Behind the Scenes | Canvas
Read about what goes into producing one of our hand-painted personalised name canvases and some of the trade secrets from our resident artist and co-founder, Adam; from how he prepares each canvas to the final piece...
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A blank canvas. Literally. Where do you start? Well I go all left field and start on the back. The more rigid the canvas, the better the surface to work on and as far as the end result goes, I want the painting on as flat a surface as possible. No sagging required! So back to the back. Take one mug of water, a clean brush and apply the water to the back of the canvas. Don’t drown it, you aren’t putting out a fire; some delicate strokes will do it. Leave to dry and boom, any sags or dents in that canvas are now ironed out and it’s crisp and ready for action.
I always brush a first thin base layer of paint on the canvas. Although the canvas I use comes ready primed, I feel another layer of water based paint won’t hurt. I use a slightly watered down white emulsion. Once dried I apply another coat of white emulsion, this time not watered down. This will form the base layer for the letters.
I sketch in the letters using a light pencil, such as a 2H - I don’t want to make it harder for myself having to go over dark pencil lines later on in the process!
Then two coats of the letter ‘fill in’ colour is applied, plus any spray lines. The background colour goes around this and if I need to spray any lines onto the background, I will mask off the fill in colour to avoid any over spray.
The outline of the letters is when the letter forms really start to take shape. I use Posca pens for this. They are great: water based, quick drying, permanent once dry and importantly, vivid. Then it’s the 3D and highlights to give the name that bit of impact.
The canvas is now complete and ready for its new home!
Browse and shop our range of hand-painted personalised name canvases here.
I always brush a first thin base layer of paint on the canvas. Although the canvas I use comes ready primed, I feel another layer of water based paint won’t hurt. I use a slightly watered down white emulsion. Once dried I apply another coat of white emulsion, this time not watered down. This will form the base layer for the letters.
I sketch in the letters using a light pencil, such as a 2H - I don’t want to make it harder for myself having to go over dark pencil lines later on in the process!
Then two coats of the letter ‘fill in’ colour is applied, plus any spray lines. The background colour goes around this and if I need to spray any lines onto the background, I will mask off the fill in colour to avoid any over spray.
The outline of the letters is when the letter forms really start to take shape. I use Posca pens for this. They are great: water based, quick drying, permanent once dry and importantly, vivid. Then it’s the 3D and highlights to give the name that bit of impact.
The canvas is now complete and ready for its new home!
Browse and shop our range of hand-painted personalised name canvases here.