Art Alternatives Marquis Desk Easel - Adjustable Wooden Artist Easel for Painting & Drawing - Perfect for Home, Studio & Classroom Use - Brown

This is a very nice portable easel. I am returning it ONLY because I have something else I can use. However, should in the furture I need one because the one I have broke, then I will buy this one. If you plan to do outdoor drawings and want to help with your back at your art desk, this easel will be a great buy.I have Ben using this art easel for about 2 weeks. Haven traveled with it yet.So far the drawer is holding some acrylic markers. They fit nicely. Drawer lock helps contain.The only drawback that I see is the exposure of easel slats when collapsed. Don’t want those to get broken as they are integral to the easel support.For best canvas stability use with 11x14 or smallerLike the adjustable angleWorks for small projectsWhen I bought this I expected to keep my secondary set of drawing items in it. You know, the stuff that isn’t bad enough to throw away but you don’t regularly use it because you have better? Well, I found I was using this as my primary drawing site so I finally gave up and moved all my primary tools into it’s drawer. And you know what? That drawer held everything I regularly use.The Art Alternatives Desk Easel is a very simple item yet it is surprisingly good. The thing is generally made of wood rather than particle board or even plywood. The easel is perfect for a desk (or a lap) and the drawer is exactly the right size for carrying my pencil drawing tools. (YMMV)Specifically, the drawer is partitioned into three sections with two rear and one long front section. In the largest rear section I keep every pencil I normally need for drawing. I can put 28 pencils, 13 stumps or tortillions, and a pen in the largest partition and still have room for a pencil or two. All with enough room left for the pallet on top.The smaller rear partition is where I keep two white pencil-end erasers, one small rectangular white eraser, a standard kneadable eraser, one small sharpener, a round brass two sided sharpener, a small sandpaper block, a round-end Tombow mechanical eraser, a rectangle-end Tombow mechanical eraser, a mechanical Pentel eraser, two Koh-I-Noor pencil extenders, one Rosetta pencil extender, an eraser shield, a 6" ruler, a (very) small pen, and a small variable angle protractor. Again, with enough room to put the pallet back on top without rubbing any of the items in the partition. (Yes, I keep a lot of erasers around. I’m a beginner so I erase a lot, but I’m getting better so soon there will be room for other things.)In the front partition I keep a 6" x 6" swatch of chamois, a 6" x 6" swatch of felt, a large rectangular dual-end (white / blue) eraser, a 1" paintbrush and a 2" paintbrush with room for that pallet.About that pallet. I figured it’d be useless to me seeing as I draw with pencil rather than paint. I was wrong. The pallet itself is of particularly good make. It’s solid wood rather than particle board or even plywood, nicely flat, and large enough to back my practice pads. Mind you I did buy a 12" x 15" particle board back for small to medium sized drawings but I still use that pallet as a back for my practice pads. Also it keeps the things in the partitions from mixing up.The only part of the whole thing that I haven’t found a use for is the hole in the pallet. I suspect that this one item is going to be of no use to me. I even found a use for the wooden rectangular depressions behind the easel. This is a perfect place for the tools I’m currently using (pencils, erasers, brushes, sharpeners, etc.) which keeps me from having to hunt around in the drawer for them. (“Hunt around”, I like that. The drawer doesn’t, at first, seem that large. But it is.)Pros: Too many to name. Everything about this item.Cons: I haven’t found any use for that hole in the pallet yet. ;-)I would certainly recommend this item to a friend.It is a handy little easel that is useful for smaller canvases. Seems to be fairly well constructed and if taken care of should last me for indoor painting. I really like it.January 15, 2014 Now that I have had the chance to use it much more thought I would add to my review. I am even more appreciative of this little easel than I was before but there are a few little quibbles as well. First of all, it is standing up very well to use and with the dove-tailed construction of the joints I just don't see any problems with it coming apart for years and years. Same with the simple construction for adjusting the angle to prop it up...the grooves are cut deep enough that I think it will take a long time for the grooves to wear enough to become a problem, and even so there is enough wood to possibly deepen the groove myself when the time comes. The little drawer is a neat feature that I use only for the small incidentals that are the "musts" that I know I will need for all of my painting, but I do not store paint tubes in there unless it is going to be one of my more expensive colors that I want to separate for that particular painting. It's great for storing some of my tools as well. The largest canvas size that I have used so far is 20 x 16 and I had no problems with stability of the easel with that size of canvas but I don't think I would use it for anything much larger, as it might start to be too much of a challenge for the size of the sturdy little easel. One more point in its favor: my sister and I were painting together, and she was using one of the more expensive tripod type easels but of the table-top size, and she had to mess around with hers much more often and even had to occasionally support her canvas with her hand where I seldom had to touch either my canvas or my easel.Some of the cons I have that would not prevent me from buying the easel but should be noted are that the latches for holding the drawer closed and for holding the easel in the closed position are very light metal and so flimsy that I have to be careful using them so I don't break them. On the other hand, if and when they do break, the easel is worth the small effort of replacing the latches myself. The palette that comes with it is a little small for when I am first starting out on my fresh canvas as that is when I am mixing my most colors and using the most varieties but it comes in handy when I am concentrating on working on one area for touch up.To sum it up, even though the price has gone up a bit since I bought mine, I still would recommend this easel because it is well made except for the flimsy clasps which are only important for keeping it closed, they are not important to the strength and use of the easel itself, and can easily be replaced. It is made to be collapsible and thus easily stored and very portable. It is made to accept decent sized canvases and if you are aiming for convenience, you probably aren't looking to paint large canvases on a table-top easel anyway. So, as originally stated, I still really like it!! :)I tried this out with a wip comic book i'm making.the paper book did keep falling off the edge but it works. the little drawer does get harder to open when you fill it.i have paint markers in there.Great product for all artists out there. Easy to use aswell.Lo quería para un regalo de Navidad y al sacarlo de la caja de Amazon me percató que la caja viene maltratada abro el paquete y oh sorpresa que me lleve , viene roto del carril del cajón , traía piezas sueltas de los broches , tornillos suelto y faltaba uno .La verdad que estaba emocionada por darlo de regalo pero me decepcionó mucho.The design of this is ok, but it seems a bit cheaply made for the price. I like the little drawer for brushes. It's not deep enough to hold any paints, only for brushes. It will suit my purposes but I wish was a bit higher quality item.Hace poco llegó, llego rápido y de inmediato lo empecé a usar con una acuarela y un scketchbook,por ahora funciona muy bien, espero con sus cuidados sea duradero es sencillo pero bonito.Es un poco mas pequeño de lo que imaginaba, pero parece funcional. Uno de los tornillos que sujetan el cajón venía suelto.