Quality Canvas

[Bartolome Beacham]

Ourexpert technicians and customer representatives are the best in the industry and strive for nothing less than perfection with every quality canvas print we put together. From our South Florida-based facility, we strive to set a new industry standard in both quality and customer relations.

When I upload the videos directly to Canvas, I've noticed that the default playback quality is 126 kbps. In order to see the detail in the screen cast videos, I need the video to play in at least 190 kbps.

@alyson_lamanes , greetings! I did a little research and I don't see where it's possible to change this. My recommendation is to contact the Canvas Help Desk to see if they can help. To do this, click on the Help link and Report a Problem.

I found that you can increase the quality of a single MP4 by clicking on the star settings button and increasing the playback to high quality feed, but has anyone found the setting in Canvas that allows you to default to playing ALL videos at the higher quality? Thanks

I wholeheartedly agree. Our organization needs our training videos to be clear, and the text for some of our videos is not clear on the lowest quality settings. Please provide a way for us to make the setting high quality by default.

Come on, Canvas! This needs to be done asap. My students constantly have to change the resolution with EACH AND EVERY VIDEO! Do they always remember? Nope. Do they miss things because they can't see details very clearly? YES!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Julie was the editor of the Jackson's Art Blog for 10 years and now writes for the blog part time. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of art materials (with a focus on oils and acrylics), she loves researching and writing pieces for the blog as she learns something new each time. She studied journalism in California, art at Camberwell College of Art and completed the two-year Turps Studio Painting Programme in 2019. She exhibits her paintings regularly.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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 57 pieces with raw edges to paint (using oils). Not sure

what to get. I would like the sides to be tattered or showing

threads.

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.

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