Last week a reader asked me for tips about painting a needlepoint canvas. While this isn’t my best things, I have done it and I’ve learned from some of the best. Here, in no particular order are my tips:
- Use acrylic paints. The come in all kinds of prices and, in general, the higher the price the more pigment in the paint. But for learning I’d go with the cheap craft paints.Don’t use oil paints, they take too long to dry.
- Don’t use expensive brushes. Needlepoint canvas is VERY hard on brushes. It will kill nice ones, so don’t waste your money You can use the really cheap ones in a pinch but they won’t work for fine details because they won’t hold a point.
- Draw the outline of what you will paint on the canvas first, then be sure to cover this outline with paint. Most designers swear by SC-UF pens from Pilot. You can get these in boxes of 12 from Amazon.
- Put a bit of paint on a palette or plate. It should be watered down to the consistency of cream. Bu only use a bit of your paint and make your brush almost dry to paint the canvas. Doing this keeps the paint from spreading and doesn’t clog the holes.
- If holes are clogged open them by blowing out the paint.Once the paint is dry, you will need to ream out the holes with a needle; this is not as nasty as it sounds.
- On canvas straight lines go on one canvas thread. If they aren’t on one thread, they will not be seen as straight.
- Paint on intersections, not on the thread between.
- If you are stitch painting each intersection must have one and only one color on it.
- Although care in this is far less common these days, strive to keep most of the paint on the front of the canvas.
- It takes practice, but learn to make the coats of paint even and opaque. If you are painting for yourself only, this doesn’t matter but uneven paint on canvases to be sold look amatuerish.
- Use mono canvas for canvases to be sold, not interlock. Interlock canvas is lightweight and does not accept paint as well.
- Let dry before stitching.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Gerry Sawrey says
So glad to have these tips, Janet. I repainted a portion of an ornament and had so much difficulty. Part of the difficulty was my poor artistic skills in general. But, I also found I was slopping all over the place as I was putting too much paint on the brush. It was important to me to get it right as I was repainting a window scene that was to be stitched with only a transparent thread. I ended up repainting the scene at least 6 times before it looked decent. Here are a couple of things that ended up helping me with this particular project:
1. Keep finger nail polish remover and q-tips handy to remove mistakes easily and quickly.
2. Keep a can of sharp toothpicks nearby to push through those holes (can use instead of a needle)
3. Do invest in a paint better than the craft paint. I found the craft paint was quick to flake when dry. Liquitex makes 3 levels of acrylic paint. I invested in what they call their “Basic” and found it easier to manage and it did not flake. You can purchase individual colors or kits. I bought a little kit with 6 basic colors – the basics of Basic.
4. If you have old eyes, use a magnifier on a stand while you paint to make the canvas intersections come into focus.
5. Finally, I ended up investing in a sealant to prevent any flaking down the road. The painting looked fabulous when it dried. You can purchase it in matt or glossy. I was very tempted not to stitch over the windows given the shine the sealant left.
The project is at the finisher now. My biggest take away from this is that painting a canvas is difficult, detailed work. It makes me appreciate the painted canvases I have purchased and better understand why they are so expensive.
Betsy Duggan says
Thank You So Much For All These Fabulous Tips ???
Pandre` says
i tried to copy the above letters on needlepoint tips but i recerived only icons on right of screen very interested have hand painted hundreds of canvas in my day all oil painted and unique designs. how can my printer epson print the above letters thank you,,,,,,,,,,Pandre`
Janet M Perry says
Pandre —
As far as I know, all you need to do to print out a blog posts is to go to the menu bar in your browser. Under file you will find print. Click that and follow the instructions for your browser to print. Printouts from blogs sometimes print oddly with the sidebars appearing before the text. Make sure you allowed the entire post to print. You may have to look through the print out to find the article.
Keep stitching,
Janet