The paint splatter effect is a brilliant way to add detail if you are thinking about painting a night sky as the splatters will resemble far away stars.
How to paint with watercolors on regular canvas
Reader Question: I have some regular stretched canvas used for oils and acrylics. Do I have to do anything to the canvas in order to watercolor on it?
If you want to paint with watercolors on a canvas that would normally be used for oils or acrylics, then you will need to prep it first.
As is, the watercolors would just slide off the canvas because the surface isn’t absorbent enough, so you need to coat the canvas with a product such as Golden Absorbent Ground (this links to Blick Art Materials, and if you make a purchase I get a small commission that helps support this site). Here’s how to do it:
- Gesso your canvas first as normal. Gessoing first is an important step to allow the Golden Absorbent Ground to adhere properly to the canvas. Two coats of gesso are recommended.
- After the gesso has dried, apply a thin layer of Golden Absorbent Ground using a brush or a roller. Thin layers are better than thick ones, because thick layers may crack.
- The more coats you apply, the more absorbent the canvas will become. For the high absorbency needed to accept watercolors, apply 5-6 coats of Golden Absorbent Ground, allowing each coat to fully dry before adding another.
- After the ground has fully dried (give it at least 24 hours), you can now paint with watercolors on your canvas. Cool!
Golden Absorbent Ground will give the canvas a paper-like quality that watercolors can easily stick to. Once applied to the canvas, the watercolors will still remain sensitive to water, so be careful about accidentally spilling or spraying water onto the surface of the canvas.
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When the painting when is finished, seal it with a spray varnish to make the painting waterproof. You may need to do more than one coat to make it fully waterproof.
You can then hang the painting as-is or frame it under glass.
If you like painting with watercolors on canvas, another thing you could try is painting on watercolor canvas, which is a special type of canvas that is made for use with watercolors. You can read a bit more about watercolor canvas here.
Canvas Painting Tips for Beginners
How to start canvas painting is a question asked by many. Luckily, it is simple with little effort required. Before we start on this magical journey of experiencing a new world of creating acrylic art on canvas, there are a few instructions to follow so that once the masterpiece is finished, you are left feeling that you have achieved something brilliant.
This will not only encourage you to keep on trying but you may even find that you could start earning good money by advancing your art skills.
Sketching
Before you learn how to paint on canvas, a good trick is to first sketch the drawing you want to paint. Sketching can be done with a charcoal pencil. Simply start with the basic outline of the picture that you want to paint on your canvas but be careful not to incorporate too much fine detail in your sketch as once you start learning how to paint with canvas, the fine detail will disappear behind the paint. Large outlines of shapes are recommended.
The charcoal pencil is the best implement to use as it will dissolve once the color has been added to the canvas so don’t worry about it showing through the paint.
Mixing Paints
Before you sit down to contemplate the picture you are going to paint, one of the big tips for painting canvas is to get everything ready so that you don’t have to keep on getting up to go and find things around the house. One of the first things to do is to mix the paint colors that you want to use. Starting with the primary colors is always a good idea. Start with red, blue, and yellow. You can add white as well. On a palette place these three colors separately so they don’t touch and mix. Primary colors can be mixed to make additional secondary colors and white can be added to lighten a color if needed.
If you mix a little red with blue, your end color will be purple. If you mix yellow and red, you will land up with an orange color. Blue and yellow will result in green color. Experimenting with different colors on a palette is always a great tip for painting canvas and will open up your world to more colors, especially if you are working on a strict budget and cannot afford to buy more than three of four colors at a time. To mix the colors, you can use a paintbrush or even a palette knife.
Painting the Background
A good canvas painting tip is to first paint the canvas with a background. The background is usually painted with a two-inch brush. The brush is wide and will cover a bigger surface than a smaller brush. Simply dip the brush into water and dab excess water off the brush and then apply the acrylic paint by only dipping the end of the brush into the paint. Just the tip of the brush should touch the paint. Using broad strokes paint left to right over the entire canvas from top to bottom.
This same brush can be used to paint the outlines of the larger details that you wish to see in the painting, for instance, if you want to paint flowers as a background then the petals and other bigger pictures can be painted at this stage. Remember to use solid lines.
Heavy and Fine Lines
An angled paintbrush is a much wider brush than others and tapers off into a fine tip. If you angle the brush towards a wide edge, you will naturally get a wide line, however, if you angle the brush towards the tip, your line will then become very fine.
Smaller Details
A round brush will paint fine lines. When it comes to adding the smaller details to your painting such as the veins in a leaf, a very small round brush would be best to accomplish this. In the art world, the Number Eight Brush is bigger so you will get broader lines and the Number Zero brush is what you will use for the tiny details.
Once you have dipped your brush into water and have dabbed off the excess water, dip the brush tip into the paint and start painting.
Advanced Techniques
Once you have perfected the beginning stages of canvas painting tips, you can safely think of yourself as an advanced artist and we have a few advanced techniques that you can use to make your painting look even more professional.
Dry Brushing
To obtain a feathery look, try dry brushing with your paintbrush. This is a technique that you can use with almost any paintbrush, the only difference is that you will not dip your brush into any water first but rather dip your brush straight into the paint, dab excess paint off onto a cloth, and then run the tip of the brush over the canvas. This will result in a feathery look with no harsh lines that will interfere with your result.
The best tips and tricks to this method are to make sure that your paintbrush is dry and not to get a lot of paint onto the brush. This technique can only be achieved with a wider brush.
Using a Fan Brush
A fan brush will create multiple lines at the same time. When pushing down on the brush, the brush will spread out like a fan which is easier for this brush to create pictures such as palm leaves. The longer side is used to make edges and the fan is to make the thinner lines look a little thicker.
Splatter Paint and Pouring Paint
If the canvas is placed on a floor, right side up and the artist stands over the painting and pours paint directly onto the canvas, you will achieve a painting that will be one of a kind. It is a completely different technique from that of painting. The splatter of paint using a toothbrush also creates a new dimension to a canvas. These two techniques allow you to create a little crazy into your masterpiece.
The paint splatter effect is a brilliant way to add detail if you are thinking about painting a night sky as the splatters will resemble far away stars.
Incorporating these two techniques when you first learn how to paint on canvas is the only time you will mix the paint with water. The paint should be mixed by adding one part of water to two parts of the paint. If you have a cup of water with 5 ml, then simply add 10 ml of paint to that cup of water and stir well before starting on the best tips and tricks that we have just highlighted under this section.
Thick Texture
Using a palette knife instead of a brush will give the painting an almost 3D effect. This technique in the art world is called impasto. The palette knife will allow you to pick up paint and apply it to the canvas creating an unusual texture to your painting.
Creating Textures
There are some pretty interesting things that you can use in your house to incorporate texture into your painting. Sponges give a great background effect to a painting and even scrunched-up paper towels can give a different effect. Remember that acrylic paint is permanent and once dried, it cannot be removed, so if you are going to look for ideas around the house to help you with different techniques.
Make sure that you won’t need to use them afterward as they will have to be thrown away.
Some Tricks and Tips for Painting on Canvas
As you learn how to start canvas painting, there are other handy tips for painting on canvas that does not include specific techniques. Have a look below for some important things to remember.
Acrylic Paint Dries Very Fast
Because acrylic paint dries very fast, this essentially means that you cannot spend a lot of time painting your picture and hence the suggestion earlier on that you first sketch the picture that you have in mind. When you mix colors, this should be done quite fast. The longer you dilly-dally over what colors to mix, the quicker the paint will dry and will not be usable. To slow down the quick drying process one of the best tips and tricks is to place a wet paper towel over the palette and then you can mix your colors on the wet paper towel which also won’t change the consistency of the paint.
A gel medium which is also available at arts and crafts shops can also be added to the paint and this will also help to extend the life of the acrylic paint.
When to Use Water
The best tip and trick we can mention is that water is not needed when painting acrylic art on canvas. The only time to use water is to dip your paintbrush to change colors. Once you have dipped your paintbrush into the water, it should be dabbed off on a cloth or towel to remove any excess water from the brush. If water is used for acrylic art on canvas the water could make your bright colors seem dull and if too much water is on the paintbrush, the water could run down the canvas.
Misting Paint
Instead of adding water to the paint and causing it to become thinner, another tip is to use a spray bottle to lightly spray over the color now and again to stop the paint on your palette from drying out too quickly.
Add a bit of lukewarm water for this process.
Easy Watercolor Canvas Painting Ideas
Watercolor canvases have a slightly different surface than canvases you can use for acrylics and oils. However, they are somewhat finer, primed with the absorbent ground to make it more absorbent. Our tutorial on using watercolors on canvas is a helpful article to check for more in-depth information.
Watercolors are transparent, making them an excellent medium to use if you love subtle layers on your paintings. Here are three outstanding examples of what you can paint on watercolor canvases.
Impressionistic Paintings
An impressionistic watercolor painting of a house – Image by Kalakosh
After adding the outline of the house, the artist added the background and foreground wash to set the tone for his watercolor painting. Since this is an impressionistic style, the artist has a free hand on it.
Impressionistic watercolor paintings are a good jump-off point for beginners since it allows you more freedom to paint what you perceive rather than be hampered with realism.
Abstracts
Abstract watercolor painting of a landscape – Image by The Mind of Watercolor
Abstract painting , like impressionistic paintings, gives you more independence as to what to create. Be sure to understand the five elements of abstract art or any art style – lines, shapes, colors, texture, and space. Play with these elements to create amazing abstract art.
While some paintings are a complete abstraction, giving the audience the freedom to interpret the drawing, some abstracts have some form, such as the landscape painting in this example.
Flowers
A watercolor painting of flowers on canvas – Image by Streams of Dream Design
The artist explored the many watercolor techniques in this painting, mostly adding the details with a mop and cat’s tongue brush and the watercolor wash with a flat brush. Using just five colors, the artist created a lovely watercolor painting on canvas. For more, try our watercolor painting ideas for beginners to find the best artwork to capture your attention for more ideas.
Easy Gouache Canvas Painting Ideas
Gouache paint is an opaque water-based medium that remains water-soluble even when dry. Artists sometimes stay away from this medium since many think it’s a very amateur paint to use. This claim is not valid since many proficient artists like Henri Matisse and Edgar Degas used gouache for their paintings or underpaintings.
Marc Chagall, one of the most prominent glass painting artists , also used gouache underpainting for his paintings and even painted in gouache. He even exhibited gouache paintings in the Louvre. He then donated the paintings to France after the nation agreed to build a museum (Musee National Message Biblique Marc Chagall) in Nice.
However, you may also prime your canvas with gesso before you start gouache painting. Leaving some texture as a too-smooth surface may cause the gouache to bead instead of absorbing into the canvas. Another good thing about gouache is that you can correct it even when it’s dry. Reactivate the pigments with water, then dab a paper towel to pick the pigments.
The secret to good gouache paintings that will last long is sealing them with wax medium . Apply the wax medium in a single direction over the dry gouache painting with a cotton pad. The wax will protect the painting and give it a sheen because gouache paintings dry to a very matte finish.
The Night Sky
Night sky gouache painting on canvas – Image by Sunshine Arts
The night sky is an excellent subject for your gouache paintings. Because of its highly opaque composition, you can easily create a deep black sky that will make your stars shine. You can also use different shades of blue, violet, and green for this painting to achieve a more vivid color contrast with the night sky.
Wildlife
Painting of a penguin – Image by Sandrine’s Gallery
Wildlife and pets make a good subject for gouache paintings. The artist used primed canvas stretched on a wooden board to paint her emperor penguin for this painting. Then, seal the painting with wax medium, so the pigments won’t reactivate when you accidentally drop water into it.
Fruits
A gouache painting of a strawberry – Image by Hyemina
Here is a gouache painting of a strawberry drawn on a mini canvas. These sizes are best for displaying on your bookshelves and bric-a-brac displays. The artists underpainted the whole canvas in light pink, then painted the strawberry before adjusting the values, resulting in a simple yet enticing piece to display.
Easy Oil Canvas Painting Ideas
According to most beginner artists, oil paints are the most intimidating of the painting mediums included here. However, to get used to oil canvas painting, start with less complicated subjects so you can perfect using oil paints before you move to more complex subjects.
Apple
A fundamental oil painting of an apple – Image by Yupari
Every artist starts somewhere, especially when it comes to the more complex oil paints. The ubiquitous apple makes its appearance in this oil painting on canvas, where the artist explains how to create tones and values on your painting. With the right art supplies and tools, you can make lovely oil paintings in no time.
Skyscape
Sunset sky over pine trees – Image by Emily Mackey
Skyscapes are another favorite subject of beginner oil painters because they are easy, and you can paint any sky form – sunrise, sunset, cloudy, even foggy. In this painting, observe how the artist adjusted the tonal values of the sky to create depth and dimension on her painting instead of looking flat.
Flowers
Oil painting of daisies – Image by DrawPsy_Logic
Flowers are the universal subjects that beginners may take on. For this example, the artist painted a cluster of white daisies on a dark green background, making the whites pop out better.
Conclusion
Canvas painting for beginners need not be frustrating. We hope that we addressed some of the concerns you had in the past regarding painting on canvas. Aside from the technique on how to paint on canvas, we also included 12 ideas (three each for acrylic, watercolor, gouache, and oil painting) to try. Have fun painting!
