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Some artists choose to buy ready-prepared linen canvases because linen has a reputation for being much more difficult to stretch than cotton. The stiffness of linen means it is harder to pull when stretching and you need to take care to keep even tension across the canvas or it can ripple along the edges later. It also means that you can use finer and thinner linen for the same strength as heavier cottons. Linen is made from flax and is stronger because it has longer fibres which means that it is less likely to tear at the staple line or at the sharp outside corner of the stretcher bar. Cotton is easy to stretch and stays tight on the stretcher bars. CottonĬotton is economical but not as strong as linen and it hasn’t been time-tested like the linen used by the old masters.
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Some speciality fibres such as hemp and jute are also used for canvas – we do jute, and although it is a different fibre it is usually considered an extra-rough linen because it is very similar. There are two major fibre types used to make canvas: cotton and linen (flax). ( click on the images for a larger view) Material Here are some things to consider when choosing which canvas to paint on: You can compare some of the canvases that Jackson’s stock by ordering sample pieces of the Claessens Linen or the Claessens Linen sample book or the Belle Arti sample book. The surface qualities can profoundly affect some artists’ painting, even more so for techniques like staining in oils or acrylics. Many artists try painting on different canvases, primers and grounds until they find the surface that works best for how they paint. If you wish to stretch your own canvas we have 40 variations of canvas by the metre or by the 10-metre roll. There are thin canvas panels and Ultralite boards which are great for plein air painting because they are lightweight and will fit in most pochade boxes. You can get a huge range of sizes and surface characteristics in ready-to-paint stretched canvases, just unwrap them and go! Or you could add a final coating of a ground to it to customise your surface. 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.Īt Jackson’s we stock a good variety of canvas that should cover most artists’ needs. The characteristics you require of your surface will determine which you choose. 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 first artist canvases were made from high-quality Venetian hemp sailcloth and the word canvas derives from cannabis (hemp) – canvas made from linen was introduced soon after and cotton is a more recent choice of fibre. Canvas replaced wood panels for painting during the Renaissance because stretching canvas across wooden bars allowed for larger paintings that were portable, because they were lighter and could be rolled, as well as being a more stable surface with less warping and cracking than a wooden panel. Oil and acrylic paintings these days are most often created on canvas.