I’m a DPW newbie trying to set everything up for painting 6x6 gessoboard pieces the way that Carol Marine does in her book. Before it gets any paint on it, I wanted to show off the holder I made this morning to keep those panels firmly anchored on my full-sized easel, without covering their edges.
I took a thick 8x10 board, flipped it over (you can see the hanger hole) and cut a black 8x10 mat to an L shape that I then taped to the board. With a white marker, I made ticks at the halfway point on each side. Since the mat is open on the top and side, it will hold different sizes without adjusting anything (although I will need new halfway marks for them, of course).
Finally, I put a single piece of double-sided tape in the center of where the board rests, to keep it from shifting horizontally.
In order to keep the easel clamp from casting a shadow over the board, I used another gessoboard as a separator – which is the white rectangle you see over the holder. You can see the whole setup in the second photo. I’m used to painting large linen canvases, so this is quite a transition. 
This holder took about five minutes to make.
