How to Create Structure With Gesso on Canvas

Art is an odd thing. It can take a while – years even – to find art that speaks to you. I fell in love with textured abstract art after seeing it on Pinterest, but it never occurred to me until recently that I could achieve the same look without the hefty price tag of buying original textured art.

white-textured-canvas-art

This textured canvas is beautiful, but goes for nearly $600

After doing some research, I stumbled upon Gesso art which is what some artists use to create the textured canvas look, and eventually found that using drywall mud/spackle could create a similar look. I knew I wanted to try out the drywall mud thing, but quite frankly, I was feeling lazy about figuring out how to frame a canvas.

….Until I stumbled upon Miracle on Thirty Fourth's IG stories a few weeks ago. She had the idea to go to Home Goods/TJMaxx and buy a framed canvas and paint over that. BRILLIANT. I considered going to a thrift store, but figured it would be easier to just go to Home Goods since their canvases are relatively cheap.

So I went to Home Goods and found this simple gold framed canvas for only $24.99!

gold-framed-canvas

Here's everything you'll need to create textured canvas art (pssst – you may even already have some of these items in your home):

Drywall mud – a smaller tub is fine, which is less than $4 at Home Depot/Lowe's.
A framed canvas – Try your local thrift store or the clearance section at HG/TJMaxx/Marshalls, as most of their art is relatively inexpensive. The canvas I used was 26″x26″ and $24.99.
Drywall taping knife to apply the mud to the canvas. Mine was about $3.50
Palette knife set for spreading the drywall around the canvas to create the texture you want. I bought plastic ones in the fine art section at JoAnn for less than $5
Painter's tape to cover the edges of the frame. Usually around $6 per roll.
Paint brush – I use Wooster paint brushes, and the one I used for this project was $7.89
Paint color of choice to use over the drywall texture. Because you're using drywall mud, you can get away with chalk paint, acrylic or latex paint. Even a sample size or two of a color could work, because this really doesn't require that much paint! With a coupon, I paid $4.78 for this paint from JoAnn.

Total cost for this project: $57

Step 1:

Once you have all the materials, lay your canvas on a protective flat surface and tape the edges of the frame. You don't want to get paint or drywall mud on the frame or on your floor/table.

Step 2:

Using your drywall taping knife, start applying the drywall mud to the canvas in a thin layer and spread evenly to ensure the canvas (the original art) is completely covered. DON'T make the same mistake that I did and spread too much on at one time. This will cause the canvas to crack while it dries, which mine did. But now I know for next time 🙂

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Step 3:

Once the entire canvas is covered in a layer of drywall mud, use the knife to make whatever texture design you want. This took me about 30 minutes to do and I used this video to guide my palette knife motions until I was happy with the canvas texture. I also took a step back and made sure that it looked good from afar too.

There's a limited amount of time you can play around with the drywall until it starts to cure, so keep that in mind when planning the time it will take for you to complete this step.

I just want to say that I am not an artist. In fact, I've always sucked at creating "art." But I just need to say that this was NOT hard at all! If I can do it, anyone can.

Anyway, here's what my canvas looked like after using different palette knifes to create texture:

diy-how-to-create-textured-canvas-art

Step 4:

Once it dries completely (usually after ~24 hours), grab your paint color of choice (I used this one from JoAnn) and just start painting the canvas with your paint brush. Mine took about 1 hour to dry and I didn't need a second coat.

Simple as that!

And the final product (which I have yet to figure out where to hang in our home):