The best quality art easel is not a luxury for a professional artist, it is a necessity. Artists spend a huge amount of time with their work. Painting at the wrong angle not only effects the quality of the piece you are working on, it can have severe implications for your physical well being when painting for long hours.
Comfort and posture:
As many artists soon learn, in the early days, while still experimenting we work long hours at our work, it is not difficult to pay less attention to our posture and comfort than is physically the best for us. Leaning hunched over a table or on the floor for hours on end leaves us vulnerable to painful joint movement, cramped muscles and also permanent spine curvature.
While it may be forgiven for a new enthusiast to just ignore the annoying little pains and aches that caused from wrong posture, a telented and professional artist just cannot risk permanent damage to their spine. While it might not feel so bad in the early days continued ignorance the signs your body is sending you may leave a professional artist unable to work.
New enthusiasts may alleviate the warning signs of working with a poor posture by stretching and walking away from the canvas, however a professional does not always have this option available when working long hours to meet deadlines or going with the mood of the piece and having to work with the paint at its optimum consistency. All artists soon become aware that the paint properties change in the drying out and may not be as easy to apply with the same strokes and movements used when the paint is fresh.
Professional artists prefer to work standing or sitting at their artwork until such a time that, for the interest of the painting, they may leave the area. Professional artists work with a high quality professional art easel for the benefit of their physical well being as much as the artwork itself.
Dust and particles are not a good look.
Professional artists are aware that their work will be closely examined; every brush stroke and mark on the canvas will be scrutinized closely by critics and keen observers alike. Painting on a canvas in a horizontal position gives your masterpiece open to foreign particles floating and landing themselves on the wet paint. A puff of dust becoming a part of the texture or settling and being mixed with the drying paint does worse the visual intention of the artists brush stroke. Some finer particles may even be mixed within the paint and harm the clarity of the color.
Most painters do not work in an good environment, which would probably be a sealed bubble. Sand, dust and grit are a part of life. Professional painters use a high quality professional art easel to minimize the effects of the surroundings around them. Because accidents do happen:
Professional painters are only human (sad but true), Professional painters are not camels; we have to eat and drink occasionally. The utilization of a good professional art easel minimizes the risk of accidents happening. Once I have the horror of having to mop my coffee from an almost completed canvas. Unfortunately, the canvas could not be cleaned, this was one for the trash along with the many months I spent working on it.
Consider also that artist materials include water or turpentine. It is most usual that an artist will stand and look at their painting paying more attention to some detail they unexpectedly notice than what their hands are doing when cleaning or changing brushes. This is disaster time waiting to happen, a happening in most cases. This is the reason why a high quality professional art easel such as the David Sorg signature easel provides a painting tray right at your finger tips, always in the same place and right where it should be.
Easels are not all created equal:
Working at an easel means that an artist is seeing their painting at the same angle it is going to be hung and viewed. All artists become aware that the perspective in a detail does alter with different viewing angels. Mastered techniques are applied to detail to achieve the required effect. Working at an easel means that the painter is seeing the results of these techniques as they are created.
Some easels are better than others for many factors. A high quality artist's easel like the Sorg easel allows an artist to quickly adjust the viewing height without the need to manhandle the canvas and risk finger prints, and save time.
New painting enthusiasts who realize that an easel is an crucial piece of equipment may find that easels come with a tripod leg system or sturdy four posts. High quality artist's easels have four feet on the ground for stability, and are strong enough to use indoors or outdoors without having to worry and hold on for dear life in the case in windy condition.