Oil and acrylic paintings these days are most often created on canvas. Canvas replaced wood panels for painting during the Renaissance because stretching canvas across wooden bars allowed for larger paintings that were portable, because they were lighter and could be rolled, as well as being a more stable surface with less warping and cracking than a wooden panel. The first artist canvases were made from high-quality Venetian hemp sailcloth and the word canvas derives from cannabis (hemp) – canvas made from linen was introduced soon after and cotton is a more recent choice of fibre.
Whether you are stretching your own canvas or buying ready-prepared stretched canvases or canvas boards, there are many types of canvas fabrics to choose from. The characteristics you require of your surface will determine which you choose. The weight of the fabric, the material it is made from and the surface preparation, in different combinations will each give a different painting experience and will affect the final appearance of your painting.
At Jackson’s we stock a good variety of canvas that should cover most artists’ needs. You can get a huge range of sizes and surface characteristics in ready-to-paint stretched canvases, just unwrap them and go! Or you could add a final coating of a ground to it to customise your surface. There are thin canvas panels and Ultralite boards which are great for plein air painting because they are lightweight and will fit in most pochade boxes. If you wish to stretch your own canvas we have 40 variations of canvas by the metre or by the 10-metre roll.
Many artists try painting on different canvases, primers and grounds until they find the surface that works best for how they paint. The surface qualities can profoundly affect some artists’ painting, even more so for techniques like staining in oils or acrylics. You can compare some of the canvases that Jackson’s stock by ordering sample pieces of the Claessens Linen or the Claessens Linen sample book or the Belle Arti sample book.
Here are some things to consider when choosing which canvas to paint on:
(click on the images for a larger view)
Material
There are two major fibre types used to make canvas: cotton and linen (flax). Some speciality fibres such as hemp and jute are also used for canvas – we do jute, and although it is a different fibre it is usually considered an extra-rough linen because it is very similar.
Cotton
Cotton is economical but not as strong as linen and it hasn’t been time-tested like the linen used by the old masters. Cotton is easy to stretch and stays tight on the stretcher bars. Linen is made from flax and is stronger because it has longer fibres which means that it is less likely to tear at the staple line or at the sharp outside corner of the stretcher bar. It also means that you can use finer and thinner linen for the same strength as heavier cottons. The stiffness of linen means it is harder to pull when stretching and you need to take care to keep even tension across the canvas or it can ripple along the edges later. Some artists choose to buy ready-prepared linen canvases because linen has a reputation for being much more difficult to stretch than cotton. Unprimed cotton is usually a cream colour and unprimed linen is usually a brown because it is unbleached, but we have some primed Italian cotton that has a coating on the reverse that makes it darker on the back. Cotton Duck Canvas has more tightly woven threads than plain cotton canvas – the term ‘duck’ comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek.
We stock two types of cotton by the metre: Cotton Duck is the most common canvas in the world, it has many uses outside of art (canvas bags and so on), it usually has a noticeable weave and is quite thick. We stock it in three weights. Because of its low price it is our most popular canvas sold by the metre (and the roll) and for our bespoke canvases – the 12oz primed, to be exact. Our Italian Poly-cotton is an artist’s canvas, it is made for our industry so it has a tighter weave, a finer thread and an overall smoother surface, even the ‘medium’ texture Italian cotton is finer than the cotton duck we stock. There is also a super fine texture called No-Grain. The addition of polyester means the fabric will not ‘relax’ as much as all cotton and become loose over time.
Cotton canvas
From the left:
Jackson’s 8 oz, 10 oz (primed & unprimed), and 12 oz (primed & unprimed).
Then Belle Arti 586. 575, 564, 576.
- Cotton Canvas Boards
- Cotton Stretched Canvases
- Cotton Canvas by the metre
- All formats of cotton canvas at Jackson’s
Linen
Linen is more expensive than cotton, partly because cotton canvas is much more common and there are many non-art uses for it, so the lower price is a result of the marketplace. There is professional quality artist cotton canvas as well which is more expensive because it has a much smaller market demand. Linen is also more costly than cotton because it takes many more steps to process the flax fibres and because its inelasticity makes it harder to weave into fabric.
At Jackson’s we stock linen by the metre from three manufacturers. The French linen canvas from Artfix is made of smoother, more tightly spun yarn than the Italian linen from Belle Arti, and also has a more regular, tighter weave and is really strong. The Belgian linen from Claessens is between the two. Because the famous Artfix company uses the highest grade of flax and has amazing quality control it is a superb linen. If you paint, scrape, repaint, scratch back, repaint, impasto, scumble glaze, and generally are hard on your surfaces then the French linen is a great choice as it will survive the rough treatment. Because it is so tight it can be a chore to stretch it, though and it is our highest priced canvas as well. Claessens is located in the middle of the Flax District in Belgium. Their linen is made using small scale production and longstanding traditional sizing and priming methods. They apply the primers by hand with a palette knife. The Italian is made with a bit coarser thread and more irregular weave but is a very good quality and we are lucky to have gotten such a good price on it, it is lower priced than it should be for the quality. It is also easier to stretch than the French linen. We also stock jute for a coarse 3D texture and at a low price for its thickness.
In addition to the great strength of linen and the fantastic surface it gives for painting, linen has cache among art collectors and so artists will usually mention in their materials list -that it was specifically linen they painted on. Also there is something romantic about painting in oils made with linseed oil on a linen canvas – both being made from the flax plant.
Unprimed linens
From left – finest to roughest: 549, 60, 596, 40, 548, 90, 581.
- Linen Canvas Boards
- Linen Stretched Canvases
- Linen Canvas by the metre
- All formats of linen canvas at Jackson’s
Weave
In addition to choosing the fibre type you also need to consider the weight and the texture of the weave. Similarly to paper, canvas is measured in grams per square meter (gsm) or ounces per square yard (oz). If the linen has a heavy weight then one or both of the following is true: it is a thick, tough yarn and/or it is tightly woven. Lightweight linens have an open weave and generally a fine yarn, they are easier to stretch and are more responsive to tightening procedures. The lighter weight canvases are usually used by artists who draw and/or have a light touch in their work, but even some impasto painters can use them as their paint skims over the air holes.
A fine canvas has minimal texture and can be almost smooth, while a rough canvas has a very pronounced weave. The choice of no grain, extra-fine, fine, medium, rough and extra-rough texture in a canvas affects the feel of painting and the final appearance. Do you want to see the grid-like weave, to have your brush skip over the bumps to leave bits of white to sparkle, or to build up layers of paint on the weave high points; or do you want a surface where the canvas is not a noticeable feature? Do you want a texture that thick paint can grab onto or a smoother, slicker surface for thin paint to glide over? A smooth texture is often important to portrait painters as a coarser texture can distort the appearance of skin, so extra-fine linen canvas is sometimes even called Portrait Linen. The ‘No Grain’ texture is almost as smooth as paper and is also great for portraits.
The terms ‘super fine’, ‘extra fine’, ‘fine’, ‘medium’ and ‘rough’ refer to the texture of the weave not the weight. Texture is not necessarily a guide to the weight. You can have a lightweight canvas with a rough or medium texture or a heavier weight canvas with an extra-fine texture. Our 574 Italian universal primed linen is both lightweight and so fine that it feels like a sheet of paper, but because it is linen it is strong enough to stretch tightly. Some artists particularly love the 574 canvas because it can take watercolour and inks. Our 568 universal primed Italian linen is strong and heavy enough for large scale work, has enough give to be able to stretch nicely, has a tight weave so can be used for both glazing and impasto work and everyone says it is just plain beautiful.
7 linen canvases with light behind to show the weave.
From left – finest to roughest: 549, 60, 596, 40, 548, 90, 581.
- Extra fine canvas in all formats
- Fine canvas in all formats
- Medium canvas in all formats
- Rough canvas in all formats
Weight
The heavier the weight the more tension the canvas fabric can take without tearing, so for very large stretched canvases you might wish to choose a heavier canvas. Weight is how much fabric there is per area so it is determined by both thickness of the thread used to weave and how tightly it is woven. A coarse/rough canvas can be loosely woven so it could be lighter weight than a fine canvas that is tightly woven. But usually, a thick thread makes a heavy canvas and a thin thread makes a light canvas.
Unprimed canvas can be considered light-weight at about 5 oz (140 g); medium-weight at about 8 oz (230 g); heavy-weight at about 10 oz (280 g) or more. When the canvas is primed the weight listed includes primer so it can be hard to compare the weight of the actual canvas as some have a much thicker layer of primer than others. When we have the information, we list the canvas weight on the Jackson’s website both before and after priming.
Shown is a variety of linen weaves – the looser ones fray more at the edge – these would be more lightweight than tightly woven canvas using the same size thread.
Brand
Jackson’s stocks four brands of artist canvas available by the metre: Artfix (French linen), Claessens (Belgian linen), Belle Arti (Italian linen and cotton), Jackson’s (Indian cotton). These highest quality canvases are also used for our Bespoke stretched canvases, our professional-grade ready-made stretched canvases and our Handmade Linen Boards.
6 Artfix Linens – primed and unprimed.
From the left: Extra fine, fine and medium.
8 Claessens linens
From the left from Very Fine to Heavy.
From the left 13, 109, 706, 112, 66, 166, 170, 70.
17 Belle Arti linen canvases from Finest to Jute.
From the left – top row: 511, 549, 574, 649, 540, 007, 596, 696.
From the left – bottom row: 535, 537, 533, 548, 536, 568, 581, 681, 565.
Jackson’s Indian Cotton canvas.
From the left 8 oz primed, 10 oz (primed and unprimed), 12 oz (primed and unprimed).
We also do a wide selection of ready-made stretched canvases and boards that use other artist-grade and student-grade canvas.
Rolls of canvas
Canvas comes in rolls which are 210 cm or 183 cm wide. A full roll is 10m long. You can purchase the full roll or metres cut off the roll (these must be whole metres, not partial). We also offer half-width rolls which are easier to ship and to store in the studio if you are not making very large canvases. Folding primed canvas can crack the primer so it must always be sent and stored on a roll, even if it is just one metre cut off the roll. But unprimed canvas can be removed from the roll and folded which can save on shipping charges as a roll is quite long and attracts over-sized shipping charges.
When measuring to purchase canvas to stretch your own, be sure to account for the amount required to go up the sides or around to the back of your bars (whichever depth you choose) plus the additional amount you will need to grab and pull with your pliers which you will later trim away or fold under. Also account for the different widths of some of the rolls of canvas.
- Cotton canvas by the metre, 5m or 10m – on a roll or folded (not all canvases are available in all formats)
- Linen canvas by the metre, 5m or 10m – on a roll or folded (not all canvases are available in all formats)
Stretched across bars or mounted on a panel
Depending on their painting style some artists like the bounce of a canvas stretched across bars, others prefer the lack of movement of canvas glued to a panel (also called a board). The rigid support can be made of solid wood, plywood, MDF, heavy card, thin stiff plasticised card, or Gatorboard (plastic impregnated foam board). The canvas can be cut off shear with the edge of the support or it can be wrapped around to the back and glued down.
Read more about mounting canvas to a panel in this blog article Making a Canvas Painting Panel.
Sizing and Priming with a Ground
The final thing to consider would be the primer on your canvas. Creating a stable structure before you begin adding paint will help to ensure that the painting will remain in the best condition for the longest time. You can choose from a variety of primed surfaces or go with unprimed and treat the surface yourself.
Canvas comes either uncoated or with a primer coating. Jackson’s stock unprimed, universal primed, oil-primed, gesso-primed and glue-sized canvas by the roll and on many of our panels and professional-quality stretched canvases. Not all types of coating are available on all types of canvas or in all types of format (stretched, panel or by the metre). The priming can be sprayed on in one to seven coats with less expensive student-grade canvases being one coat and most artist-grade canvas being two to four coats. Claessens apply their primer by hand with a palette knife to make sure it is scraped into the weave for the best adhesion and protection of the canvas, then for the oil primed linen they follow up with a final coat of primer applied with a roller.
You can add your own additional coating on top of a ready-made universal-primed canvas. You may wish to:
- Make the surface more white.
- Colour the surface but keep a gesso texture by adding a tinted ground, a mid-tone coloured ground or a black ground.
- Make the surface absorbent enough for watercolour painting by applying a few coats of Watercolour Ground.
- Add an oil ground for the unique texture that provides.
Sizing
You can paint on unprimed canvas directly with acrylics but if you are painting in oils and you want the painting to last, you will need to seal the surface. Oil paint dries by oxidation, slowly absorbing oxygen from the air. If canvas or paper is in contact with the oil in oil paint or oil primer it slowly corrodes the canvas fibre. To prevent this canvas needs to be sealed from oil penetration. This sealing process is called ‘sizing’ and the sealant is called ‘size’ – so ‘to size’ your canvas means to seal it. Size is either hide glue (rabbit skin glue RSG) or acrylic polymer. The secondary purpose of size is to stiffen the fabric so it has less bounce. RSG comes as pellets that are soaked to soften them and then gently warmed to use as a size or part of the recipe of genuine gesso. Warming RSG is not a smelly process, the reputation for smelliness comes from leftover liquid glue rotting in a corner of the studio days later. It doesn’t rot after it is dried on the canvas. If you do decide to use it be aware that if you do either of these two things the glue will be less effective: over-heat it or use it after it has rotted from sitting out as a liquid for days. Recent studies have shown that RSG is problematic as a size because it continuously absorbs moisture from the air, causing it to swell and then when the air is dry it shrinks. Over time, this constant change in the surface under the brittle layer of oil paint causes the oil paint to crack. RSG is now understood to be the main factor of cracking in old oil paintings. So for a more lasting solution many artists now use a fluid acrylic polymer or a PVA size to seal the canvas and GAC 400 can be used to stiffen the canvas.
A wide range of traditional and modern canvas size (sealant) can be found at Jackson’s.
Purchasing canvas that is already glue-sized saves a step when you are stretching canvas and it also makes the linen easier to stretch evenly as the added stiffness helps it keep the weave shape.
Belle Arti glue sized linen canvas.
From left: extra fine, fine and rough.
Priming
The type of ground affects many things about the painting. The amount of tooth affects how well the paint adheres and how much brush-drag you feel as you paint. The amount of absorbency affects the glossiness and brightness of oil colour as the oil is absorbed by the ground and if pigment is also sucked in, the colour will be diminished. An oil ground is often less absorbent and quite smooth for a silky painting experience where the colours sit proud and vibrant. After you have sized the canvas you can apply one or more coats of a ground, the surface you will apply paint to that gives the right amount of tooth, also called providing a ‘key’ for the paint to stick to. Priming your own canvas will allow you to really work the first coat into the weave (to create a good barrier against oil paint penetration) and then to make the additional coats as smooth or textured as you wish. Unless you sand the dried primer for a really smooth surface, there will probably be some brush mark texture.
Acrylic primer
Acrylic primer usually acts as both size and primer. If you are using acrylic primer to provide a barrier to oil paint check if you need another coat by holding the canvas up to the light – if pin holes of light show through then you need more primer to seal it. When a canvas says it has Universal Primer that means it is an acrylic primer than can be used with acrylic or oil paint. If it is labelled as acrylic ‘gesso’ this sometimes means it is more absorbent than acrylic ‘primer’, though this varies a lot my manufacturer. To apply it you usually thin with water for the first coat and scrub it into the weave or scrape it on with a palette knife. Then get a bit thicker for each following coat. Applying primer too thickly may result in cracking when it dries as it will shrink a lot. So building up the surface with many light coats is better than one heavy one. A light coat is often dry enough in 30 minutes to apply the next one so a batch can easily be done in one day. For the smoothest surface many artists sand between coats.
Oil primer
An oil-primed canvas can only accept oil paints. Although oil paint can be applied to an acrylic gesso primer, acrylic paint will not permanently adhere to an oil-primed canvas and will eventually peel off. Oil primer contains oil paint and so you must apply a sizing of some sort first as a barrier. It usually need a few weeks to cure as well, so the surface is properly ready to paint on.
Genuine gesso
Genuine gesso is a very absorbent surface, which is what is needed for painting with egg tempera or encaustic. It is made in the studio and applied warm as it contains RSG. It will crack on flexible surfaces and should be used only on rigid surfaces, usually wooden panels. We now have a ‘gesso hand-primed’ canvas available in an Italian linen that has quite a delicate dry surface that is very absorbent yet it doesn’t easily crack (though it could if handled badly).
Surface texture
Some painters like the look of the texture of the weave showing through so they do not add many coats of primer, just enough to seal the canvas and give a white ground. Renaissance masters preferred a super-smooth surface created by applying many coats of primer, sanding between each, until the weave was completely obscured.
Clear primer
Some artists require a clear primer because they wish to use the colour and texture of the canvas as an integral part of the painting. If you like the colour of the canvas and don’t want a white ground you can prime the canvas with a fluid acrylic medium like Matt Medium or a ‘clear acrylic gesso’ to soak into the fibres and fill the weave holes. It usually takes a few coats.
Belle Arti Extra Fine grain linen.
From left: unprimed, glue sized, universal primed, oil primed.
Belle Arti fine grain linen.
From left: unprimed, glue sized, universal primed, oil primed.
Belle Arti medium grain linen.
From left: unprimed, universal primed, oil primed.
Canvas at Jackson’s Art
The canvases in this article are available at jacksonsart.com in a variety of formats – ready stretched, mounted on panel and by the metre – ready to be delivered to your studio.
You can compare some of the canvases that Jackson’s stock by ordering sample pieces of the Claessens Linen or the Claessens Linen sample book or the Belle Arti sample book. With the Belle Arti book you get refunded the purchase the price of the book when you purchase one of the canvases. Since we don’t have a way of letting the website know that you have previously ordered the sample book you will need to order the canvas on the phone and let the operator know you have purchased the book.
- Stretched Canvas
- Bespoke Stretched Canvas
- DIY Canvas Stretching – Stretcher Bars
- DIY Canvas Stretching – Canvas by the metre
Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.
This had so much useful information! I have used linen and cotton, but now know the
factual reason behind the choice!
That’s brilliant Angie, thank you!
Lisa
Hi Julie
Ive always painted murals directly onto
walls, but I have a project coming up that
require me to work off site. what canvas
would you recommend for painting
trompe murals which will roughly be 1-2
meter sq. which then will be hung by a
specialist paper hanger.
thanks
Hi Marina
I’m sorry but I don’t know all the things that should be considered for mounting canvas like wallpaper.
These might be some of the things to consider –
The paper hanger should be able to glue cotton or linen to the wall, so either fibre should work.
A finer weave would be less visible, if you want it to look like it was painted directly on the wall. A coarser weave would let the canvas weave show, unless you filled the weave with primer or paint.
At the size you are working weight shouldn’t be a problem.
You should be able to use any canvas you like. You will want to stretch it so it doesn’t wrinkle while you are working. And the glue they use may cause a bit of shrinking from the back and I don’t know how they pull it tight on a wall. Maybe paint a bit larger than you need so the hanger can fit it and trim if needed.
I hope that is some help.
Is there any way that you can talk to the paper hanger? If they have done this before they might be able to tell you the factors to consider.
What weight do you recommend when
applying gesso? I used 12oz on my
previous painting and there were many
cracks. Do you recommend a a 5oz
weight hemp will be best to prevent
cracks? The size of my painting is 4feet
x6feet I thought that heavier weight
would hold better given the size of the
painting.
Hi Alessandra
The weight of the canvas has no effect on the gesso cracking.
What gesso are you using?
Acrylic primers vary a lot. Most can be applied to a flexible surface like canvas, but a few are meant to be applied only to a rigid surface like a wood panel.
It is advisable to build up thin layers of gesso as a thick layer will almost always crack as it dries.
If you are using a good quality acrylic gesso/primer (there are some cheap, poor quality gessos out there) then you can thin it with water and scrub the first coat into the canvas weave. Then use less water on the second thin coat and use the primer neat on the third coat. Use as little as you can to get a smooth surface and never apply it thickly like cake icing.
Some also need to be stirred from the top to the bottom to incorporate the ingredients, if it has sat on a shelf for a while.
Julie can you or one of your Colleagues
drop me a note of a contact number I
can speak to someone over the choice
of untreated canvas grade for a piece I
am some to start?
Hi Jonathan
Please call the shop on 020 7254 0077 and one of our customer service team should be able to help you. Monday – Friday, 9am – 5:30pm.
Many thanks
Lisa
How does one prime the whole canvas roll with transparent
film, without it being stretched first?
I don’t see those canvas rolls for sale.
I think Jackson pollock used rsg for his canvas rolls.
Hi Etienne
We have 3 different weaves of linen that we sell by the metre or a whole roll of 10 metres – that are glue sized.
https://www.jacksonsart.com/search/?q=Roll+glue+sized+belle
They have one coat of rsg. This stiffness allows for more even stretching. Then you can finish preparing the surface after it is stretched by adding one or more layers of the ground of your choice – gesso, primer or matt medium.
If you wish to size unprimed canvas yourself before you stretch it, most artists staple it to the wall of the studio.
Julie,
I’ve jumped on some kind of forum.
Is there a store in the United States?
Thanks, Richard
Hi Richard
It’s not really quite a forum, it’s just the comments section underneath a blog article.
Jackson’s don’t have a physical store in the States, but we send orders there all day.
If you choose the USA on our website you will see the prices in USD and it will tell you the shipping cost.
Hope that helps.
Hi
Great to see good explanation of product
like canvas be good to see prices on the
explained canvas rather than searching
after maybe a price promise included so
not have to check others prices keep up
good work
Thanks for the suggestion Malcolm.
The difficulty with having prices in a blog article is that the article is meant to last for some time as the information is universal and unchanging. If prices were added that wouldn’t be the case anymore, as prices go down when things go on offer and they go up every few years with inflation or when the manufacturer raises their prices or if new import costs apply or taxes change.
We do have a price promise.
Price Match
Hi Julie, I have been asked to do a detailed acrylic painting size 25”
x 31” . Someone will make a frame up and stretch the canvas but
we were wondering which canvas surface to use. I see Jackson’s do
an extra fine linen but would this be strong enough to stretch this
size ? I would prime it. The client doesn’t want the canvas to show
through the painting.
Hi Wendy
Linen is very strong, even the extra-fine linen will be strong enough to stretch at 25×31 inches.
Extra-fine linen is sometimes called portrait linen because it has the smoothest surface, so the weave or any little fibre lumps don’t create a texture that could look like blemishes on the final portrait. So if you wish the canvas to be a less-visible part of the painting that would be a fine choice.
Belle Arti Extra Fine linen
Hi Julie, thanks for the article, there
are lots of useful information.
I used the Canson 290gsm canvas
pad for both portraits, figure and
landscape painting(sketches or
preliminary paintings), I found it
quite acceptable in terms of brush
strokes and color.
I wonder what the 290gsm is
equivalent to “fine or moderately
fine” in linen canvas? I don’t think
290gsm is “medium”.
By the way, I have bought a sample
book of Claessens linen canvases
from Jackson’s.
John
Hi John
The fine and medium description of canvas is about the texture of the weave – is it bumpy and rough like jute that is hairy and can even have big lumps that make it look like a mole if it is on someone’s face in the painting, or is it a medium weave which leaves a grid of woven texture visible unless you apply loads of paint or is it almost as smooth as paper. I think most oil painting paper that is embossed with the texture of a ‘linen weave’ is quite fine, nearly smooth. It doesn’t take a lot of paint to fill in the texture.
The 290 gsm of the Canson Oil Paper refers to the thickness of the paper. It is the grammage, the weight, not the texture. GSM = grams per square metre. The weight lets you know if it is 1. thin and flimsy, lightweight and floaty, that can buckle under the weight of a thick layer of gesso and paint or if it is 2. heavy, almost like card and a stack of it is heavy, and everything in between.
Thanks for an informative and helpful
article.
Do you stock a stretched linen canvas that is
unprimed and suitable for Acrylic stain
painting techniques? Or is this at item that
can be made to order?
Thanks in advance!
Hello Pedro
We do not have any ready-made stretched canvases with raw canvas.
But if you do not want to stretch the canvas yourself (it’s quite easy, our How to Stretch Canvas post shows you how) we can do that for you. Our professionally-stretched canvases are well made and good value and can be made with any of the canvases that we sell by the metre. Go to our Bespoke Canvas Builder page and choose the type of bar and then unprimed linen – then you will see the 7 textures of linen we have to choose from.
I hope that helps.
Hi I have recently seen a stretched
canvas with a very open weave, to
enable a photo to be seen underneath –
would you have anything similar ?
Hi Jane
Unfortunately, we don’t have anything that loosely woven. Hessian has a more open weave it is used by some painters and also by upholsterers, so you might find it at an upholstery supply. But it is thick and heavy, so I’m not sure if it is what you are thinking of.
Hello,
I have some hessian or jute and wish to prime it for oil painting but want to keep the colour of the hessian instead of using gesso. Does rabbit skin glue react the same way with hessian as it it does with cotton canvas or would I use more or less water when heating it. i.e one part glue to 4 or 5 parts water? Never used it before.
Many thanks,
Derek.
Hi Derek
I haven’t heard of a difference in the recipe for RSG for cotton and linen. Here is an old but useful post about Rabbit Skin Glue that might be useful if you haven’t used it before.
The other option is to use an acrylic or PVA size. Matt medium can be used but if you want a clear size, it can leave a milky colour from the matting agent.
Lascaux Acrylic Size
Roberson PVA Medium
Gamblin PVA Size
I am looking for raw linen (not on canvas) to paint on. Would love
to find 5×7 pieces with raw edges to paint (using oils). Not sure
what to get. I would like the sides to be tattered or showing
threads.
Hi Brenda
You can buy unprimed linen canvas and cut it into pieces. The weave is loose enough for the edges to be easily picked loose to create a fringe.
If you don’t want artist canvas then upholsterers jute might be something to take a look at.
I am an abstract painter using oils and
acrylics and I am getting orders from all
over the United States and cannot ship
using canvas board. I want to paint on
my surface and ship it in a tube. What
would you suggest I buy? Primed or
unprimed does not matter to me as I can
do that myself but my question is with
this material can I just paint right on it
let it dry roll it up and send it in a tube?
Thank you so much for the information I
am so glad I found your website. Thank
you so much for the information I am so
glad I found your website!
Hi Sandra
Stretched canvas was created to allow large paintings to be taken off the stretchers, rolled up and shipped. So it is normal practice. The recipient will have the responsibility of buying stretcher bars, a staple gun and stretching the canvas themselves, or else taking it to a framer to have it stretched by someone else.
I’m glad to hear that the blog has been useful to you!
Hi Julie
Is there a right side to paint on linen or does
it not matter?
Hi Ray
There is no right or wrong side to linen or cotton canvas. Unless it has been primed of course, then you would paint on top of the primer.
Hi Julie
Could you recommend me a linen or canvas
to use it raw, I want almost half of the
surface to be clear of paint, leaving the
fabric as it is?
Hi Ricardo
All cotton or linen canvases can be part-painted, so you leave part showing. Your choice would depend on the colour of the cloth you want and the weight and weave.
Would you add or fixate in any way
when its done? So the raw canvas stay
safe and can last for many years to
come. Bit sad to sell paitings that
might rot or be broken some how 🙂
Hi John
There are many famous examples of paintings from the 1940s and 50s with unpainted areas of canvas. The canvas doesn’t rot or break because it is exposed.
It may however become dirty and be hard to clean.
The artist may not be concerned about this because the look and intention was more important to them than the possible future in 80+ years.
If you wish to leave areas of canvas unpainted and also want to make it easy to clean you could varnish the whole painting including the bare canvas. If you use a gloss varnish this will make the bare canvas glossy. If this is not the look you want, then you may wish to use gloss on the paint and matt varnish on the bare canvas areas.
Hi! I am wanting to create a watercolor
look in my paintings. I want to sell the
paintings with the canvas frayed out a
bit on the edges. Would you have a
recommendation of which canvas to
purchase?
Hi Lori
Do you mean you wish to paint in watercolour on canvas?
You will need to use a primed canvas and paint on a few coats of Watercolour Ground so that the paint will absorb enough to flow properly. This article should help: Painting Watercolour on Canvas.
If you mean that you wish to make a painting in acrylic that looks like watercolour then you can paint on regular primed canvas. You would just need to thin the paint enough to look like watercolour while keeping enough binder to keep it stuck on the canvas after it has dried. So you can’t use too much water to dilute the paint you will probably want to use a combination of water and a polymer medium.
If you wish to fray your canvas into a fringe around the edges though, that will be hard to do with primed canvas. You will probably want to get unprimed canvas, fray the edges and then prime the part you want to paint on. If you want the frayed part to be the same colour as the background of the painting then you will want to use a clear primer or polymer medium to seal the canvas. Sealing the canvas is so the paint doesn’t just soak in and sort of disappear or bead up, but can be controlled on the surface. Unprimed canvas comes in 2 types: the brown linen and the cream coloured cotton.
I hope that is helpful.
Are there concerns regarding the use of zinc white in the oil primed canvases? There seems to be a direction that it is not recommended due to it cracking. Will Jackson’s be able to acquire claessens 14, non primed and primed linen?
Hi Dean
You can read more about the Zinc White debate in this article THE ZINC WHITE DEBATE (AND WHY WE’RE KEEPING IT IN OUR OIL RANGES)
and about how Claessen primes their canvas with a size, then a coating of zinc oil and then a coating of titanium THE STORY OF CLAESSENS, MAKER OF THE WORLD’S FINEST QUALITY ARTISTS’ CANVAS
They have been making the highest quality artist canvas for over 100 years and so they know what they are doing. Zinc has not changed recently, it is the same as they have always been using.
I will ask our buyer about the canvases you are interested in.
Hi there! I am looking to paint with both
Acrylic and Oil Sticks on unstretched cotton
canvas (12oz), But I am unsure what is the
best primer/size/gesso for me to use that
keeps the original colour of the canvas? I
really love the natural cream colour and
unsure whether I should be using clear
gesso or a matt medium or a pva size! thank
you for your help!
Hi Rachel
Any of those would work to seal the canvas from the oil stick and give you a less water-repellent surface for the acrylics, but they will each look slightly different and feel a bit different to paint on.
Matt medium and clear gesso can give a slightly cloudy look if you put on a few coats. PVA will be more glossy.
Some of the clear gessos are quite absorbent and gritty, matt medium is quite smooth and PVA can feel a bit sticky.
There is no right or wrong, just what you like to paint on and what gives you the look that you want. It would be worth trying all three and seeing which you prefer.
Hello, thank you for the valuable
information. Would one be able to paint
directly on raw, unsized canvas with an
acrylic stain, and proceed with oil paint
from there. Meaning, would the layer of
acrylic act as sufficient sealant to keep
the oils intact? Thank you.
Hi Genevieve
You could make it work, I think. It depends on how watery your stain is. If you use a fluid acrylic or acrylic ink you might have enough acrylic resin in the paint to seal the canvas because they are very fluid while not having much water, so you could add some water and still have enough plastic. It also depends if your stain is just in parts or covers the whole canvas. Do a test on a small piece of canvas. Stain it as you want and then paint oil on top as you want. If you don’t get a halo around the oil and it doesn’t go matt or dry, then you are fine. A lot of oil seepage will be a problem for making the canvas go brittle and darken but a tiny amount won’t be too bad.
If you see too much oil seeping into the canvas then you could try add a sealing layer on top of the stain. Gloss polymer will be visible as it will be shiny but a thin layer of matt medium might finish sealing the stain and not be noticeable. Try another test with it and see. If you don’t like the look of it you could try spraying it with matt varnish or pastel fixative to act as a bit of a sealant.
Good luck! If you have time, please come back and let me know what worked.
Hi Julie,
Could you please let me know whether primed or unprimed linen is
the easiest to stretch. As I get older I’m finding stretching
canvasses becoming more difficult, back ache and so on. I’ve
recently used a ready made linen canvas and I love it so much I
would like to continue to use it and stretch my own. Thank you.
Hi Ann
You don’t have to pull as hard on unprimed linen because the stretch shouldn’t be as tight, because it will shrink from the primer and tighten. On the other hand it is much harder to get an even tension using unprimed linen as it stretches a lot more than the primed, so can be wavy and can later make the bars warp out of shape as it pulls unevenly. So I don’t recommend stretching unprimed linen. Some artists staple the canvas to a wall to size or prime it and then when it is dry they stretch it. You can stretch it fine if it’s just sized and then you can prime it after it is stretched, as the size keeps it from stretching so unevenly, helps it keep its shape.
Are you stretching large canvases? If you are stretching smaller canvases it is much easier on the back as you can do it on a table. I find that the difficulty for me is the staple gun, so I have changed to an electric staple gun and that has helped my hands a lot. Having good canvas pliers helps, too.
And, you could always get our bespoke canvas department to stretch them for you in the primed linen of your choice.
Very grateful can walls knowledge
searching, beneficial artist thank you
I’m glad you found it helpful. Thank you for reading.
This is such a great article with a lot of
helpful information. I love how you refer to
the history of the canvas, very interesting.
For my own paintings, I prefer Artfix linen
canvas, have had the best experiences with
it. Thank you very much!
Thank you Paul. I’m glad you found it interesting! Yes, Artfix is a brilliant linen.
Thanks for the valuable info above.
Wondering if it is suitable to prep canvas
using bedsheet finely woven of 60%
cotton and rest polyester? Also to prime
it by hand brushing 2 coats of
homemade gesso containing white glue,
calcium carbonate power, zinc oxide
powder and water mixture. After the 2
coats, the gesso does not saturate all
the pores of the cloth, thus to close the
pores, 2 coats of acrylic paint is added.
Wondering if it is correct to close the
pores with acrylic paint on canvas
whereby the gesso was not distributed
uniformly nor sufficiently closed the
pores of the canvas? What are the
outcomes and longevity of this canvas
for acrylic painting?
Hello
If you are putting the sheeting onto a rigid panel it should be good. But if you are stretching the sheeting over stretcher bars, it will be too weak and will probably tear with the tension and also be vulnerable to tearing if it gets poked in the future.
The homemade gesso mixture might have a weak point in the glue. There are many types of white glue (PVA) and some are not long-lasting. They become dried up, yellow and brittle with age. But some are fine, so it depends which kind you use. Price is usually a good indicator of quality.
If you are painting with acrylic and not oil then you don’t need to worry about sealing the gaps in the weave.
Hope that is helpful.
Hello
Thank you very much for this very
comprehensive article. I have a
question: I have a commission for a
large painting, about 2.5 metres by 1.7
metres. I would need to paint on
stretched canvas and then take it off
and ship it in a tube. The client would
then stretch it on a weatherproof board.
The issue is that the painting will be
displayed outside, on the wall of a
house, exposed to weather. What would
be the best canvas for this and what are
your recommendations to seal it? Thank
you very much.
Hi Birgit
I made a painting on a wooden panel that was made to be hung outside in all weather and it has remained unchanged for 7 years.
I varnished it with a couple of coats of Golden MSA Varnish to make it both waterproof and help prevent sun-fading. So I definitely recommend that varnish. If you don’t like gloss they do a satin or a matt. If you want matt or satin and are doing a few coats, always do all but the last one with gloss. One coat of satin or matt on top will knock back all shine but many coats will build up a haze.
I’m not sure how well canvas would do, it would depend on how well it can be sealed after it is mounted at the destination.
The fabric will be vulnerable to mould, rot and sun damage unless it is completely sealed with varnish on the front and completely sealed around the edges so no water can get behind. Not sure if linen or cotton would be better. Might not make a difference so long as the canvas is thoroughly primed. Both shrink when they are wetted, so some artists wet their canvas, then staple it to a wall to dry, and then stretch it over bars and prime it. I don’t do that, I find that the wetness of the size or primer does the shrinking fine. I have had canvas that I primed off the stretcher bars shrink by more than 5cm. But if it is sealed with varnish then you won’t need to worry about it getting wet.
Not having done this, my best recommendation is that you prime your canvas well, give it a couple of good coats of MSA varnish, and then after they mount it they do something along the lines of a clear silicone caulk around the edge to keep water from going under it. Maybe they should also inspect it after they have unrolled it to see if the varnish has cracked anywhere, not sure if it would, but I guess it could. They’d want to seal any cracks.
Golden MSA Varnish.
The varnish must be diluted before use and low-odour mineral spirits do not work, they react badly with it. To see which solvents work well you may want to read this blog article MSA Varnish Dilution.
Thank you very much. This is of great
help! I’d love to do it straight on board
but shipping would be a problem. So
I’ll try my luck with canvas and
varnish. Thank you
I’d love to hear how it goes!
Hello,
Thank you for this article. I’m looking for
very fine grain canvas and I’m interested
in Belle Arti polycotton extra fine canvas.
Can you tell me what is thread count/cm
for that canvas?
Hi
Thread count is not a recorded characteristic of artists canvas, instead the canvas characteristics are expressed by weight, as grams per square metre, and fineness of the weave, as ‘grain’. The smoothest canvas we do is the Belle Arti Ultra Fine No Grain which only comes by the metre, not as ready-stretched canvases.
If you want an ultra smooth surface you can also choose to paint on wooden panels, they are amazing. Another option is to scrape a layer of primer onto your canvas with a large palette knife, to fill the weave. Since the knife is flexible you would hold it like a squeegee for screenprinting and take a few passes until you get the slight bend just right for a completely smooth surface. This earlier article has a section about priming paper which shows what I mean EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OIL PAINTING PAPER.
Hi, so much useful information. Thank
you!! Which one would you recommend
for a large painting 200×150 cm with
collage from paper and acrylic – and
which glue would be the best on the
fabric that you suggest? Best, Mette
Hi Mette, glad the article was helpful.
A painting that large, if it stretched and not on a board, the canvas will need to be heavyweight to be strong enought to be pulled tightly across that large area. So a heavy linen or a 12oz cotton would work.
The glue usually used for collage on canvas is soft acrylic gel.
Is it normal that cotton canvas is yellowing
from the backside? If I paint with oils for
example a white circle on dark background, I
can see “reflection” of the painting from the
backside, as white areas stay white and
other areas turn yellow.
I’m not sure I follow your description about the reflection.
Unpainted areas of cotton canvas can change colour over time, usually lightening. I have had a piece of raw canvas in a sunny room for a few years with a board on top of part – the area in the dark under the board is noticeably darker and yellower than the exposed part.