This woman is painting on a French easel.
"Student Easel" is a marketing term, not an artistic one. The biggest easels are "studio easels;" the smallest are "desktop easels." The cheapest easels are sometimes called student easels to emphasize their affordability. But the easel most likely used by students is called a "French Easel" or a "plein air" (French spelling) easel, because it was used by French and other impressionists to quickly paint the light in the plain air outside. These easels include a compartment to hold paints, pencils and a wet canvas or several canvas boards. They fold up into a case with a handle, to be put away each day when the light is lost.
Instructions
1. Loosen all wing nuts. All easels, except some heavy, expensive studio easels, assemble with wing nuts to make them easy to fold, unfold and adjust.
2. Swing the center or rear leg out and back until it is fully extended. All folding artists' easels sit on three legs, and they all unfold in virtually the same way. Tighten the wing nut to lock the center leg in position.
3. Swing out and completely unfold both side legs. All the legs on folding artists' easels are made of two pieces of wood or aluminum, connected by a wing nut that fits through a groove cut in the center of both pieces. Adjust the level of the easel, then tighten the wing nuts on the side legs.
4. Release the latch and open the lid of the box on French easels. The top of the box supports the paper, board or canvas on which the artist paints or draws.
5. Lock the box top into the angle you like by tightening the wing nuts on both of the telescoping supports on either side of the lid.
6. Adjust the upper canvas support, which slides out of the lid, by tightening or loosening the wing nut or metal knob on this support. All easels have an upper canvas support that telescopes up and down and can be immobilized with one or more wing nuts or knobs. Use this support to lock your canvas or board in place.
