Tips & Techniques

Painting on unstretched canvas...

Use a small sheet of particleboard. The particleboard should be a little larger than the whole canvas with borders. Use thumbtacks to secure the canvas to the particleboard. Place the particleboard on your easel and paint as normal. Many artists prefer to complete their painting on unstretched canvas before stretching. You can extend your brushwork past the borders and then get exactly the right placement on the stretcher bars after the painting is done. You will also find it much easier to paint down to the bottom of the picture without the easel support in the way.

Enhance and highlight the image...

Use colored pencils to add detail and highlights to the image. Portrait artists especially like this approach. Draw right on top of the canvas. Sharpen the critical edges. Add color to focal points. Think of your printed canvas as a starting point. A painting is not a photo. A painting is a dramatic performance created in a single scene.

Care of the printed surface...

Use care when handling the printed image. Water based inks have been used to print your photo on canvas. This is perfect for oil paintings because the water and oil don't mix. The inks will not bleed into your painting over time. If you paint with acrylics, be careful. Excess water on the print will cause the ink to run. For acrylics, you may first protect the printed canvas by brushing a thin layer of Winsor & Newton's LIQUIN over the printed surface to create a barrier film.

Don't squint...

Look at your completed painting after you set it aside a few days. It is easy to forget to cover the canvas completely. Some have noticed later that the paint was too thin and they can still see the "dots" underneath. Try holding the painting so that a window shines from behind the canvas. If you can see the dots in an area, you will need to add more paint coverage.

Supplies...

.There are many suppliers of stretching tools and bars. Jerry's Artarama (phone: 1-800-U-ARTIST or www.jerrysartarama.com) as well as Ebay sell mail order.

Don't worry about wrinkles...

Did shipping or handling result in a wrinkle on the canvas? Don't worry. Before you start painting, get out the ironing board. Turn your iron on to the high (cotton) setting. Do not use steam. Place the canvas image side down and iron the wrinkle out. Wrinkles come out very fast if you have a hot iron; five or ten seconds of heat from the iron should do it. If you get a small wrinkle on the canvas after it has been stretched, you might try using a sponge that is a little damp and wiping the backside of the canvas. This will cause the canvas to shrink and take up the wrinkle.

Do you want someone else to stretch the canvas for you?

Many frame shops offer a service to stretch or restretch canvases. Call the frame shops in your area to see if they offer this service.

Note: The ink used to print this canvas will fade in time and with exposure to light. This print is not to be sold as a finished product. This product is sold as an aid to assist in the painting process. We print as we are directed on your letter. Furthermore, you must obey copyright laws.

Portrait artists: Most portrait artists follow a general size guideline and keep the portraits between 75% and 100% of life size. You may send your photos to us with instructions to enlarge the photo so that two points (such as from the top of the head to bottom of the chin) are a certain number of inches apart (for example: 8.5 inches). We will then scale the picture accordingly.