How to Paint a Needlepoint Canvas

Today’s guest post is an article from Brenda Stimpson of Needlepoint for Fun. It helps you paint a canvas for your own use simply and easily.

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Needlepoint canvas painting might require a little practice before you get perfect results, but it’s easy to learn. There are thousands of needlepoint designs out there but sometimes you might want to create your own. You have two options. You can get a design affordably custom-printed, or you can paint a design on to blank needlepoint canvas.

Needlepoint Canvas Painting Tools

Blank needlepoint canvas: Choose a needlepoint canvas that is right for the size and detail of the design you are transferring. [Needlepoint for Fun carries blank needlepoint canvas.]

Waterproof, non alcohol based, permanent marker pens: e.g. Fabric pens, Fabricmate Dye Pens; Pigma Microns.

Paints: An acrylic artist paint from your local craft store does the trick. Delta is a good brand that is widely available. Try to avoid buying the cheapest paints you can find as they may lack adequate pigmentation to cover the canvas well.

Paint brushes: You will probably need a few different sizes. Perhaps a small pointed brush for fine detail areas, and a flat tipped brush for larger areas and straight lines. Experience and personal preference will guide you here. The brushes do not want to be soft and feathery for needlepoint canvas painting. As a general rule, a firm, acrylic brush allows for more precise paint application.

White paper: This is to lay your needlepoint canvas on so it is easier to see what you are painting.

Tape

A straw

Water: For rinsing brushes

Needlepoint Canvas Painting Instructions

Cut the needlepoint canvas 2 inches larger all the way around than the design you plan to create.

Lay the canvas onto the white paper. This makes it easier to see the design as you paint.

Tape the canvas down so it doesn’t move.

Sketch the outline of a design onto your needlepoint canvas using a waterproof marker. Try to match the marker color to the color you plan to stitch in. Or use a pale gray marker. You can also trace a painting or drawing onto the canvas.

Tracing over a design is a good way to transfer it to needlepoint canvas.

Now you are going to color in the design using the paint colors you have selected. As you paint, you need to think like a stitcher. Each cross-thread, or intersection, in the needlepoint canvas mesh is a stitch and so each cross-thread must be designated a specific color. This is so that the guess-work is taken out of the equation for the stitcher. You are “stitch painting” not just slapping on color willy-nilly. This makes the process a little slower as you think what color each stitch should be and paint the cross-threads on the canvas mesh accordingly.

Tips to Paint a Needlepoint Canvas

As you paint, the canvas holes can get clogged with paint. Use the straw to “blow out” the holes periodically.

You may need to go back over some colors or touch up the details at the end. The paint dries very quickly and so in no time at all you will have your own needlepoint canvas painting.

If you want to paint letters onto a canvas the easiest way is to use a Word processing program and choose a font that you like. Create the writing using Word and enlarge it to the size you want. Print it out and trace it on to the canvas.

Use a Word doc to create a font and lay-out, and then trace it onto the canvas before painting it.

Contact them to ask questions.