Hand-painted vs printed canvas: how to tell the difference

How a printed canvas is made to look hand-painted

The method is simple: an image is printed onto canvas, then clear gel or a few strokes of paint are brushed over the top to add texture. It's fast and cheap, and in a photograph it can pass for a painting. Up close, it can't.

Five places to look

1. The edges and sides. A print often shows a sharp, even border or a mirrored image wrapped around the sides. A painting shows brushwork running over the edge.
2. The dark areas. On a print, the texture sits on top of a flat image. On a painting, the dark passages have depth and variation of their own.
3. The brushstrokes. Texture brushed over a print often doesn't follow the image: a stroke crosses a branch or a face as if it weren't there. A painter's strokes follow the forms.
4. Fine detail under magnification. A print breaks down into a regular dot pattern. Paint doesn't.
5. Raking light. Hold a light low and to one side. A painting shows ridges and layers across the whole surface, not just where texture was added.

Can you tell from a photo?

Sometimes. Repeated, mechanical-looking strokes, edges that look too clean and detail that dissolves into dots are warning signs. The surest check is a close-up photo of the surface in raking light, or a video of the painting on the easel.

Why it matters

A printed canvas with brushstrokes isn't a painting, and its price should reflect that. Painting by hand takes several times longer than printing and brushing over. That's why the difference shows in price, and why it matters when you're paying for hand-painted work.

Our position

Painted by hand, never printed. There is no print underneath any of our canvases, on one piece or on five hundred.