Canvas | Visual Space

A space-owned Canvas has an online saved copy, and it can also have changes that are still in progress. Live collaboration and browser recovery help you continue working, but **seeing an edit on screen is not the same as confirming it is saved online**.

Painting in Canvas works on the selected layer, within the document and any active selection. Start by checking that target: a hidden or locked layer, an active mask, or a text layer can explain why a stroke behaves differently from what you expected.

Layers let you revise one part of an artwork without rebuilding everything around it. A useful stack might contain a background color, a photograph, a painted accent, and a headline. Their order controls what overlaps; each keeps its own editing controls.

Canvas helps you build an image from editable layers, then save a project or export a finished picture. Start with the overview, or choose the part of the workflow you need next.

Choose the file operation around your next step: open artwork as a local project, place content into the Canvas you are editing, download an editable project, or export a finished image. These actions produce different results.

Canvas offers several ways to change an image's appearance. The most useful decision comes before the sliders: should the change stay separately editable, or should it become part of the pixels?

Reveal part of an image and give it a color treatment while keeping the original content available. This workflow uses a rectangular reveal mask and an adjustment layer, so you can revise the framing and treatment independently.

Build a poster from a photograph, a headline, and a painted accent, then download a finished picture while keeping the Canvas editable. Start with a space-owned Canvas you can edit; [create one first](/s/visual-space/article/DHDHHtn/create-save-and-reopen-canvas-artwork) if needed.

Use Canvas in an activity meeting to review artwork together or make focused changes without leaving the shared stage. The meeting opens the same durable Canvas file you can use outside the call, so the work remains available after the meeting ends.

This walkthrough takes a Canvas from an empty area-owned file to a small layered artwork that you can safely leave and reopen. Along the way, you will paint on one layer, add editable text, test the layer controls, confirm the online save, and optionally keep a local `.vscanvas` project copy.

Canvas is Visual Space's layered workspace for painting, image composition, and artwork drafts. A Canvas belongs to a space area, opens in a focused editor, and stays connected to the documents and conversations around the work. Its editable project can be revisited instead of becoming a flattened picture after every session.