The word canvas is derived from Arabic word cannabis. A canvas is a plain woven fabric often used for making tents, sails, backpacks and marquees. Canvas is usually used on those works where sturdiness is highly required. Canvas is used at multiple occasions the most popular use of this medium is as painting surface and even for creating shoes and handbags.
Painting on Canvas:
The most conventional use of canvas is painting. It is regarded as the most authentic base for oil painting. Before doing painting on canvas it is first stretched across a wooden frame. Then a fine coating is applied on the canvas. This is done to prevent oil paint from coming into direct contact with the canvas fibers, which may cause the canvas to decay. Synthetic latex coating is most popularly used canvas coating. There were many other artists who also painted on uncoated canvasses. Traditionally canvas was made of linen. Linen canvas is particularly suited oil painting. In the early 20th century cotton canvas called as cotton duck were often used. Cotton stretch canvas is frequently used by modern artists especially by those who work on oil painting.
Contemporary Canvas:
Modern canvas are usually created of cotton. Cotton canvas is usually lighter than other cotton fabrics like the denims. A canvas is available in two basic types such as plain and duck. The threads of duck canvas are tightly woven.
Contemporary Canvas:
Nowadays many small prepared canvasses glued to a cardboard backing are easily available in market. There are some fixed sizes of these canvases and usually these are not acid free. Such canvasses are often used for quick studies. Cotton canvas usually gets wrinkled. To unwrinkle the thing, it is good to use a warm iron over a piece of wet cotton canvas to flatten the wrinkles. You can also use hot water to make it flat. If you are a professional artist you can create canvas for your painting by following the traditional manner. It can also be created by printing digitally. After printing, the canvas can be wrapped around a stretcher and displayed for viewing.
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