Making Custom Canvas Panels

How-Tos from The Artist's Road

Factory-made painting panels have come a long way over the years, to the point that we use them whenever we can, especially for plein air work. However, there can be situations where we need an odd size not readily available, or we need a larger panel that we do not have in the studios. For those times, we stock a few 24 x 36” birch painting panels which we can custom cut to fit the moment. Since neither of us prefer to paint on as smooth of a surface as birch or masonite, we’ve learned to glue down lightweight canvas or linen to create a better painting surface, and then prime that surface to suit our needs. The process isn’t difficult. Anyone can make their own custom panels. Here’s how we go about this:

Step One: Cut a painting board to size. Masonite is pretty useful for this if it has been sealed first, and the painting is rather small. Beyond 12 x 16”, we prefer the stability of a birch painting board, which is made from several laminated plies and therefore won’t warp after the …