
If you want to do little touch-ups here and there on a varnished painting, then yes, painting over varnished canvas is fine – in moderation. Can you paint over a varnished acrylic painting? So, in the event you add too many layers, simply follow the steps outlined in method 2 above. But, you’ll know you’ve reached your limited when your paint begins to peel off the canvas, has way too much texture to sand away, or doesn’t glide the way you’d like. With all things in art, I would recommend you go by feel. In all honesty, you can probably do quite a bit of layers of paint on top of your canvas – hell, I’ve seen some paintings with 8-10 layers of paint and be just fine. How many times can you paint over a canvas? This may not be a huge deal for some artists, especially if you intend to paint on top of that surface once again however, if you really are looking for a pure white background, you may need to add a few layers of white gesso on top of your freshly cleaned canvas before working on it. However, if your canvas was originally untreated/unprimed, you might end up with a non-white working surface.

With this process, if you were working with a pre-gessoed canvas, you’ll probably end up with an almost white canvas after step 2. Keep repeating this process until no more paint comes up with the cloth.Īs an added note, you can also choose to use dedicated paint strippers like 2 Minute Remover or Citristrip, which can work just as well in removing layers of paint and varnish. Step 3: If you really want to clean off any paint that may have soaked through the canvas fibers, simply place a clean cloth dipped in turpentine or rubbing alcohol over the desired area and let sit until the cleaning solution has dried. Remove as much as you can with your knife and in the event you uncover more layers of dry paint, simply re-soak your canvas for another hour and repeat. Step 2: Remove the canvas from the solution and using a putty knife scrape away any remaining paint from the surface. If you still feel bumps, you might want to keep on sanding for a little while more! To test for bumps, be sure to feel the surface with your fingers. This is especially important if you want to avoid any bumps or weird protuberances while you are painting. The first step here is to sand down the entire surface with a sand block to ensure a smooth canvas surface.

I only recommend products I think will be helpful to you and bring you one step closer to creating beautiful acrylic masterpieces! Method 1: Reuse old canvas with a sander and gesso Watch the video below or continue reading to dive a little deeper into these two methods.ĭisclaimer: some links used in this post are affiliate links, which means I will earn a small commission if you purchase using my provided links at no extra cost to you. Removing paint layers with cleaning agents.

It happens to the best of us.Īnd, being the clever saver of resources, I found two ways to reuse any old painting, from previous failed paintings or paintings I bought from thrift stores and transform them back into bright, white canvases to use again, which include: Ever had an unfortunate incident where your painting is all “jacked up” and you just need to start all over again, but don’t have extra canvas lying around? Or perhaps there is just one area of your painting that looks -er- not quite right and needs to be completely redone.Īs much as we hate to admit it, a botched painting is totally normal.
