What makes a good canvas and why.

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

How long had he had them Boris? I have had no problem with warping over three years in temperature variations from 42 in summer to -5 in winter. The brittleness over the stretcher I think is likely as the edges are hard from new (I pulled apart a new one). It certainly would be very difficult to restretch them but you wouldn't be able to restretch any of my paintings anyhow. I don't add any tension with the supplied wedges as I want some belly in the canvas anyway (sailing term... all I could think of)... perhaps that is why I have had no warping problem.

Your statement "but hey, theyre cheap and they come from china, they must be good" is perplexing though. I was making the point that the qualities of "goodness" vary according to application, not holding them up as quality canvases. In my case: no warp, no acid is good, anything beyond that is pretty much overkill.

AvG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 1912

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

Marri the canvases that warped were pretty new ( maybe a bad batch ... )
Ive got the same temp variations as you aswell

what makes you convinced theyre acid free ?

what I find perplexing is using rubbish materials that dont do justice to ones art, especially when despite the cheap price of these it is STILL alot cheaper to make your own from better materials and requires very little skill

people cant afford good quality canvas stretched on good stretcher bars ? I dont understand why they dont think "oh, I'll just cut out the (chinese) middleman and the transport fees, grab a few lengths of good wood and a hand plane from a hardware store for a quarter of the price of even the cheapest canvas and learn to make em myself"

sure , the first three might turn out no good but making a square out of wood and stapling canvas on it is pretty simple compared to what some of said people do with their paint

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

hmmm, Ive just had a thought

if one had a steady / easy supply of sheetmetal ( aluminium offcuts, etc ),
I wonder if it could be primed and sealed to make it feel like painting on wood panel

surely it'd be extremely stable in terms of waring / moving and last for a hell of a long tiem ( haha, paintings with sacrificial anodes on the back )

sure its probably been done though

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

Its a good point about doing yourself but for many people, including me, its a matter of space. I used to have a workshed and indoor workshop with mitre saw, mouldings, pine bar for stretchers, matt cutters...... everything I needed to prepare and mount and frame. Now I have small work space and no equipment. That's why I don't make up my own. Acid free - well like any purchased product I can only go on what is claimed by the manufacturer but linen should be acid free by its nature. Quality control is always the main problem with anything cheap and mass produced.

Crap, now I am really missing my workshop. I would swap to masonite but then I gotta frame it - same problem. You have me thinking I might make some up in the school woodwork room.

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

masonite with wood supports on the back , flush with the sides is a good way to go - much cheaper and makes a pretty damn sturdy surface to work on

I made some but cheated and used a brad gun to attach the panel

like these ( but with something other than pine ):

http://www.artstretchers.com/wood_panels.htm

http://www.missionbluestudio.com/panels.html

easier to make than stretchers too cause theres no need for bevelled faces , or even mitred corners really

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

Heavier but not a bad idea.

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

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

Why seal the back?

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

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

Of course. Wasn't thinking about supports across the middle.

sunfire · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 1430 Location: Toodyay

Making your own canvas's is all well & good -- if,-- your still young enough or fit enough to do it !!
I'm sure there are many out there who are not up to it now, me included.
I have searched for good quality ready made canvas, at the limited number of places that I can get to & my studying of the canvases showed me that the monte marte professional series was the best I could find, it has the highest thread count per inch, Jacksons occasionly have some equally good ones on pine strechers (made in India) but the supply is not consistant, I'm lucky to find a couple a year in my sizes, a lot of the ones in Jacksons are very thin & poor, you can see through them.
I have had no problem with warping with the monte marte, but that may be because I work small, also I quite like the lightness of the pawlonia wood, much easier for me handle or to be able to carry a few to exhibitions.
I have searched online for canvases, but the information given is zero, there is no indication of quality.

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

ok, just been to bunnings

theyre carrying two brands of canvas drop sheet , one is paint pro ( or something ) with plastic backing, the other is Wagner spraytech - 100% cotton, pretty thick and it'd come up nice with a bit of priming or rabbit skinning

I wrote down all the sizes and prices and came back and did the numbers , the best size to buy is either the 12x12ft sheet or the 12x9ft sheet, they both work out to $2.98 per square metre
all other sizes ( up to 12x18ft wow thats a big canvas - 3.6x5.5m ! ) work out to around $3.20per square metre ( I know, small difference but when youre talking 100s of metres in the long run... )

I'll go for a 12x9 next time Im stretching some canvasses up and see how it goes after priming and post the results here

$30 for 10 square metres, thick enough that I think it'll come up nice when prepared properly ( hell, its already thicker than some of the canvas Ive been using )

In the meantime I'm putting in an order for 2 metres of 14oz hemp to stretch up aswell...

ren7352 · Joined: 08 Jun 2010 Posts: 1 Location: Canberra

some would say that the quality of canvas that a painting has is significant because it creates a unique flavor to it's outcome. However 2 days ago a painter friend told me that the quality of the painting itself makes the painting lively and the overall output.

He said that sometimes, it doesn't matter how expensive the canvas is but it's always the content painted in it.

AvG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 1912