I really like to paint, but buying canvases can get pretty expensive. It seems like it might be better to make my own canvases, since it would be cheaper and since I would be able to make them practically any size I want.
So, does anyone have any experience making their own canvases? Is it very hard? Is it worth the effort?
I used to help make the canvases for my college’s art department. (I wasn’t an art student, but I spent a lot of time in the scene shop, where the art teacher came to make the canvases.) It’s really easy, as long as you have a miter saw for the 45° angles at the corners of the stretcher bars. Basically, you cut the stretcher bars, square 'em up with a t-square and staple them into place with a staplegun, using triangular braces if you need for big canvases. Then you find the midpoint of the frame and canvas, staple, and work out to the ends, stretching and stapling as you go. It takes a little experience to stretch evenly, but it’s not hard at all. Google make you own canvas for detailed procedures.
As for worth the effort, I’d say it’s definitely worth it as far as price goes. The bigger you get, the more worth it it gets.
I’ve made lots of canvases. Several of the canvases I have made for artists are now in museum collections. I say go for it, and learn from your mistakes. Some tips:
Make sure your corners are true right angles and strong. I prefer miter cuts. Get a good corner clamp (or four). use wood glue and let dry. I connect with a dowel peg joint but brad nails or screws work fine too. So do butterfly joiners, corrugated nails etc. For larger canvases you might want to add some corner braces and/or vertical cross-braces.
Raised edge. The outside edges of the strainer (the wood rectangle) should be a little higher than the interior edges. This raises the canvas off the strainer a little. Also sand or rout the interior edge until smoothly rounded. This keeps a sharp inside edge of the strainer from marking up the painting. I see plenty of messed up paintings that have that problem. Go to an art store and look at how their premade canvases are made.
Not too tight. Never stretch the canvas drum-tight, you can distort the strainer. Especially if you are using water based paint, that will shrink the canvas even further. There’s a special tool for stretching canvas - basically a 3" wide set of pliers. Fine if you can get one. A good sturdy hand stapler is good for tacking on canvas. Do one side then the opposite side. Leave the corners alone until the end, then you can fold them down nicely.
Gesso your canvas when you’re done with it, then it will be all ready to go when the spirit hits you.
Thanks for the advice. It sounds like making my own canvases would be a great idea, other than I live in an apartment and I don’t have a garage or any place where I can set up a wood shop. Is a miter saw small and hassle free enough that I could conceivably use it in my carpeted apartment, or is that just too big of trouble and a mess waiting to happen?
I’m no artist, nor carpenter, but here’s an inexpensive miter box example, it wouldn’t take up much room at all (and could be stored in a closet or cabinet). The only other thing to worry about would be sawdust. You could just vacuum, or you could put down a plastic sheet. Your apt. should be fine for something on this scale.
Is there some reason it has to be canvas? I’ve seen some pretty decent work on Masonite and other boards. Hell, even some of the best old works are on wood.
Thanks again for the advice. I think I might go out saw shopping this weekend.
I guess it doesn’t have to be canvas, but I really like painting on canvas. I’ve never painted on wood, but I’ve painted on some other boards that I bought at an art store, and I just didn’t like them as much.
As an alternative to saw-buying, you can purchase pre-cut stretcher bars from art-supply stores in a range of different sizes. They’ve got the true corners and raised edged RTA mentions. Probably not quite as cheap as making your own, but somewhat less messy, too.
Canvas is cheapest, which is why I think it gets used so much. Plus the language thing - people say “canvas” when they mean “something you paint on”. Of course you can paint on literally anything.
I like the look of linen because of the finer “grain” of the fabric. Canvas is coarse. I see silk more and more lately, it makes for a very luxurious mirror-smooth surface, and takes paint really well.
I have also seen paintings on stretched shirts and towels etc.
When I make the stretcher bars for VeryCoolSpouse, I use brick moulding. It already has a raised edge.
You can reuse canvases, too, if you decide you don’t want to keep the initial painting after all. I’ve had fun flipping a bad painting upside-down and doing a new one right on top, it’s neat how the old colors give you something to start with.
Or, you can wait until a failed piece is really dry (at least 6 months with oils) and gesso the old painting out. That assumes you don’t mind the texture of the old one showing through - if you’re using decent quality (i.e., metal-containing) paints, don’t sand them down, that dust would be toxic as all get out.
You can also reuse just the stretcher bars - just pop the old painting off and roll it up (painting side out, so it’ll crack instead of rumpling on itself). That’s how they got O’Keefe’s Clouds painting to Chicago, just rolled it up.
To buy cheap canvas, go to a tent and awning store. Much less expensive than Michaels.
Also, wanted to second RTA’s technique, that’s exactly what I was taught. Put your staples on the back side if you want the “museum wrap” look (plus, that way you don’t absolutely HAVE to frame your finished work).
I buy professional stretcher bars, but prime and stretch my own canvas; I use the heavy-duty stretchers, because I trust their quality more than I’d trust anything I’d put together from scratch. And you can adjust the corners by tiny amounts till they’re a true 90 degrees. Hint: measure the diagonals. If they’re equal, the angles are correct.