Repair a Tear in Stretched Canvas

A tear can come in all shapes and sizes. Identify your tear and obtain a spare sheet, roll, or square of canvas to fully cover the torn area.

I purchased a small pre-stretchered square of canvas large enough to cover the entire tear. Remove as much of the canvas from the frame as you can.

Once you have your square of canvas, ensure the size is correct for the tear you are repairing. Round the edges off with your scissors. This will create an evenly balanced edge which will remove unwanted corners and points that can arise after the gluing process.

Apply your glue to the white side of the repair piece of canvas and follow up with the cardboard square to spread the glue around on the canvas. An even layer of glue is preferred and should cover the entire piece of canvas.

Proceed by firmly pressing the repair piece of canvas into the canvas like you would a puzzle piece into a puzzle, not pulling in any direction but pushing down. Follow by placing a weight or book on top of the patch and let dry for 1 hour.

Once the glue has dried, assess the patch job. You will notice that the tear has almost disappeared but their is still the matter of the cut in the canvas.

Evenly spread the texture paste in, over, and around the cut. The smoother you can make the edges of your paste, the easier it will be to clean up later. The paste usually takes about an hour or two to dry fully. The goal here is to fully mask the cut with paste.

Once the paste has dried fully, grab your sand paper and begin to carefully smooth out any bumps or edges you can feel.

After the sanding process is finished, we apply a final layer of Acrylic Gesso. You can apply it with a small or medium brush. Let it dry for 1 hour.

After your Acrylic Gesso has dried, you are done! Congratulations! Your canvas should be repaired and fully usable for your painting needs. I hope this tutorial was helpful and informative.