How to Choose the Right Canvas for Oil or Acrylic Painting

Acrylic or oil paintings are often created with love, by artists on canvas. Canvases were created to ditch wood panels as they can be rolled, provide a stable surface, faceless cracking, and are highly portable. For centuries, painters have impressed us with their creativity. In the modern era of art, canvases remain the first choice for amateur as well as professional painters to create acrylic or oil paintings.

However, canvases come in different sizes, shapes, widths, materials, and quality. whether you have a specific requirement or a limited budget, you can get a canvas of your choice easily.

Canvas panels and canvases can be hard to judge. So, here’s a guide on various types of canvases and how to choose the right one for you:

What should you look for in a canvas?

When choosing the right canvas for your acrylic painting, you have to consider the texture, fabric, length, width, quality, and priming in mind. All of the mentioned factors play a great role in making your painting ‘picture-perfect’.

Fabric – Most of the canvases are made of linen or cotton. Some specialty materials such as jute or hemp as also used to create canvases but they are not as popular as cotton and linen. While cotton is an economical choice, its quality cannot be compared to linen canvases. Cotton is stretchable and stays on the stretcher-bar. However, Linen is a strong material and has long fibers but it provides durability and bears all the strength of the painting brushes.

Priming and Non-priming – To highlight the real colors of the acrylic or oil painting, the right canvases are primed with a mixture of glue, chalk, and plaster of Paris. Primed canvases prevent the acrylic or oil paint from being absorbed by the canvas’s material. However, if you want to produce a dull and untextured acrylic painting, we suggest you choose a non-primed canvas.

Texture – The fibers of the fabric from which canvases are created are woven together producing various textures, depending on the woven pattern of the canvas. Different textures serve different acrylic paintings.

For instance, if the fibers of the canvas are finely woven together, then the surface is a bit smooth and perfect for small detailed work and smaller paintings. If the canvas has a rough surface, then it’s best for large as well as freestyle brushstroke paintings.

Types of canvases for acrylic or oil painting

The main types of canvases, perfect for you to start your painting are:

• Stretched canvas – It is one of the popular choices for acrylic painting. It stretches wide on the stretcher bars. It is mostly made of cotton and has a primed surface (sprayed with Gesso).
• Canvas panels – Canvas panels are of high-quality and quite expensive. They are lightweight, portable, rollable, easy to carry, and yet not the first choice for beginners or amateurs.
• Canvas rolls – If you are into creating large oil paintings, then canvas rolls should be your thing. They are made of two fabrics: either cotton or linen. They are sold in yards, which can be quite expensive, at times.

Many painters explore various types of canvases on the internet to find the perfect piece for their acrylic paintings and to ditch going to the store.