It has happened to all of us, the news of a big show comes in late, there’s a moment of blind panic and then a frenzy of desperate preparation and the rush to the post office or the hurried Internet submission.
But wait, there’s a problem, you have to get that entry ready and that means making a disc and getting the art onto that disc.
No problem-o, you can do that sort of thing in your sleep. You just set up the art on an easel, light the image correctly and take a picture, easy, peasy, calabresy!
You have the camera, you have the proper lighting tools cause you’ve been reading the ole Trawler, you have the disc ready, but there’s no easel. Sure you have the one in the studio, with the sixty by forty unfinished oil on it, drying slowly as only an oil can dry. Can’t move that puppy. You my friend are toast!
But once again, the Ole Trawler has come to your rescue. Disclaimer, this will in no way replace the steady, professional easel you use to create your art. It will get you out of a bind and it costs nothing and takes less than half an hour which should fit both your budget and your schedule.
You need at least one maybe two sheets of heavy cardboard, ¼ an inch, 3/8 is better and by ½ you’re getting into more trouble than it is worth territory. You need a flat-head screwdriver old and worn out is best, with the blade dull and rounded. You need a Xacto knife or a box cutter, a ruler, a pencil or felt-tip and good light.
I know around here that means either work lights or move to Nevada.
Okay, so take the sheet of heavy cardboard and mark off a three inch wide strip at least ten inches long. (This is where having two sheets of heavy cardboard comes in handy; you can cut up one and save the other for the body of the easel.) Cut this away from the sheet and then cut it into two five inch strips. Set them aside and move on.
Take the sheet, you did find two, right? Take the sheet of heavy cardboard and mark off a three inch wide strip along the bottom edge. Use the pencil or felt tip to mark this so that you have a guideline. Take the screwdriver and carefully score or crease the line you marked. Don’t cut through the cardboard! This is why I said use a worn-out screwdriver. Once you have scored the line carefully bend it ninety degrees. If you failed basic math this makes a right angle or makes a shelf-like lip. You need this for the art to sit on.
Now take the two five inch strips and carefully mark off the center point, two and a half inches if you have trouble figuring this center thing out and from the center point mark off one inch in each direction. You should now have three marks, one in the center and one in each direction one inch from center. Select either side mark and make a parallel mark one quarter inch or three eights inch whichever your cardboard requires and mark it. Measure one and a half inches from the edge of the strip and mark that. This is the top of the slot you are going to cut so make your side lines reach this top mark and close the lines. Now you should have two slots marked on the five inch strip. Take the box cutter or Xacto knife and cut out the slot. Do this on the other strip too.
Now you have three pieces of the puzzle, let’s put it together. Take the back piece of the heavy cardboard, the one with the right angle lip and using one of the five inch strips lock the right angle lip into place. Don’t make it hard, it just means use the five inch strip to hold the lip in place. Now do the same on the other side.
Holy scaffold Batman, you now have an easel!
Wasn’t that hard?
Here’s the secret, you can use this to photograph any flat object you need to photograph, you can display paintings on it in a bind and you can take it apart and carry it into the filed and us it when you go plein air painting. If it gets wet, burned, spindled, folded or mutilated, if the dog eats it or if it gets stolen, you can make another one. Remember the cost part of this presentation, you used cardboard. If you’re like me you have enough empty picture/frame boxes lying around to build a space shuttle and this is so much easier and practical. And oh yes, once again, it’s free.
Next class, building a death ray from stuff you find in an ordinary cat box…
Collage by Susan lehman
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