Most easel guides work through the types and leave you to match one to yourself. That is backwards, because the type is the answer rather than the question. Work through your own constraints in the order below and the choice usually makes itself, often before you get to the end.
1. How much space can you give it permanently
This decides more than anything else.
No dedicated space. You need something that folds and stores flat, which means a tabletop easel or a sketch box that carries the paints inside it. Anything that has to be assembled and disassembled each time will quietly stop being used.
A corner you can leave alone. A floor easel becomes worth considering, and the ability to leave a painting set up between sessions genuinely increases how often you paint.
A room. Then a studio H-frame is on the table, though be honest about whether you need one. They are heavy, they do not move, and they are designed around canvases far bigger than most people ever paint.
2. Do you sit or stand
Almost everyone painting a numbered canvas sits, and it is worth designing around that rather than buying an easel meant for a standing painter.
Sitting means a tabletop easel with an adjustable angle, set shallow, with your work close enough to see comfortably. Standing means a floor easel tall enough that the middle of the canvas sits at or just below eye level. Getting that height wrong is the most common cause of a sore neck, and a great many easels do not go high enough for a tall person.
If you are unsure, sit. Painting standing up is for work made at arm's length, and this is not that.
3. How big are your canvases, really
Not how big you imagine they might one day be.
- Up to about 20 inches, which covers every kit we make, almost any easel will do. Do not let capacity drive the decision at this size.
- 20 to 40 inches, an A-frame or a radial easel is the sensible middle ground.
- Over 40 inches, you need an H-frame, and there is no way around the weight.
4. What do you actually paint
Medium decides the angle, and angle decides which easels are usable.
Thin acrylic and watercolor need a shallow angle, because paint thinned with water will creep downhill on a steep surface. Heavy body acrylic and oil will sit happily on a near-vertical canvas.
Numbered canvases belong firmly in the shallow group, somewhere between fifteen and thirty degrees off horizontal. That rules out any easel whose angle is fixed at something steeper, and it is worth checking before you buy rather than after.
A forward tilt has a second advantage that gets overlooked: less dust settles on a surface that is facing downward, which matters if a canvas sits out for weeks between sessions.
5. Where does it need to go
If the answer is out of the house, you want a field easel on a tripod or a pochade box, which is a case with a lid that folds out into a panel holder. Both are light, and both are less stable than anything indoors. A bag of supplies hung from the center of the tripod is the standard fix for wind.
If the answer is nowhere, ignore portability entirely. It is the feature people pay most for and use least.
6. Budget, and where to spend it
Spend on stability and on the adjustment mechanism. Everything else is convenience.
Before buying, check three things.
- The wobble. Press a hand against where the canvas would sit. Any movement will show up as spoiled edges in your painting.
- The locks. Wingnuts should run smoothly the full length of the thread with no cross-threading, and a ratchet should hold under load rather than creeping. A slipping mechanism means a canvas that sinks a little every hour.
- The ledge. Deep enough to hold a framed canvas securely. A shallow lip that a canvas can tip off is a real problem, not a small one.
One more check that is specific to tabletop easels: can the lower canvas support be moved up and down, or is it fixed? A fixed lower support puts a small canvas down near the table, which is exactly the head-tilting position you were trying to avoid.
Buying used
Art schools and colleges sell off easels regularly, and studio easels are built to last decades, so a good second-hand H-frame is genuinely better value than a new budget one.
Inspect for damp damage, woodworm and dry rot, and work every adjustment through its full range before handing over money. Dried paint and dents are cosmetic. A seized mechanism or soft wood is not.
What you get with a kit
Our framed kits include a wooden easel; the unframed canvases do not. Ledgebay does not sell easels separately, so if you want one for an unframed canvas it is an outside purchase.
If you would rather compare the types side by side first, our guide to easel types for paint by numbers works through what each one is for. And before you buy anything at all, the case for and against an easel is worth five minutes, because a book propped under one edge of the canvas solves the angle problem for nothing.
Whatever you settle on, the habits matter more than the frame. Our nine paint by numbers tips covers those.
