These are the supplies you need to stretch your own artist canvas or artist linen you need stretcher bars, staplegun, Upolstry stretching pliers, tape, this can
You can either buy your own stretcher bars at any art supply store or you can make your own with a miter saw and a router. I prefer to buy mine because it is quick and easy. I have no problem paying for the convenience. When you assemble your stretcher bars make sure to butt them up against a 90° joint on all sides to make sure your frame is perfectly square.
After you have your artist stretcher bars squarely at 4 90° angles lay it on top of your linen or artist canvas and give yourself about 2 1/2 inches of space on all four sides to allow for wrapping your frame.
Here is the stretcher bar frame laying on top of my loose linen that I will be priming with that gambling PVA size. Please note how much space I left so that I can wrap the linen all the way around the frame and have enough room for my canvas Upolstry pliers to take hold so they can pull and tighten up that canvas upon that stretcher bars.
Okay now here is the next step that I place. I prime the canvas with the PVA size before I stretch it. The reason I have the canvas lay down and prime loosely is because some linen reacts differently when it is wet it may tighten up but upon drying it may lose its tension therefore making you l remove it from your stretcher bars and restretch it. So instead of risking that I just size that Canvas Loosly and after it dries then I stretch it on to my stretcher bar frames.
Here I have my artist linen drying on my radiator. After it is dry. I will stretch it on to my stretcher bars.
So you
The first thing you do with stretching and artist canvas is you place a stape in the middle of the back of the stretcher bar that goes through your canvas. And then on that opposite side you pull that canvas to create a tension across the surface of the canvas. Then you wrap it around to the back of the stretcher bar and staple it. You can staple it on to the side of the stretcher bar but this makes it a much cleaner presentation and galleries quite frequently exhibit paintings this way with out a frame. It also win finish just really looks nice and professional and custom.
Then you repeat this on the other two sides of your oil painting canvas. You staple one side while pulling it tight. Then you staple the other side while pulling it tight. At this step you should have four staples in the middle of your stretcher bars.
It
You can see how I removed the first staple here and M in the process of grabbing that linen with my canvas pliers so I can re-tighten to make sure that the surface tension is tight as a drum. it is very important to redo the first 4 staples and when re-stapling that you use your canvas pliers.
After you have reset your first four staples by tensioning with the canvas pliers , you begin to stretch the rest of that canvas by grabbing that canvas at approximately 1 inch intervals on the left and right side of the first staple. You do one side and then do this side directly opposite after you complete doing both sides you do that perpendicular sides by repeating the same process
This is a great photo because it shows you how much extra fabric is perfect to have . Because you want to be able to use your stretcher pliers to act as a lever which pulls the tension on the fabric by placing the extended part on the bottom side of the pliers against the stretcher bar so when you pull down it really pulls that canvas tight and then you nail it with a staple.
When you get to the far edges where that stretcher pliers can
And now you should have a beautiful drum tight sized artist
When you are beginning to get the corners finished the first step is to make a fold so that the angle of the canvas is at 45 degrees angle. This needs to be as exacting as possible so that when you fold that canvas to the left or right it will fall in line with the other parallel angles that are on the corners of that canvas
Now in this picture you can see how it is folded over and that that line should fall at a 45 degrees angle. Pardon my dirty hand I got spray paint all over it the night before. Anyways that should be pulled tight and when folded over it will create a 45° angle and then the piece that is still loose and on flush with the canvas will be folded in and will line up parallel to the other side. It is important to get the angles exact because everything will fit together like a little puzzle but if the initial angle is off everything will be messed up. like a buildings foundation that initial foundation needs to be correct or everything that you build on top of it will be out of step
See you can get an idea of how everything will lineup in this picture as long as your initial angle is at the 45° point the first step is to fold big canvas over and then you will fold the piece that is still loose under and it will be a clean flush edge
Then after you
So here we start again with the 45° angle but instead of having it show on the outside we have to pull it underneath the canvas so it will be on the inside.
This shows how I tuck part of that Canvas under and then the piece with my thumb I pull over and that line once again needs to be at a perfect 45° angle so that the fold is clean along the lines of the canvas stretcher bars
Then as you can see I pull the piece that I have back behind the canvas and if that piece that is folded under is at a perfect 45° angle it will line up perfect and create a nice clean corner that looks very professional.
Got to be careful because those staple guns are dangerous. This reminds me of that one song I like how
Alright now here is another crafty little artists trick when creating a professional grade artist canvas. What IM doing here is placing tape that masks off the canvas for my application of oil priming medium. I believe this on my canvas for the duration of my painting. I mean from when I apply that gesso through to when I apply the final glazing on my oil painting that I do. How this works is I apply the tape at approximately a millimeter down from the surface of the canvas on the sides and wrap it on all fou
Now make sure not to use duck tape or any other tape that has a very sticky adhesive. The reasoning is that you can leave a residue on your canvad that doesn
Then finally I tack the back of the tape to the canvas just to make sure it stays in place.
Fredrix brand is the only brand of oil priming medium that I use. Itl has a very runny consisstancy and I like that because it really seeps into your canvas and retains a lot of the original texture of your linen or canvas. Also it has a wonderful quality for painting on and creates effects that you will see if you look to the old masters oil paintings. These effects are its ability to retain brushstrokes in under paintings . I
First thing I do is just dipped my brush into the can start applying it. I also may just pour a little directly from my can onto the canvas itself. I brush it in in all sorts of direction and make sure I work it into the canvas
Then I used my squeegee to swipe it across my oil prime artist linen to remove excess oil priming paint. I go from left to right horizontaly then I go from right to left vertically.
e You can see how it leaves a line across my canvas so I make sure and brush that out with my paint brush.
Then with my paint brush I have it loaded with oil priming white I applie the paint from the outside to the inside of my canvas. I make sure and not let paint get between my tape and my canvas because I want to keep the sides nice and clean.
Then I use my glove to just smear the paint and make it nice and smooth and even across the canvas your hands are wonderful tools for painting I frequently use my thumb for a multitude of different techniques as well as my fingernails. .
Here you can see how I have a nice smooth and even coverage of my beautiful oil primed artist canvas . Well it
What a shame that would be to have on your canvas when you can simply just have applied a masking tape.
But luckily we foreseen that impending disaster and we prepared for it. comes right off with a little artists paint remover rag. And when I am finished with painting a picture upon this beautiful little artist canvas I will remove the tape to expose the beautiful linen that is unmarred by my artistic endeavor. Art Galleries frequently exhibit paintings without frames if they are presented in this manner. This is the most professional manner in which to prepare an artist
Then upon completion you just leave on your wall to dry. I suggest you leave to sit for about 3 to 4 days before painting but I have let set for two days before and have had success with that. Some people recommend you let sit for six months at least but that is only for the oxidation process to be complete. For a canvas to be touch dry that really takes two days and to have a hard slick surface to paint on that usually occurs within a week. So after I paint my picture I will remove my tape and then have a beautiful painting in which galleries are happy to present and you save yourself money and look even cooler than having spent a lot of money on frames and everyone is happy and you look professional and it
Then after you take the tape off your painting that you have finished, here is how it should look. Another great advantage besides them looking super sleek and clean and professional is since you have the paintings stapled from that back you can easily remove it from the stretcher bars and roll it up if you need to. And when you stretch it you will not see any of the previous staple holes because they will be on the back.
And there you have it, my finish artwork. I am pleased with the way my painting of an anonymous mask turned out. This painting is very nice and I am totally excited to have an opportunity to show it and exhibit my craft work. Thnx
