How To Stretch Your Own Canvas
For the past several years, I’ve been stretching my own canvas and wanted to share a tutorial with you so you can also learn to do it.
Also, I’ve learned a lot about doing this and can help you avoid some costly mistakes and discuss them below this video. For now, here is the video tutorial, below is a summary of some additional things I’d like to interject.
For some reason, the video isn’t embedding for me, you can alternatively, click here to view the video: https://youtu.be/Xp_HAMC_R1Q
Pros
- Quality
- Lower Cost of goods
- Having supplies on hand saves trips to the art supply store.
Cons
- Large roles are heavy and bulky to handle
- Storage Space
- Time required to stretch Canvases
Types of Canvas to Choose From
Canvas Weights
- Different weights, the heavier weight, the stronger the canvas.
- I’ve seen canvas weights from 4 ounces to 20 ounces.
- 7-8 oz is the standard you will find in hobby stores to be woven in lower quality.
- I use a 12 oz and it is pretty thick which can handle knife work well. However, I believe that any thicker canvas would require very strong hands.
Cotton or Linen
- Linen is considered higher quality and it is reflected in the pricing.
- Fine woven linen is excellent for portraiture.
- Cotton Canvas is fine for both oil and acrylic paint.
- Priming
- You can choose pre-primed canvas or choose to prime it yourself.
- Priming requires a sizing glue and then several coats of primer. This is time-consuming and the reason I choose to buy mine primed
Fixing Wrinkles
Caution Caution Caution
Experts state you can spray the back of a canvas to remove wrinkles. This does not work on loose primed canvas. Since the front is primed, it is in a fixed state. When you spray the attached unprimed fibers on the back, it will warp the canvas. In this case, it is best is to use a cool iron.
As you can see, this happened to me recently when cutting some stored loose canvas.
Additional Tips
- Cut some templates to make the next same size cuts simple. I’ve used my own canvas for this.
- Cut several at once it will save time
- Stretch several at once. It will also save time.
- Roll unstretched cuts and store them in a tube or protected place free of moisture and potential damage. I used an old guitar box that worked perfectly. You can also order cardboard tubes off of the internet.
I hope you found this information helpful. If you like it, please like and share.
Wishing you all the best,
Tina Adams Stoffel
