Stretched means the canvas is already pulled taut over a wooden frame and ready to paint on. Rolled means it arrives flat in a tube and is stretched or framed afterwards, by you. That is the whole distinction, and it decides both how the kit feels to work on and what happens when you finish.
The two formats
Stretched and framed. The canvas is mounted on a wooden frame before it ships. It is rigid while you paint, it stands up on a table, and it hangs on a wall the day the paint is dry. Our framed kits also include a small tabletop easel.
Rolled and unframed. The canvas ships flat, rolled inside a tube. It is lighter and cheaper to post, and it needs mounting after you have painted it.
Rolled, not folded — and why it matters
The single most praised thing about our kits, in our customers' own words, is that the canvas arrives without creases. That is because it is rolled in a tube rather than folded into a flat envelope.
A folded canvas carries crease lines through the image that never fully flatten out. It is the most common complaint in this whole product category, and buyers compare it directly — several of ours mention having bought a kit elsewhere for a relative that arrived with lines through it. There is more on the format in our note on the rolled canvas.
Working on a rolled canvas
Unroll it and leave it flat under something heavy for a day before you start. It will relax on its own; do not iron it and do not try to flatten it with heat.
Tape the corners down to a board, or clip it to one. Painting on a canvas that shifts under the brush is the fastest route to a wobbly edge. A board slightly larger than the canvas is ideal, so nothing overhangs.
One thing to know before choosing unframed
The unframed canvas is cut close to the printed image. That is fine for putting it in a picture frame afterwards, and it is tight for stretching over wooden bars, because stretching needs a margin to wrap around the sides and staple at the back.
stretching frames and stretcher bars explains what that wooden skeleton is and how the sizes are actually named.
If you know you want it on a wall with no further work, buy the framed version. If you already have a frame in mind, or you want to choose the frame yourself, unframed is the better value. Our guide to framing a finished canvas covers the practical options, including the mounting board route that avoids the margin problem entirely.
What is in either kit
Pre-primed cotton canvas with the design printed on it, acrylic paints supplied vacuum-sealed so they arrive wet rather than half dried out, brushes in a range of sizes, and an 11x17 reference print showing the finished image at a size you can actually read.
Worth adding yourself: a lamp on the opposite side to your painting hand, two jars of water rather than one, and something to rest your wrist on so skin oil does not get onto unpainted canvas.
How the painting goes
Top to bottom so your hand never lands on wet paint. One color at a time, which saves a great deal of rinsing. Darks early, since straying into an area that will later be dark does not show. Two thin coats on the pale colors, because light paints are the least opaque and one heavy coat leaves the printed number visible through the middle.
Ten to twenty hours over a few weeks is normal for a standard canvas. Short sessions produce better edges than long ones.
Which to buy
Framed if it is a gift, if it is going on a wall, or if this is a first canvas. Unframed if you want the larger picture for less, you are comfortable framing it afterwards, or you have a specific frame in mind.
Both formats carry the same artwork and the same paints. The full catalog shows the options on every design, and the beginner guide covers the first evening honestly, including the parts that are fiddly.
