TEXTILE FABRICS consist of threads that are interlaced at right angles and which are termed respectively the warp and the woof.
In the case of the ordinary linen fabric most commonly used for artist’s canvas, the threads are woven so that they cross one another alternately at right angles. This method of weaving produces the tightest canvas.
TEXTILE FABRICS consist of threads that are interlaced at right angles and which are termed respectively the warp and the woof.
In the case of the ordinary linen fabric most commonly used for artist’s canvas, the threads are woven so that they cross one another alternately at right angles. This method of weaving produces the tightest canvas.
Hemp fiber is from about one to two meters long, and hence produces fabrics that are even and strong and specially adapted for larger canvases. The large easel paintings of the Venetian school, those by Tintoretto, Veronese, and others, are painted on coarse hemp canvas often woven with a twill or herring-bone pattern.
Flax produces a finer fabric, and is the material chiefly used for artist’s canvas.
Cotton is suitable only for smaller canvases of not more than a meter square and must be closely woven, when, however, it serves its purpose very well.
Jute, Bengal hemp, concerns us only as it is used unbleached for coarse, inferior fabrics (sackcloth); it is also used, however, as the warp in cotton and linen fabrics. Jute turns brown when exposed to the air or dampness. The greater its luster or sheen, the better it is.
When held against the light, linen shows threads of unequal strength; cotton, on the other hand, threads of equal strength and regularity. Caustic soda colors a linen canvas a brownish yellow, but cotton only a light yellow. If one snaps a single thread of cotton fabric, the ends will curl and split, whereas a linen thread will remain smooth. Most commonly by far are natural, unbleached fabrics used for painting purposes; but bleached white linen or cotton also provides a good painting surface, whose brightness gives the picture from the outset an added effect of clearness and luminosity.
Canvases are usually dressed, that is, impregnated with some substance, such as a paste made of starch, which gives them a heavier, stronger, and smoother appearance. In addition, they are often weighted with successive coatings of some mineral substance, such as clay, to simulate a still heavier quality.
In order to make the rough fibers of cheaper yarns smoother and easier to spin, it was formerly the custom to grease them with seal oil. Such canvases always turned dark, since the oil never dries. Fabrics treated in this way are also difficult to moisten; they absorb water unevenly and turn very dark when wet. Fabrics whose surfaces, when held against the light, show hair or down are not suitable for sizing, because experience has shown that..