Choosing the right canvas for acrylic, watercolour or oil painting

From stretched canvas to the choice of stretcher.

At Pen Store, you will only find stretched canvases. However, you can also stretch your canvas yourself. To do so, buy stretcher bars (or stretcher frames as they're also called). Stretcher bars are usually sold individually or in packs of two and come in different lengths. You'll need four parts for a complete frame. We also recommend that you get a rubber mallet for joining the corners together. You then stretch the canvas, which you’ll need to buy separately, over this frame. The canvas is attached with a staple gun. Do this carefully to ensure you don’t end up with any wrinkles or dimples. Canvas pliers are good accessories which facilitate the stretching, making it easier to achieve a good result. The corners of the stretcher bars are joined together with the help of stretcher keys, and you can use these to adjust the tension of the canvas to ensure it ends up completely smooth and well-stretched.

At Pen Store, you will find ready-stretched canvases from Crevide, made in Denmark. The canvases are hand-stretched exactly according to the instructions above, so you don't have to do it yourself. Stretcher keys are included so that you can adjust the stretching of the canvas if you need to. The manufacturing process takes place in Denmark and the canvas is hand-stretched over a wooden frame made of FSC-certified Nordic pine. The canvas itself is stapled to the back with folded corners, just as it should be.

If you want to paint the canvas before stretching it, you'll need to buy stretcher bars. The wooden frames used for our Crevide canvases are made of 100% FSC-certified Nordic pine. Regardless of which manufacturer you choose, make sure the wood they use is FSC-certified - to support responsible forestry practices. This certifies that when the product is manufactured, environmental and social conditions are taken into account.

Canvas sizes

Figure (F), Marine (M), Landscape/Paysage (L) and Kubis (K) are standard French sizes for oil paintings. For example, F10 is always 55x46 cm. These standard sizes are still used even though it’s more common to specify the size in centimetres (cm). At Pen Store, you will find standard sizes from F2 (24x19 cm) to F30 (92x73 cm) and non-standard sizes up to 100x100 cm.

Canvas material

Make sure that the canvas is adapted to the type of paint you are going to use. You can use oil paint on pretty much all canvases, but for acrylic paint you need a canvas that has been properly pre-primed. When painting with watercolour, you can use canvases primed for gouache, but we also have cotton canvases specifically primed for watercolor. As for quality, linen canvas is the most durable, but a high-quality cotton canvas will also last a long time.

Crevide

Natural Linen Canvas 24x33 (F4)

13.90 €

Crevide Canvas Cotton/Polyester White:
All-round canvas for acrylic paint, oil paint and gouache. Canvas quality: Medium grain, 280g/m (European).

Crevide Canvas Cotton/Polyester Black:
All-round canvas for acrylic paint, oil paint and gouache. Canvas quality: Medium grain, 330g/m (European).

Crevide Canvas Cotton Watercolor:
Watercolor canvas primed with gesso. Canvas quality: Very fine grain, 230g/m.

Crevide Canvas Linen White:
Genuine linen canvas from Belgian Claessens. All-round canvas for acrylic paint, oil paint and gouache. Medium grain, 363 g/m.

Crevide Canvas Linen Natural:
Natural linen from Italy. Primed with gesso. All-round canvas for acrylic paint, oil paint and gouache. Medium grain, 285 g/m.