How To :: Make Your Own Canvas Panel

It has finally happened, the first ever video tutorial for Craft Leftovers! This morning as I was searching around for things to post about I realized I wanted to show you the process of how to make your own canvas panel from start to finish and that photos just wouldn’t do it justice. I ramble a bit at the beginning and the end, so the actually instruction isn’t the full 18 minutes, it’s broken up into part 1 and 2 so make sure you watch both. It was fun to make and I hope to do another one soon!

There are a ton of great tutorials on painting all over the web. Some feel like bob ross shows from when I was a little kid, but that is just fine with me. All have great information to gleen and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have.

Oil Painting Demonstration from Life – Peony #1
Oil Paint Premixing Palette Demonstration
Oil Painting Demo by Don Sahli
Wilson Bickford – Clouds

I learned a lot from watching these artists work on still lives (sped up to quickly show the whole process in just 10 minutes or so) you can see how they build the painting up. Some start with a sketch in pencil, while others start with a sketch done in paint, others still jump right in:

Pear Painting by Jos van Riswick
Tomato by Abbey Ryan
Pomegranate by Dan Carr

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It’s kind of funny because the actual tutorial took just as long as it did to make the canvas panel, but that last little bit took forever. People kept coming over and walking in and out of the apartment. Then I went out to the garage to finish the last little “hey it worked” part and then people came outside. Geesh. Then finally get it just about finished and molly jumps up on the desk and that was that. Ha. So it goes.

I say “um” and “so” and “and” too much. There are a few awkward pauses just for good measure too. All that will get better over time and I’m looking forward to playing around with this new medium. It was fun and I hope to do another one again next week. Any ideas? After a few if you like them and if I like them, I’ll pick up a video recorder of some kind and get a little more hi tech. For now though, my laptop seems to work just fine. Actually, it works much better than I thought!

Christina is coming over tomorrow to paint some more and I am so excited to show her the panel I made and the tutorial I recorded. I’m pretty sure she will get a kick out it.

In other news, the Fall 09 issue of Knit Scene is out and your should totally have a look at the Counting Cables article – because I wrote and illustrated it! Hooray! and today it was featured on Knitting Daily! I wrote about here on Kro Studio too.

Well, that’s it for today. Off to knit and watch movies – a great way to end the day!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

7 thoughts on “How To :: Make Your Own Canvas Panel

  1. Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I really enjoyed watching that demo video of yours. It feels alright and I am now ready to make my own canvas panel. Please post more useful videos.

  2. Thanks for the video. I didn't realize there was so much to do to prepare a canvas. Where does one buy the stuff you were painting on the canvas?

    Would you mind making a video on bookbinding?

    1. You can get gesso at most art/craft stores that sell paint – I know hobby lobby carries it. It comes in all sizes, but I like the gallon size :)

      I actually have an ebook out that covers the stab and stitch binding method. It also includes making paper from greeting card scraps, building your own mould and deckle, making a cloth like collaged paper, and has a knitting pattern, two sewing patterns, and crochet pattern for good measure. It's called Card.Paper.Ribbon and you can get it in the CL shop here: https://craftleftovers.com/shop/product.php?prod

      I want to make another video soon, it's been awhile, but I'm not sure. Maybe paper making or book binding would be a fun way to go :) Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

  3. Thanks for the video. I didn't realize there was so much to do to prepare a canvas. Where does one buy the stuff you were painting on the canvas?

    Would you mind making a video on bookbinding?

  4. You can get gesso at most art/craft stores that sell paint – I know hobby lobby carries it. It comes in all sizes, but I like the gallon size :)

    I actually have an ebook out that covers the stab and stitch binding method. It also includes making paper from greeting card scraps, building your own mould and deckle, making a cloth like collaged paper, and has a knitting pattern, two sewing patterns, and crochet pattern for good measure. It's called Card.Paper.Ribbon and you can get it in the CL shop here: https://craftleftovers.com/shop/product.php?prod

    I want to make another video soon, it's been awhile, but I'm not sure. Maybe paper making or book binding would be a fun way to go :) Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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