Successfully stretching pre-primed linen.

[Garth Herrick]

As tacks are added out every inch and a quarter, or so, the linen begins to feel tight as a drum, and any incidental ripples and dents, magically fade away. Yes, I did make those little pucker impressions with my knees as I cut the canvas. I should have been more careful. As you can see though, with each added rank of tacks, these impressions fade away into eventual oblivion with the increasingly even drum-like tensioning.

Upon arriving to the corners, the last two tacks to each corner need to be off-set, due the the miter-lapping of the corner joints. Looking from the face of the canvas, to the corner at the right, place the tacks closer to the face. Conversely, to the corner on the left, place the off-set tacks closer to the back edge.

Pull out those corner temporary tacks very carefully, as needed, because it is time to fold those hospital corners, and correct the corner tensions. Always fold over onto the same side of the corners, due to the mite-lapping of the joints. Fold to the side to your left, with the tacks to be off-set to the back edge. The pictures should explain this.

[Garth Herrick]

Now we are finishing up. The canvas should be flawlessly stretched. One can just about begin painting now! The canvas is evenly primed and just beckoning for some first brushstrokes.

A final step is to remove those temporarary screws, and lightly tack down those remaining canvas overhangs around the back side for the sake of neatness.

Okay we're done. Let's paint!

Hope this has been useful; REMEMBER, wash your hands now!

Garth

[Michele Rushworth]

Thanks for posting this -- and I can say from experience that Garth's tip about tacking the corners down right from the start does help eliminate those pesky ripples, especially along the long edges.