What makes a good canvas and why.

Nishart · Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 116 Location: Victoria

Actually thats a good question. Its been very handy to know more about the quality of the canvases we purchase out there.

I was told by a staff member at a good quality art supply store that some of the cheaper canvases are just plastic imprinted with the image or indentation of cotton so as to give the impression or look of material when its stretched onto a canvas but all it is is plastic not material. (not sure of the accuracy of this info. Can anyone verify this stuff is being dumpd in Aust too?)

This guy reckons you can tell by looking at the back of the canvas and the flexibility of the canvas. How do you tell the fake canvases, from the cheap ones, from the medium quality ones etc? I have looked at various places selling canvases and i am finding it difficult to identify what is no good or if it is just plastic pretending to be real canvas.

Cheap canvases are great for practice but how do you identify a medium to higher medium quality canvas for use when wanting to sell what u paint? Or should you never buy from anyone but a good rep art store?

Tango · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 1360 Location: Melbourne

Nishart the irony is that a cheap ''plastic'' canvas may out last a cotton one as cotton and linen are both of vegetable origin and so will eventually deterioate where as the synthetic plastic will just keep on keeping on, and this is why I am giving polyester canvas a try out as it is supposed to be archivally superior to cotton or linen ,,, plus it's a whole lot cheaper...

Devilbiss · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 3214

Boris01 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 228 Location: Western Australia

has anyone tried painting on hemp canvas ?

Devilbiss · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 3214

Tango · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 1360 Location: Melbourne

No I've never seen it either, but from the attached link I've found out that hemp is considered as good as linen if not better , and that Van Gogh & Rembrandt used it. http://www.art-handbook.com/surfaces.html

Boris01 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 228 Location: Western Australia

yeah Ive been planning on buying some for a couple years, just wanted to see if anyone had any experience painting on it

art8dave · Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 1333 Location: Sydney

Not sure about using hemp...... jute (which is a form of hessian) has been used as a cotton/linen canvas substitute..... jute is a very interesting surface to paint on, but, will go brittle over time

Boris01 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 228 Location: Western Australia

Jute is awful stuff to paint on ( for that exact reason - it goes brittle )
Hemp is looking like it last longer than linen even from what Ive read

samples are in the post, but its looking like about $27 a metre though, I'll see how much I like the look of the samples when they get here and probably order a couple metres of each to do tests on

anyone just starting out looking for a nice heavy canvas ( Ive tried the stretch test on it that was in Tango's link ) and not wanting to pay over the top art store prices :
Bunnings drop sheets are really nice thick cotton canvas ( I checked with the manufacturer ), I found a few bigger ones ( 3 x 4m ) that might have been old stock - they dont have the plastic backing that alot of dropsheets in hardware stores have .
Keep an eye out when youre in B and try find dropsheets with no plastic backing

I'd recommend rabbit skinning and priming it like normal, but its gonna be sooo much cheaper - mine worked out to $4 sqm

AvG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 1912

Devilbiss · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 3214

Ahhh the days before Bunnigs.

belle2 · Joined: 21 Jan 2010 Posts: 189 Location: Newcastle

To tell plastic from canvas light a match against a corner bit. If it melts, it is plastic, if not it is canvas.

Interesting point about the drop sheets from Bunnings.

Boris01 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 228 Location: Western Australia

just did a burn test on the big bunnings dropsheet Ive got - its definitely cotton same as my 100% cotton canvas
smelt the same , burnt the same

then I did a burn test on the 100% hemp canvas samples I just got in the mail - smells like burning wood ( no, I am not now halucinating and hearing hendrix music )
its not as thick as I'd hoped , the place I got it from said is 12oz, although its hard to tell from the tiny sample

guess I'll just buy a couple metres next week and see how it stretches up

marri · Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 267 Location: Western Australia

When it comes down to it doesn't it depend on what you are going to use it for. I use stretched canvas because it is lighter than board and I don't have to frame it. I texture with gesso and pour more than paint, so the tooth and feel of the surface does not really matter. Acid is the enemy, linen, canvas, hemp, will outlast me if acid free (although there has to be some acid leaching from pine sretchers I would think). SO a good canvas for me is acid free, won't warp, and is cheap.

I buy the monte mart professional series - they are cheap, acid free, and have kiln dried stretchers. I have never had one warp.

Boris01 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 228 Location: Western Australia

Ive recently restretched 40 of the montemarte "professional" series on good quality stretchers for an artist who painted on them a year ago and had them all warp after suffering the indignity of being stored in his room temperature studio

on a fair few of them the canvas at the back where it stretches around the stretcher bars had become extremely brittle

he puts his paint on pretty thick too - acrylics

they look good when you buy them and seem fine when you paint on them, but they dont even come close to standing up to the test of time

but hey, theyre cheap and they come from china, they must be good