Tweaking My Painting Box

I'm always changing my painting gear attempting to come up with the perfect setup for me. Although I have to admit, the designing and building is sometimes more fun than actually painting on the stuff! HA!  Last week I'd made the new hanging box, hoping to use it for more mixing room, but I realized it would work best for just a shelf for "stuff". Why not get a bigger painting setup? Because I am trying to get this smaller gear perfected to fit into luggage for plane travel. My small painting box has traveled with me all over the US and worked well, but needed just a few tweaks.

I have numerous painting setups (smaller and larger) but I prefer this small one. It is an EasyL Prochade by Artwork Essentials. It's too small for most people as you can only paint on a canvas from 6" - 10" tall. But 8x10 is a good size for me painting outside in the short amount of time we have to paint before the light changes.

Before

The original setup of this box was made for right handed people with a left side extension. I had drilled holes in this to hold my paint brushes, but since I am left handed, they were in the way.  I decided to put a thin piece of plywood over the extension to cover the holes so I could use it for extra mixing surface. I then made brush holder for the right side.

backside of original left extension

left extension with thin plywood added, mounted on box

Then I took a smaller piece of plywood and added a small square dowel which will be held on the right side of the box with micro clamps. I drilled holes for the brushes later:

Here's the final setup, ready to paint! The lower hanging box is great to lay down "stuff". All of this fits nicely into my rolling backpack. Hopefully this will work well this summer. But who knows, I may come up with another project!