Includes various types of sculptural composition (head, bust, figure, group), different genres (portrait, composition, animalism). Various technical methods are used in easel sculpture - modeling, cutting, carving, casting, knocking out, etc .; various materials are used - stone, metal, wood, ceramics, glass, synthetic polymers. The composition can also include ready-made objects borrowed from everyday life or the technical sphere.

In our time, easel sculpture is understood as works intended for display at exhibitions, in museums, decoration of public and residential interiors (in the 19th century, even the concept of «cabinet sculpture» arose).

Easel sculpture belongs to chamber plastic and is designed for perception from a close distance, it is not connected with the objective environment and presupposes long-term contact with the viewer, encouraging him to empathize. As a rule, the size of the easel sculpture is much less than the actual size of the depicted objects, but sometimes, on the contrary, exceeds them (for example, when depicting insects).

Easel sculpture is characterized by a narrative, psychologism, the authors often resort to metaphor and symbols.