Painters can purchase raw or prepared canvases.
Canvas texture is an essential part of painting techniques. Whatever the medium -- acrylic or watercolor, for example -- the type of canvas you choose determines how your paint is applied and how it adheres. Employing various painting techniques is a critical step in completing a successful piece of visual art.
Raw
Raw canvases lack the surface preparation of prepared canvases. Manufacturers who prepare canvases often add a glossy varnish or matte gel to prime the surface prior to putting them on the market. A raw, cotton or linen canvas, for example, provides a thin and even "portrait quality" surface, while jute canvas is often uneven and textural in its surface quality.
Prepared
Preparing with various additives boosts the surface tooth quality of a raw canvas. Adding a liquid ceramic stucco or resin, for example, enhances the hardness of the surface. Absorption rates also diminish with the aforementioned methods of preparation, allowing an artist to successfully apply multiple layers of paint. Hard surface boards are also ideal for holding a thick picture surface.
Paints
Different types of paints are useful for alternate painting thicknesses. Acrylic gesso paint, for example, is ideal for painting thin surfaces. Adding a paint thinner to gesso reduces the thickness of the paint even more. Flat and smooth airbrush painting is well suited for an eggshell canvas surface. Applying multiple layers of oil paint to a durable cotton duck canvas, on the other hand, adds to the thickness of the picture.
Impasto
Impasto is a specific style of painting aimed at making the surface texture ultra-thick. A single wet layer of oil or acrylic paint is added to a canvas, followed by countless layers on top of each subsequent dry layer of paint. The height field is thus increased and the density of the picture itself is enhanced. Vincent Van Gogh is well known for his embrace of the impasto technique.
