to hear if others have tried something else that works well for them.