Vicki asked earlier this month if the designers actually painted the canvases they sold.
It’s a good question. Although there are designers who paint their own and custom canvases are painted by the artist, most canvases you buy in shops are not painted by the designer. It is the designer’s own design, but after painting the master (and sometimes a few more for models and shows) the canvases are painted by copy painters.
These people have two important skills needed for reproducing the artist’s work. First, they can paint on canvas. This isn’t easy to do and the result needs to be appealing enough for you to buy it. Second, they can accurately reproduce the piece from the master.
I’ve tried this and I’d almost rather have my fingernails pulled out. It’s hard, nit-picky work.
Some designers hire their own copypainters (some of whom become designers in their own right) and some work through services who might do work for several designers.
Once the copies are painted, they are sent to the designer who checks and approves them. In turn they are sold to shops and then to you.
The time and resource intensive nature of painting canvas contributes to the cost. Painting canvas is rough on brushes and uses lots of paint. The work needs to be done accurately which is also hard. The skills are specialized and not easy to find. Artists can be trained to do this, but not every artist likes this kind of work.
While hand-painted canvas needlepoint is never cheap, there are some rough guidelines. A stitch-painted canvas is more expensive than one that isn’t because painting each intersection takes more time. A large canvas is more expensive than a small one because it takes more time to paint. A more detailed canvas is more expensive because, you guessed it, it takes longer to paint.
This holds true within a single designer’s line and, in general, across designers.
Yes, hand-painted canvases can be expensive, but they are produced by hand every one of them.
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
Hi, Janet. What we mostly get here in South Africa, unless we order from the UK or USA at hideous expense, is those French painted canvases, with designs I wouldn’t touch! Some of them are actually pornographic, and I’m no prude.
So I often wonder about the possibility of just painting the outline and a few important design lines instead of every single little intersection. Does it ever happen in practice? Seems like a good way to save paint, avoid boredom for the painters and speed up the process. And even bring the price down!
Perhaps the snag is that then people couldn’t use openwork stitches which allow the background colour to show through? (But I don’t do that, partly because I mostly end up changing the colours anyway!)
Thanks for the article. Sometimes people don’t understand the time it takes to produce a good handpainted canvas – you’ve done a great job of explaining the process!
Hi Janet,
I’ve mention this before…..so many “how to” programs on television. You are so knowledgeable in the art of Needlepoint, why am I not seeing you on the screen?? So many manfactureres out there, both in threads and canvasses, certainly sponspers should not be a problem. Of all the newsletters I get, I read yours with such enthusiasm and learn so much….but, a picture is worth a thousand words. Let’s get you on the ‘tube’. Thanks for all your hard work!
Judie
Judie —
Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it. But TV is almost certainly too much work (and way too expensive) for me. There have been a couple of attempts at needlework on TV, most recently Shay Pendray’s series that ran for several seasons on PBS. While the show was excellent, I think it had mixed success in the market.
But I do think about video and maybe doing YouTube tutorials. But I am an idiot when it comes to that kind of technology, so I’m going to wait until me son (who’s in film school) figures it all out and can walk me through it.
Keep Stitching,
Janet
As a professional handpainter of original canvases I am so glad you have pointed out how time consuming etc they are to do!!!!
18 count canvases are definately not for the faint hearted lol
I appreciate this post. I have been trying to help my husband understand and hoping your post helps.
It has taken a while, but I have finally learned how to do this art and I appreciate it more now than I did.
Ren