Decisions...Decisions: Choosing Your Canvas

Hello again friends!  For #FridayArtwithJ9, let's talk about canvas!!  Throughout my time painting on various surfaces, I have been testing out weight of paint and effect of absorption to get the effects I want in my pieces.  The "canvas" you choose is super important.  I put the word canvas in quotation marks because it loosely refers to whatever surface you apply your media to.  For a painter, it could literally be canvas (a thick woven fabric); for a watercolorist, it could be cold-pressed paper; for a tattoo-artist, the canvas is skin.  

For today, I am referring to literal, actual canvas.  

Canvas comes in so many varieties and material.  If you're picky about material, you'll typically find yourself choosing between cotton duck or linen.  Cotton duck is the most common and cheapest, and you can find these in your general craft stores, usually in a pre-stretched form (but we'll get to that later).  It's a great beginner option, as it's still textured due to its woven threads.  Linen is the other option and is a bit more expensive in all forms, but excellent for pieces you want to have last for a long time - it's durable and more resistant to the elements, such as moisture and mold.   

Once you've nailed down your material, now it's time to choose the form.

Canvas typically comes pre-stretched over an internal frame, canvas panels/boards, or loose canvas rolls.   

Pre-stretched cotton canvas

As I spend hours at a time in art stores shopping for canvas, I tend to lean towards stocking up on pre-stretched canvas.  They are ready to go, most of which are pre-gesso'ed (although, I tend to apply a couple more coats of gesso anyway), and ready to be framed and/or hung on the wall.  However, it's not always the cheapest option.  You basically buy the convenience with this form.  

Canvas panels with (intended) acrylic cracking from natural warping

Canvas panels are a more economical choice, especially if you are looking for that pre-stretched, textured look.  This consists of a heavy-duty card or wooden press board panel with canvas or linen material glued to one side as the paintable surface.  I mix up my stock and gallery with canvas panel pieces, simply for convenience and cost reasons; but they also travel very well.  If I want to have small textured surfaces on-the-go, these fit very well into portfolio bags.  However, word of caution: they don't do very well with heavy amounts of paint - because of the boards used, they tend to warp in moisture, cracking dried paint that doesn't cure or dry immediately and on that flattened surface.  

The last type I want to highlight is loose canvas.  This is an amazing surface to paint on.  It is super cheap (I believe the cheapest of all three options), and can be consumed in multiple ways.  You can paint directly on it, unstretched, giving it a very urban, tapestry look.  Or you can stretch your canvas yourself for custom sizes and shapes!  When you buy a roll of loose canvas, you're buying the versatility and bulk.  One of my friends who used to work at Google, Dave Smith (www.davesmithnyc.com) is an amazing artist who worked a lot with loose canvas.  He gave me several pieces for my office space as well as one for my home, which I still proudly hang in my living room.  

Loose linen canvas

Now that you know just a bit more about canvas, have fun shopping for it, and remember to...

Enjoy creating!