Any painter’s journey with their work begins with the canvas. Knowing which canvas is ideal for your specific needs is essential because it’s such a significant aspect of your development as an artist. When picking canvases, the saying “different strokes for different persons” applies.
We’ll guide you through the best 10 canvases for acrylic paints so that you don’t have to spend time sorting through the hundreds or even thousands of canvases available on the market right now. Following our assessments, we provide a brief instruction on how to select the best canvases for your particular art form. We’ll go right to evaluating the first canvas on our list without spending any time!
Darice Stretched Canvas
There are cost-effective brands like Darice that are available for both artist-grade and student-grade canvases. These Darice canvas surfaces are ideal for artists searching for a nice surface to work with their acrylics since they offer the distinctive aesthetics generally found in the high-end surfaces like the Masterpiece Artist Canvases we evaluated.
The double-primed acrylic finish is one standout aspect of this canvas. This offers your acrylics and brushes considerably more control than they would otherwise have with some of the more budget-friendly products by providing a much smoother and toothier surface. Additionally, wood stretcher keys that let you further tighten the canvas to your preferences are included with the canvas (again, often rarely obtained at this price). You will like this surface for acrylic painting because it is a brand that has been relied upon by artists since 1954.
Blick Premiere Cotton Canvas
Although the most of us are familiar with Blick through their well-liked online art and craft supply store, it may come as a surprise to learn that they also produce their own products. In actuality, they excel at it. The surface of this specific canvas, which was entirely woven by hand, is ideal for acrylic painting. It is a 12 by 12 woven canvas made with cotton from India.
With a lower price tag, Blick has done all possible to ensure that this canvas has nothing to fear when compared to the best in the industry. The canvas is gallery-wrapped, back-stapled, and has a substantial quantity of selvage, which allows for future stretching. Keys are typical equipment for tension adjustments.
It is available in three distinct profiles, measuring.875′′, 1.5′′, and 2.375′′, offering you a significant advantage in terms of displays. When you wish to exhibit your paintings at studios, museums, or galleries, these are helpful. The canvas weights around 10 oz before priming and approximately 15 oz after priming. It receives three coats of premium, acid-free gesso primer.
Sanding is a step in the priming process that results in a surface that is quite smooth and has a good enough tooth for most art applications. Furthermore, supports are standard on every single model of big Blick canvases. It’s a fantastic and affordable canvas for all your painting requirements, and the wood quality and workmanship are also excellent.
Sargent Art 16×20 Stretched Canvas
Look no farther than the Sargent Art Stretched Canvases if you’re looking for a canvas that’s ideal for acrylic or oil paints. The frame holding the stretched cotton is made of warp-resistant, light, fine-grained Paulownia wood.
These canvases have been double acrylic titanium primed so they are already primed and ready to paint. Both experts and amateurs will appreciate the tight, smooth surface that these canvases offer for a range of crafts.
Masterpiece Artist Canvas – Monet Pro
You might never want to paint again after using acrylics on a canvas made for artists. This Masterpiece Artist Canvas, which is a member of their Monet Pro series, includes a smooth, uniformly woven canvas made of 100% cotton that has been twice primed.
You have entire and complete control over how the medium moves on the surface when the tooth is very reactive to your acrylic and brush. This stretched canvas has an unwavering surface, but it also has an intriguing structure.
You have a properly cornered canvas that won’t sag with time because it was constructed with archival features in mind. The wood itself is also obtained sustainably to minimize any long-term environmental effects. Overall, this is a wonderful canvas that you will be thrilled to paint on if you have a portrait commissioned or are simply presenting your artwork as a gift.
Arteza Stretched White Canvas
Arteza is a brand well-known in the student and hobby artist communities; rather than giving you the finest of the best, it provides you a comparatively very inexpensive yet respectable quality of the canvas. This is a little bit further away from the totally professional Blick discussed above. When purchased in quantity, they become even more reasonable, and if you’re not happy, they’ll give you a full refund.
It appears that you won’t need a refund anytime soon because the Arteza Stretched Canvas in White is a reliable performer from every angle. First off, the fabric is made entirely of cotton and includes a high-quality, acid-free acrylic gesso. You have a wonderful, light spring for your brush because the canvas is already stretched when you buy it.
Its canvas size, 11″ x 14,” is ideal for practically any student or hobby artist. It always comes in packs and is very reasonably priced on a per-unit basis. To guarantee that the canvas adheres effectively, the pinewood utilized is backstapled. An 8 oz. coating of gesso is used. Other sizes are also available, and the lesser sizes are still less expensive.
Your paints will glide over the surface, and as a result, the canvas will react to each brushstroke. Except if you’re a skilled artist, this provides you with a terrific canvas. Then, compared to what you’re used to, the surface is significantly rougher and has a harder tooth. Other than that, the Arteza is a decently made, widely useful tool that offers excellent value for the money.
Fredrix 12×16-Inch Stretched Watercolor Canvas
In fact, watercolor painting on canvas differs from watercolor painting on paper because watercolor canvas is manufactured specifically for watercolor paint. To begin with, the paint remains wet for a longer period of time and can withstand greater abuse from a rough brush.
This canvas has previously been titanium-primed with acrylic paint that is acid-free. You can wipe away any moist errors while you work because of its distinctive surface. Although intended for watercolor, this canvas also works well with acrylic paints and yields pleasing effects.
Daveliou Stretched Canvas
The Daveliou artist grade quality stretched canvas is ideal for oil painting, especially for painters of a more advanced degree. It’s a terrific canvas to display your artistic talents on since it has a 3-ply canvas that is back-stapled to a kiln-dried timber frame (to minimize excess slack).
The surface has a good amount of teeth thanks to their proprietary laboratory-grade primer, making it easy for high-quality oil paint brushes to grab onto it. This canvas not only has a fantastic base primer, but it is also naturally water resistant, making it ideal for oil painters who want to paint outside.
If you have a background in painting on panels and are seeking for more from your surface, this surface is a wonderful upgrade and is backed by a 1-year warranty, which is essentially unheard of in the stretched canvas market.
Canson XL Series Oil and Acrylic Paper Pad
For beginning oil and acrylic artists, canvas paper is especially helpful. You won’t mind throwing away those early artistic endeavors that don’t quite measure up to masterpieces because it’s reasonably priced. You may use it to draw scenes outside because it’s portable (but you can use it for other locales, too).
In order to prevent water or paint from ruining other pages in the pack or the surface you are painting on, this pack from Hanson is developed for oil and acrylic paints and is engineered to be bleed-proof. With 24 sheets, painters may start creating straight away because priming is not necessary.
US Art Supply Black Stretched Canvas
This canvas is designed particularly for people who want to paint against a completely dark background but yet want to have a great painting experience. This canvas, however somewhat off-center, offers a good acrylic painting and other painting mediums experience. Don’t let the fact that it is composed of black cloth fool you; it can more than hold its own amid the sea of canvases out there.
This canvas is fantastic for painting celestial night scapes, planets, or cosmic vistas. But since this canvas has a superb overall performance, a triple-primed satin-smooth surface, and comes with responsibly sourced wood, the world is your oyster. In comparison to other canvases on the market, the canvas is also not that expensive.
Despite being triple-primed, we advise students to also take this into account due to its low cost and outstanding performance. It has a surface profile of about 3/4″ and was primed with high-quality, acid-free gesso. It weights around 7 ounces when not triple-primed and 12 ounces when it is.
The canvas is only stapled along the back; there are none on the borders. Since the canvas has no paint on the reverse side, it is not dyed black but rather is sent already painted. Overall, this is a perfectly fine canvas to paint on using acrylic paints, with the exception of a few concerns with the tightness of the canvas.
Conda Artist Stretched Canvas
These Conda stretched canvases are ideal for novices who want to experiment with acrylic paint on a different surface without spending a fortune. It really doesn’t get much cheaper than this in the stretched canvas market, at just over $1.50 per surface.
The most astounding aspect of these stretched canvases, however, is not their cost. Additionally, these canvases have been triple primed—you read that correctly—to give your brush much more bite to work with. Conda features wooden wedges to further alter the surface tension, precisely as the Darice Stretched Canvas.
You may still apply your own layer of gesso to the canvas surface before painting to smooth it out, even if some painters found the texture of the canvas surface to be a little too rough and difficult to draw straight lines on.
These are ideal for artists of all ages who are exploring acrylic painting for the first time, notwithstanding certain quality difficulties (mostly related to shipping mismanagement) that have been recorded.
Creative Mark – Stretched Canvas
The Creative Mark is the excellent intermediate-level canvas with the ideal balance of features and affordability to make it fantastic for frequent painting. It is the golden mean of the canvases now available. The Creative Mark includes a triple primed linen surface in addition to precisely polished corners.
This specific stretched canvas has neatly folded corners so you may display it both ways, depending on your preference: without a frame and with a frame. These canvases are ideal for presenting frameless artwork as well as works in oils, water-mixable oils, alkyds, acrylics, and mixed media. Additionally, you have a choice of 1.5″ or 2.5″ width.
The Creative Mark canvas weighs around 8 oz without priming, but after priming is complete, it increases to a reliable 14 oz. Although it is triple primed when it is delivered, you should probably add one or two more layers of gesso before beginning to work on the canvas. If desired, painting all the way to the canvas’ edge is made considerably simpler by the canvas’ neatly completed corners.
Apart from the best canvases, which ship for more than $50 a unit, the priming is very nice compared to what else is on the market. This makes it something you can brag about. As a result, you shouldn’t have any trouble painting on this canvas because it offers a great value and checks all the appropriate boxes. It is available in a range of sizes as well.
Winsor & Newton Classic Cotton Deep Edge Canvas
The depth of the edge, which can be either regular (conventional profile) or deep edge, is another factor to take into account when purchasing a canvas (deep profile). There is no established measurement for them, but as a general rule, the narrower the edge is, the cheaper the canvas.
If you wish to continue painting the canvas along the edges or never frame a canvas, having deep borders makes the artwork stand out further from the wall. Additionally, because the stretchers are sturdier, a bigger size canvas may be used without a cross-brace to avoid warping. Hand stretching is used to provide the optimum tension and contoured corners in Winsor & Newton canvases. Additionally, this model comes with wooden keys for optional additional stretching.
