Preparing My Painting Surface for the Easel

I like to paint standing up at an easel. I also like to paint to the edge of my surface. When working on a small canvas or actually any painting, my hand runs into the bottom of the easel and have difficulty painting the edge. Most easels have a board on top which makes a shadow on the top of the painting. I tape my board, canvas, paper to a larger board or piece of foam core and work from there. This method of taping keeps tape off the corners of your work, too.

This makes it easy to paint to the edge of the surface. For framing oils or acrylics this is important. I frame my pastels against the glass, usually, so again it is nice to paint to the edge.

Here is the short video showing how I tape my surface to a board for painting on the easel.