U.S. Art Supply Coronado Large Wooden French Style Field and Studio Sketchbox Easel with Artist Drawer, Palette, Premium Beechwood – Adjustable Wood Tripod Easel Stand for Painting, Sketching, Display

★★★☆☆ I bought this in a hurry so I could attend a plein air oil workshop. As soon as the artist-instructor saw it, he suggested I return it. Why? He said it's fine and will work well for me but I could have bought a half box size and it would be so much lighter to hike around with for plein air painting. He also suggested there were better quality french easels out there. I wish I'd known this info before purchase. In the end, I'm keeping this one because I used it all weekend and got paint on it. It will work fine for me as a beginning artist. If I ever again do long hikes to paint, I may seek out another solution, such as the "italian steel" easel with a pochade box that he used.On the plus side, this easel will work great as a standing easel in my studio, and I can convert it to table-top if I need to. I also like that this full-size french easel has more storage than the half box size.Tip: Make sure you tighten all the adjustable screws when you set it up so it doesn't collapse on you. I also like another reviewer's tip to replace all the wing nuts and keep spares on hand in case they get lost in the great outdoors. Finally, I found that keeping four clothespins with my paint supplies was essential to clip my palette upright or clip on rags and a trash bag. Another great thing to have would be a short bungee cord to use as a paper towel holder between the easel's two front legs.

★★★★☆ This is a fine, well constructed easel, and we all know the origins of the design. I purchased this for my daughter and have suggested a few hard earned protips to her:1) Use better hardware. Small wingnuts get lost. 2) Take a tube of Acrylic paint and touch the opening to EVERY single screw thread end. This will prevent the small, cheap wingnuts from flying away. 3) Rub the entire easel with linseed oil every few years to prevent drying and cracking. Beech dries faster, so use your own judgement. This easel is generally better constructed than my twenty year old Mabef. I hope you find this useful,reader.

★★★★★ My little sister is a painter and I got this for her birthday. She bloody loves it. It's so so so cute. It's a little heavy, so not great if you're taking a long hike to paint, but it's definitely portable and pretty compact. It also fits a TON of stuff in the drawer. I got her a whole set of paints and a huge set of paintbrushes, plus a bunch of little rags and a large palette – it all fit into the drawer and closes up to carry. Totally would recommend. It also looks beautiful set up in her bedroom. The legs and adjustments were a little bit tricky to figure out, but not tricky enough to bother me. Might be helpful to have two people to prop it up initially. Everything is super adjustable though, which is another perk.