DIY Canvas Art: This was an early one I finished, testing some canvas painting techniques. Sorry the photo quality isn't great.
This is done with a method I've heard referred to as "pvpp" or paint, vinyl, paint, peel. I'll explain how I did it -- because there are some intentional tricks I use to get this to work better and prevent bleeding.
The concept is simple, but a little boggling until you do it a few times. I still have to really visualize how to get these things completed before I start even designing the canvas.
What is important to keep in mind is the basic difference between a stencil and a mask. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably - but they are different. A stencil is a material that has space removed to reveal the design, and the stencil is placed onto another material with the goal of putting paint (spray, sponge, etc.) in the negative area of the stencil. When the stencil is removed, the paint will only be in the negative space, thus creating a painted design. A mask is, in some ways, a reverse to a stencil. A mask is a material that makes up a design and is placed over existing painted material to protect it, then new paint goes over the project including the mask. The mask, when removed, reveals the protected area of original paint making up the design.
This canvas was created using a mask. The canvas is 12x12 stretched on a frame. I designed the birds and words "sure do" in the SIL and cut it out of inexpensive adhesive vinyl material - some awful wood colored ConTact paper. I weeded out the space that wasn't birds, lines and letters (so a lot of waste, which is why I use cheap ConTact paper). I then covered the image with transfer material. Here, I wanted blue birds and letters, so I painted the canvas in the blue color (a few coats). After it dried fully, I worked on lining up and transferring the vinyl design. This took a lot of effort and patience for two reasons - first, it needed to be straight and centered. To help with this, I added dots to the design before cutting by using the SIL software. The dots were placed in the true center of all 4 sides and one in the direct middle of the project. Mercifully none of the dots interfered with the design. Using those guides, I measured out the center of the canvas and the center of all 4 12" sides and tried like heck to line everything up. I kept measurements on blue painters tape affixed to the canvas so I didn't have to worry about covering up marks later. Once I had it lined up, I used painters tape to tape one strip across the entire vinyl project (underside, vinyl & transfer tape) so I didn't risk it shifting while removing the underside. I then used a hinge method - pulling up one side of the taped area - to cut away the underside (which would reveal the sticky vinyl and transfer tape). Then I smoothed that area out and removed the painters tape and took off the underside of the other portion.
At this point there is a fundamental problem that vinyl doesn't like surfaces that aren't smooth. Canvas fits that category. Plus, a stretched canvas has an open back. In order to remove the transfer tape, I had to burnish the heck out of the project. This took some time and patience. I burnished everything from the back, vigorously, using the SIL scraper. I also heated it from the back with a heat gun - having read somewhere that it helps. I burnished from the front as well, placing a hardback book under the canvas. Slowly I was able to remove the transfer tape, leaving the bird design on the canvas, 100% bubble free. I frequently used an x-acto knife to take off pieces of transfer tape that I had already successfully peeled up, so as to avoid those pieces becoming a sticky nuisance.
** A few notes here - the heating does work to some degree. Also, I've tried putting down a very thin coat of modge podge and that helps smooth out the surface as well, but it is essential to get the modge podge done in a way and finish that is desired, because the mask is covering the "final" painted portion. Truthfully, most people don't use canvas because the vinyl is just finicky on that surface.
All downhill after that step!! The next step is that I paint over the entire canvas evenly with modge podge (matte, usually). For some reason, this helps seal the mask so paint won't creep under it during the final steps. ** NOTE: This has to dry COMPLETELY before moving ahead.
I then painted several coats of the off-white color. I realize in hindsight that a mask method works much better if the light color is the design, covered by a darker color. The reverse means 4 coats of off-white. I'm kind of a dummy. My DH spotted the problem instantly as I was happily mixing and painting the blue color.
After the whole shebang was nice and dry, I used a craft tweezers to pull up the deisgn. In an earlier project I used my vinyl hook - but actually poked through the canvas in a few places (d'oh!). My craft tweezers is sharp enough on the ends to get under the vinyl (that is now covered in several layers of modge and paint). Normally no further action is required other than just peeling up the vinyl. However, it helps to have an x-acto on hand in case the paint looks like it wants to come up too. **This rarely happens - although it definitely did when I thought it would be cute to modge podge over the final coat of paint (rather than wait for the vinyl to come up then modge podge).** I didn't have to touch up anything because no white paint got under the vinyl.
So there it is - a great, custom piece of artwork for my grandma. She LOVED it so very much.
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