Thank-you to Jodi for asking for some easel info in my blog.

2 kinds:
  Wooden
I have a giant wooden easel that I was using in my cellar until Covid-19 forced me upstairs in my little 2nd floor loft!  I bought this easel when I took classes from Helen Van Wyk back in 1993!!  Still love it but there is no way I would ever get it up 2 flights of stairs.  If you are going to go wooden - the bigger ones work better, easier to get the canvas supports to go up and down.  Wood does expand and contract in various types of weather so sometimes the moving parts get stuck.  Also my big easel was in the $200 - $300 range way back when.  It has been a wonderful workhorse (easel means "donkey" in Dutch!).  I have things hanging from it, things screwed into it, an old cabinet I use as my tabouret plopped on the front supports for my palette and medium.  Tools hanging from everywhere!  Really - it's a love.
Lots of my students have bought lovely, sturdy wooden table easels which they now use in our Zoom classes.  Those I have seen look like they are of quality craftsmanship.  In other words - don't go cheap.
​
  Metal
These are great easels for setting up quick, moving about the house or carrying out on a hike if you want to paint pleine aire (outside).  My advice - don't get one with lots of knobs and latches on it unless you have an advanced degree in Physics!!!!  You can get a lovely, sturdy, fairly simple, adjustable easel at Jerry's Artarama.  It's called Creative Mark Napoli easel.  The easel runs from $43 to $60.  I think the difference in price is what dependent on what color you choose!  The legs are adjustable and it can hold a fair sized canvas.  My Zoom easel currently has a 24 x 30 canvas on it with no problem.  I have a low bookcase that I use for my tabouret to hold my palette and Gamsol (odorless medium).  On this I rest the 2 front legs at their shortest length.  The back leg is extended all the way to the floor in the corner of my long, narrow loft.  Good support and easy to move around.  I've had this since I lived in Framingham 26 years ago.  It was a gift from my Beginning Art class at Keefe Tech. The price is certainly better than the $200 - $300 range.  Hope this helps!
​Happy Painting!

Math completely and totally hurts my head.  I have made a chart of measurements to make the photo ratio  (the photo I am currently working from) equal to the canvas size.  These are random measurements - you can fill in the blanks.

The formula is:
   divide the canvas size until you get a measurement that equals or is close to your
​   photograph size.  If it is not equal to the canvas ratio - you must crop/adjust your 
   photo.

I have provided a few measurements from the standard size canvases I use.  If your photo does not meet these measurements, continue dividing until you are close.  Adjust the photo.  If the decimal is larger than .5 then round to the nearest #.  In other words 5.6" rounded off would be 6".

In the course of a week of art classes (now being done on Zoom) there is one rule that comes up over and over.  When I ask the question, "What are you using?" and the answer is Black or White, straight out of the tube, singly or together - I must repeat the mantra below:
Tubed White is not a color!!!  Tubed Black is not a color!!!!  Therefore, Tubed Black and Tubed White used together are NOT colors.  Zero plus Zero does not equal One.
Now, before someone decides to get offended by this - the white and black that companies manufacture, across the board, are flat and dead unless color is added to them.  Any of the darker colors added together make gorgeous, living blacks.  And yes, black can be added then to darken if necessary.  Likewise, just a tinge of color added to White makes a rainbow of lights and grays.
I can see this from across the room!  The black and/or white stand out as flat, empty and dead!  In nature, black is filled with color!!!  White is filled with color.  
Until I studied with Helen Van Wyk, I was taught never, ever use Tubed Black because the Black would overpower any color it was mixed with.  This is true of Mars Black and Lamp Black - they are opaque and muffle any color mixed with them - hence they are not on my legal list of colors.  Ivory Black, on the other hand, is transparent and makes a million galaxies of gray.  Beautiful gray, another dimension to our palette of colors.
I use Zinc white - mostly because Helen Van Wyk used it but I find it warmer than Titanium White.  And, because our whole earth is warmed by the sun, I go with the warmer white.  

​My last and most beloved teacher was Helen Van Wyk.  After years of taking classes in drawing and painting, Helen provided all the basic answers that would have been such a help when I started.  So - here is Helen's color list, my Bible when it comes to color:

Basic Palette
Zinc White 

Warm Colors
Yellows
Cadmium Yellow Light
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Umber

Oranges
Cadmium Orange
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna

Reds
Cadmium Red Light
Grumbacher Red
Venetian (also Lite or Terra Rosa) Red
Indian Red

Cool Colors
Alizarin Crimson
Thalo Green
Thalo Blue

Ivory Black

Extra Colors
Sap Green
Manganese Violet
Dioxazine Purple
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Yellow Dark
Thalo Red Rose
Thalo Yellow Green

Oh my!!!!  After quite a few years, Weebly has added a Blog page - and I have been thinking about writing a blog again!  Perfect.
Hmmm...what will go here?  That is the question.  Well, first and foremost art questions and comments from my students.  And then....there might be some Astrological thoughts, some philosophy thoughts, possible some vague thoughts about our present government atmosphere and maybe some thoughts about my favorite movies, a book or two, what I am currently working on (painting, house, yard...).
You will probably need a sense of humor to read my stuff.  And, a nice person - because I will joyfully eradicate any comments that are mean, cruel and downright nasty.  If you can't handle that - get over it and learn to treat people kindly.
​Well, anyway, it's a place for me to put down some thoughts.  There's usually too many of them running around in my head at the same time so this will be a new and exciting adventure.
​- Kathy