The Art of Building a Stretched Canvas from Scratch

Learn the DIY way to building a canvas for your artwork. Stop wasting money on pre-stretched canvases!

Created by: Megan Dorien
Artist/designer/maker of things

What Will I Learn?

• Build a stretched canvas from scratch
• Be confident in choosing the right canvas type for your work as an artist
• Identify each tool needed to stretch a canvas and their purpose
• How to prepare your canvas for either stretching or painting
• Learn about the most popular types of canvas wraps, so you can decide which you prefer stylistically for your own art
• How to cut your loose canvas for different applications
• How to assemble your stretcher bars into a frame for your canvas
• Learn when a cross brace or extra support is needed in your frames
• Learn how to fold the most amazing corners
• Learn how to hang your finished painting like a museum or gallery

Requirements

• If you plan to execute the lesson at the same time as the course, you will need the following: a piece of canvas (either finished or blank), wood, staple gun, canvas pliers.
• This course will not act as an instructional on the actual act of painting. Instead, it will teach you everything you need to know about how to take a piece of canvas and turn it into a wrapped canvas.
• I will outline a detailed account of all supplies needed to execute a finished, gallery quality, stretched canvas. However, if you are signing up for the course simply to learn how to stretch a canvas and will execute later, you will need nothing! You may want to use the course to simply learn the how-to's and plan on actually building the canvas later on, that is fine as well.

Target audience

• This course is designed for artists (or people who are looking to become artists) that want to learn how to create your own stretched canvases. There is no prior knowledge needed, nor do you have to have experience with any building or construction. I will be going through each stage of the process in very detailed explanations alongside video tutorials.
• This course is great for artists that want to learn how to use their hands to build every part of their artwork. Artists that are sick of purchasing factory, pre-made canvases.
• This course is also great for artists that need to learn how to make canvases for custom sized jobs.
• This course is great for artists that want to learn how to take part in every single step of piece of your finished work.