5 Reasons to Make (Not Buy) Your Canvases
When I first started painting, I always bought my canvases from art supply stores—not knowing that it was even possible to make your own. Once I was in university art classes, I finally learned how (and how simple it is!) to make canvases in the campus wood shop. For the following three years after learning, every painting I created was on a canvas I’d built myself. It’s a practice I’ve continued in my personal and professional work ever since, and here are some reasons why I always opt to make canvases instead of buying:
1 —
Cost
It ends up being significantly cheaper to make your own canvases, especially in larger dimensions. Sure, if you’re painting a small 8x10” and below, go ahead and buy a craft store canvas for ease (or paint on a canvas board that’s easier to frame)—but anything larger than that is so much more cost effective to make yourself.
2 —
Quality
If you’re buying a pre-made canvas, you don’t have the ability to choose the specific materials involved, and usually what you’re able to find for a reasonable price is made cheaply with light, possibly bowed wood, plastic, and thin fabric.
The quality you can achieve on your own can be specific to your needs, and again cost-wise, will be much higher quality for the amount you spend on materials versus what you can get pre-made.
3 —
Choose Your Own Materials
Customizability in material might be my top reason to make your own canvas. You can completely tailor each canvas to your creative medium—and also experiment with the canvas as a medium itself.
Want a durable surface for oil painting? Need a thick and somewhat rougher texture? Want to try ink on a sheer canvas that plays with light and shadow? COOL! Let’s do it!
These are some materials you get to choose for yourself:
Fabric
Wood
Hardware & Hanging Wire
4 —
Any size, Any Shape
Along with choosing your own materials, when building your own canvas you have complete control over the size and shape. You can build a canvas that fits exactly over a piece of furniture, or fills an awkward-size wall in a client’s home.
With more flexibility on shape you could also build multiple canvases that work together in a non-traditional way, like honeycomb hexagons or a series of triangles that can be hung in a certain orientation.
5 —
SELF SUFFICIENCY
Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for how much you are capable fo doing yourself. Making your own canvas is a testament to self sufficiency in that you aren’t reliant on the stock of any store or supplier. Once you know the basic techniques of canvas building and have the essential supplies, you can make canvases any time with the supplies you have.
I’ve worked with: scrap wood, leftover canvas, repurposed fabric, or even used-canvases from thrift stores—taking the painting off and re-stretching with another piece of fabric.
I feel so good knowing I’m capable and that I’m contributing less waste to the economy of things by not purchasing plastic-wrapped pre-made stuff all the time.
