Today's Painting and a Tip

Today's painting is a totally personal one. I wanted to capture my dog, Batty. Yes, that's her name and she lives up to it. Even though she's a girl, I named her after the character in Fern Gully (Robin Williams voice) and perhaps I should have taken that character's mental abilities and personality into consideration before bestowing the name on my puppy, dogs like people tend to live up to their names. But I loved the character and it's crazy personality, so I guess I got what I asked for. We love this little nut-case. She's a 5-year-old papillon who has captured our hearts as well.This is a 9x6 acrylic on canvas paper.

The tip I promised in the title is always be careful to avoid damaging canvas' that are either completed and being stored or new and waiting to be worked on. It doesn't take much to damage them. Storing a canvas on it's ends can lead to warping over time, so if you have to store a painting or a new canvas for any longer than a few weeks, I suggest laying it flat on a shelf. Make sure to separate completed canvas with paint on them with a sheet of heavy duty plastic (can be found in paint stores and hardware stores, although garbage bags work okay too), to keep the paint from sticking to another canvas.

Another important thing to watch out for is pressure from something else when stored. I had a canvas standing behind my computer desk. It was only going to be there for a couple days until I used it, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I moved the desk a little bit a couple of times, I didn't think I had hit the canvas, but I did enough to cause dimpling.

This kind of damage may not make a difference as a practice canvas, but it isn't suitable to use for paintings to be sold.