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Preparing the canvas for an acrylic masterpiece
Fredrix offers some rather good acrylic-primed, stretched Linen canvases at prices within a moderate price range. If you have no experience using linen for oil painting, you should become aware of a few of its unique characteristics. First, Linen is very porous, in terms of its weave. When you open the package you need to backlight it, to determine if it shows any pinholes of light coming through it. Each pinhole represents a weak spot in the canvas, in terms of the canvas being protected. By “protected”, I’m referring to the fact that the oil in the oil paint will deteriorate canvas, if allowed to come into contact with the canvas. Acrylic primer is the barrier that prevents oil paint from seeping into the canvas, and thereby rotting the canvas in years to come. Each pinhole is a bit of “deterioration” waiting to happen, if you do not deal with it. Give the acrylic-primed, stretched canvas a light sanding, using 150 grit sandpaper, and then apply a coat of Grumbacher 525 Acrylic Gesso, thinned with enough water to be self-leveling, when brushed on. I always apply at least 3 coats of acrylic primer (gesso) to the surface, with sanding after ever 3rd coat. There must be enough acrylic primer to totally eliminate ALL PINHOLES. Another characteristic of Linen canvas is that it is greatly susceptible to moisture–MUCH more than cotton canvas. This often causes sagging of the material during times of high humidity. Sometimes this will tighten once again when the humidity lowers, and sometimes not. When I bought my first linen canvas it was sagging in its package. When I unwrapped it, I figured I’d just spray it on the back with water to tighten it, just as I do with my cotton canvas. When I sprayed water on the back, it tightened, alright–so fast, and so drastically I thought it might break the stretcher bar! If it takes 20 minutes for a spray of water on the back of a cotton canvas to tighten it, a Linen canvas will tighten in 20 SECONDS! It works, alright, but just be prepared for the rapid, and extreme tightening of the material, once you spray water on it. Personally, I love the texture of linen stretched canvas or of linen panels. It seems to “take the paint off the brush” in a manner that cotton canvas just doesn’t seem to do. I would never go to the effort of stretching my own linen, and instead I purchase stretched linen canvas from the art suppliers. The only two cautions is that it sometimes will exhibit pinholes which MUST be filled with acrylic primer, and it does have a tendency to sag with increased humidity. BOTH of these characteristics can be handled very well, and you’ll have an excellent surface upon which to apply oil paint.
wfmartin. My Blog “Creative Realism”.
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com
May 2, 2018 at 4:34 pm #616510
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I’ve never used linen canvas, but their are a number of pre-stretched ones available. No reason to stretch your own. Her’e a link to the page at Dick Blick for pre-stretched linen canvas: https://www.dickblick.com/categories/canvas/stretchedlinencanvas/details/ Don
May 2, 2018 at 4:47 pm #616507
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Also, it has been my experience that the price of stretched, Linen Canvas will generally be about 3 times that of stretched cotton canvas, by the same manufacturer. If a stretched, acrylic-primed cotton canvas from a given manufacturer costs $8, then the price for the same size, acrylic-primed linen canvas will be about $24. That seems to be true in most cases. At present I have been using canvas-covered, or linen-covered panels that are offered by RayMar. Solid, unflexible surfaces seem to be far superior to the more flexible, stretched canvases, whether they be cotton, or linen. The cotton canvas panels are acrylic primed, and the linen canvas panels are oil primed. This is the address forRayMar: http://www.raymarart.com/Canvas-Panels-Linen-Panels-RayMar-Painting-Panels-s/59.htm
wfmartin. My Blog “Creative Realism”.
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com
May 2, 2018 at 5:06 pm #616508
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Stretching canvas is not so difficult. And you will work onto very good fabrics. Artists grade linen canvases are generally bad products. You buy more holes than threads! When applying glue and primers, it is a mess. All the ground layers go through these economical fabrics.
I buy heavy duty canvases intended for furniture, technical use.
To see if your primed canvas is OK, look at its back. If you can see little white square holes between threads, it is a bad one. If threads are tight enough against each other, you must not see the white ground from the back of your canvas. Bad canvas:
Good canvas:
If the canvas is raw, unprimed, unglued, just hold it against light. You will easily evaluate the quality. Bad canvas:
Good canvas:
May 2, 2018 at 5:09 pm #616509
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Sorry I didn’t manage to resize my pics…
May 2, 2018 at 5:17 pm #616517
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Thank you WF and Don. Having been out of the oil painting game for some time, I’m playing catch up with the newer offerings in the marketplace. WF, I’ve heard good things about Ray Mar panels and may just give them a shot. I also appreciate your detailed precautions regarding surface preparation of pre-stretched linen. You likely have saved me a from a lot of heartache. I will proceed and let you all know how things go. Many thanks for your input!
Best of the affordable canvases
Blick Studio, Blick Premier, and Fredrix Pro Dixie cotton canvases are my choice for cost effective canvases. All of these canvases have some texture and are great for both acrylic paints and oil paints, heavier applications of oil and acrylic mediums, and abstract pieces.
All of these canvases are back-stapled to the frames, which makes it easy to remove the canvas if reframing is ever needed in the future.
- Blick Studio canvases – most affordable
- Blick Premier canvases – higher quality and heavier weight than Blick Studio
- Fredrix Pro Dixie canvases – comparable to Blick Premier canvases
Best of the middle-priced canvases
Masterpiece Tahoe canvases. The surface of these cotton canvases is smoother than the Blick and Fredrix canvases, which is ideal for painting in a more realistic style with finer details.
Like the other canvases previously mentioned, the Tahoe canvases are back-stapled to the frames. The construction of these canvases is extremely sturdy as well, in fact, all Masterpiece canvases are made with solid pieces of wood. You might be wondering if this really makes a difference.
“Solid wood is far superior to finger jointed wood, which is many small wood pieces glued together. Each piece has varying densities and grain that absorb and shed moisture at varying rates, and expand and contract non uniformly, which can cause the wood to bow and the finger joints to fail. The purpose of finger joints is to reduce cost, not to contribute to archival quality.”
Example of finger joint wood
Another craftsman agrees with this philosophy and says:
“Wood moves. Wood expands and contracts in response to the conditions in the environment around it like heat, cold, and moisture. The problem with finger joint lumber is that every piece of wood moves differently and the piece of wood on one side of the joint vs. the other side will almost always expand and contract at different rates. This results in the joint weakening and pushing apart over time.” ( Source )
Another reason to be a fan of Masterpiece products is their sourcing – their production is based in the United States and their wood is sourced from mills in California and Oregon that adhere to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
- Masterpiece Tahoe canvases
Best of the expensive canvases
Masterpiece Elite Heavyweight Oil Primed Linen canvases. These canvases are similarly constructed to the Tahoe canvases but are made with linen rather than cotton.
Linen – especially Belgian linen – is more expensive than cotton and some artists prefer linen for its greater historical durability. Linen is made from flax fibers, which are longer, stronger, and more flexible than cotton fibers and have more natural oil in them, making them less prone to damage from humidity.
Combined with modern sizes and priming, however, the difference between linen and cotton is apparently minimal.
That said, the Elite canvases are about twice the price of the Tahoe canvases. Also note that the oil primed canvas is only suitable for oil paint but there is also an acrylic-primed version of this canvas which is suitable for both acrylic and oil paint.
If you are looking for a very smooth linen canvas surface of the highest quality, check out the Masterpiece Elite Portrait Smooth Linen canvases. These are available in acrylic-primed and oil-primed versions as well. The only downside to these canvases is that they only come in a 1.5 inch depth.
- Masterpiece Elite Heavyweight Acrylic Primed Linen canvases
- Masterpiece Elite Heavyweight Oil Primed Linen canvases
- Masterpiece Elite Portrait Smooth Linen Acrylic Primed canvases
- Masterpiece Elite Portrait Smooth Linen Oil Primed canvases
