Can You Use Calligraphy Pens On A Canvas

Under: Frequently Asked Questions/By: Ximena

So you want to use your calligraphy pens on a canvas, can you even do that? Maby you are just wanting to create some awesome quote posters, and are just wanting to use a canvas?

In this tutorial, I am going to be answering all of your questions on using calligraphy pens on a canvas.

Here is the short and quick answer to your question:

You can not use a dip pen or brush pen to be able to do calligraphy on a canvas. A dip pen I have found can get caught up in the cotton, while the brush pen needs a smooth surface to write on. But there are some other ways to do hand lettering on a canvas.

Sadly as you can tell you can’t use your “normal” calligraphy supplies when wanting to letter on a canvas, but that is why I am here.

Now let us go through what information I am going to be giving you in this article today:

Why You Can’t Use A Dip Pen Or Brush Pen For Calligraphy
Other Supplies Used For Canvas
Small Tutorial On How To Do It

Why You Can’t Use A Calligraphy Pen on A Canvas

So why in the world can you not do this?

A brush pen always needs a smooth surface to work on. This means it is always important to practice with smooth paper for brush lettering. As you can teel a canvas is not at all smooth.

This can then lead for your brush pens to fray, which is something that I talked about in this article, if you are wanting to learn more.

Another thing to consider is that the brush pens won’t go down smoothly since a canvas is really textured, lead for it to look “crumbly”.

While with a dip pen you will find that it will keep getting stuck onto all of the different fibers while you are trying to write. Some other problem you will encounter (depends on the type of canvas) is that the ink can start being soaked up by the cotton.

Last but not least, a lot of times canvas are “bouncy” which can make it hard for you to be able to control your brush pen or dip pen. If you are still wanting to try to use a calligraphy pen on canvas, go with a flat canvas instead.

Other Supplies That You Can Use For Canvas

Now let me go over what you can use on a canvas for doing lettering.

One of the easiest materials are…

PAINT PENS OR PAINT MARKERS

This is a great tool that makes it very easy to simply write onto your canvas, without ruining the marker.

Unfortunately, there are no paint pens that are flexible tools so you won’t be able to do your brush lettering or pointed pen calligraphy. But what you can do is the faux calligraphy technique.

This is an amazing tool to also be able to draw on glass, mirrors, or other “weird” surfaces that your brush pens do not work on.

ACRYLIC PAINT

I have actually done a full tutorial on how exactly to use acrylic paint for your lettering, which you can check out here.

Acrylic paint is a great cheaper alternative than buying paint pens. You can simply use paint that you find at a dollar store or any craft paint.

Of course, there is a learning curve to learning how to use acrylic paint for calligraphy since this might be a new medium for you.

But don’t get discouraged. Acrylic paint is a fun way to be able to customize a whole load of other things, without using a marker.

WATERCOLOR

Another awesome medium is watercolor. Watercolor is such a fun medium that you can find at any craft store.

The fun thing with watercolor is you can easily mix colors, create lots of different effects, etc.

If you are wanting to learn how to do this check out my tutorial here.

How You Can Do It

I have explained above that you can easily do the faux calligraphy technique to be able to do calligraphy on canvas.

If you are interested in learning how to do this check out some of my tutorials that I created for beginners:

Tutorial For Doing Calligraphy On Canvas

It gives you a guide for choosing the best materials and exactly how to use them.

Final Thoughts

As you can tell you can totally still do calligraphy on a canvas, but just without your brush pens and dip pens.

You have a variety of other mediums to choose from. If you are wanting to get into doing this you can check out the links in the section above.

I hope this was a helpful article and if you have any more concerns feel free to comment on your questions and ideas.

Can You Use Calligraphy Pens On A Canvas