Building a Canvas: My Least Favorite Thing to Do

 

Building my canvas is easily my least favorite step in the whole painting process, but getting it right is so important. It is the foundation for your painting and doing it well will ensure that you can enjoy your work for years to come. The first step is to build your stretcher frame (pictured above). For this canvas I grabbed two 40" pieces of lumber and two 30" pieces of lumber to build a 30"x40" canvas. when constructing your canvas, these outer pieces of lumber must be cut diagonally on one side so that the flat side can face the wall and the diagonally cut side will have the canvas stretched over it (I am just realizing now that I should have taken more detailed photos). When putting the frame together, I first glued a 40" and 30" piece together, and clamped them tightly so that they would not more while nailing them. I then put a nail into each side so that they sort of criss cross. Then, I repeated that process with the other two pieces and put the two L's together to make a rectangular frame. 

Now for my least favorite part. Because this is a larger frame, I had to nail in support pieces for each corner. The support pieces that we use in the studio are usually pieces of lumbar that were not good enough to be used for a frame and they are cut in all different sizes. A lot of these pieces have knots which can make it even trickier to nail into place. It doesn't really matter that all of the support pieces are the same size as long as they fit. They can't be seen after the canvas is stretched anyways. I have a really difficult time getting the support pieces in by myself. I am more petite, and find it difficult to hold the piece in place and nail them inside the frame at the same time. After learning how painful (literally and figuratively) this part of the process is after building my first canvas, I enlisted my roommate to help me with this step. It is much easier with two people so that one person can hold the support in place while the other nails it in. 

After the frame is constructed, the canvas needs to be stretched over it (again, not fun). The canvas needs to be measured to fit the frame, cut, trimmed, and centered. Then, the exhausting process of stretching the fabric over the frame and securing it with a staple gun can begin. I work from the center outwards on each side, and fold the corners last. I fold the corners so that the folds can only be seen on the top and bottom of the canvas. This is gallery standard and makes sure that the canvas sides will look nice when I hang my painting later. The canvas should be smooth, taught, and not have any ripples. 

Once the canvas is stretched, you can add in the D rings by screwing them to the inside of the frame and wiring the canvas. I do not drill into the wood before hand because the frame is made out of pine and is soft enough that I can get the screws in without drilling a hole first. This will allow the canvas to be hung later. I place the D rings on either side about a third of the way down from the top. When cutting the wire, I am careful to ensure it is long enough that there is a bit of slack so that it will be easy to hang later. I loop the wire twice around the D rings to make sure it is extra secure and then twist the remaining length like a braid. This will make sure that the wire doesn't come undone. 

I find the process of making a canvas to be extremely time consuming, boring, exhausting, and all together unpleasant. But it is really worth taking the time to get it right so that I have a nice base to work on.