Artist Canvas Guide

Artist canvas is the very foundation of your work. You may create a masterpiece, but if you’ve used the wrong canvas, your masterpiece won’t last to impress generations to come.

The word canvas refers to any cloth woven of a coarse fibre. Today’s artist canvas is usually woven of cotton, linen, jute and hemp. Cotton canvas is the most common and is usually used by beginners.

Due to a long strong fibre that provides a beautiful texture and longer life and holds up well under heavy paints, linen canvas is considered to be the highest quality. Most professional artists choose to work on linen canvas.

FREE OFFER!

We'd like to welcome you with $200.00 or more in exclusive monthly savings, a special 10% discount and a ton of tips, tricks and secrets for getting the best deals on First Nations Art. Claim this Free, no obligation gift by entering your first name and primary email here:

Name
Email

(read more...)

You will also find blended artist canvas on the market. It’s made of cotton blended with synthetic fibres. This type of painters canvas is of a lower quality but cheaper than pure cotton canvas.

To please a wide variety of painters, canvas is available in a variety of weights. The heavier the canvas, the more rigid the material will be.

Primed Canvas

You can’t paint on raw canvas. Artist canvas needs to be coated, or primed, with gesso or some other primer. Pre-stretched canvases come pre-primed. If you wish to stretch your own canvas, you can buy it off the roll either raw—in which case it will be brown in colour—or primed.

Primed canvas is primed for acrylics or for oils. You can actually paint with almost anything on canvas primed for acrylics. But take note painters. Canvas primed for oils is only good for oil paints.

Here are the common types of canvas you’re likely to find in the stores:

Canvas panels are panels with cheap canvas glued on them or pulp boards covered in gesso textured to look like artist canvas. When you buy very cheap canvases at the dollar store, this is what you’re buying.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping a few of these on hand if you want to play around with your paints. They can be used with acrylic and oil paints, and they are absolutely ideal for beginners, offering a lightweight, inexpensive surface that can be used on a tabletop if an easel isn’t available.

Cotton Canvas

Cotton canvas, or cotton duck canvas, comes in a number of levels of quality. To choose a good quality cotton canvas, look at the weight. 14 oz and 12 oz cottons are your best bet. These provide a nice surface but can be expensive. However, if you’re on a tight budget, 10 oz cotton makes a suitable painting surface.

The most common type of cotton canvas is made of 7 oz or 8 oz cotton. Many pre-stretched cotton canvases are made of this weight. It’s cheap and readily available and does provide a good surface for projects you don’t want to keep forever.