How to Play

Canvas

1-5 players 30-30 min 7.2 Board Game Geek Rating

Players act as artists gathering art cards to construct layered paintings. Cards feature artwork and scoring icons that become visible or hidden depending on arrangement order. To acquire cards from the central display, pay inspiration tokens based on position cost. When holding three cards, create a painting by arranging them strategically to maximize visible icons matching the game's scoring conditions. After completing three paintings, highest score wins.

Published 2021

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Lay out the mat

Place the Canvas mat in the center of the play area

Prepare ribbons

Place the 5 different color Ribbons into piles off to the side near the top of the mat

Set up scoring cards

Place any 4 Scoring cards in the 4 colored areas at the top of the mat

Prepare the art deck

Shuffle the Art Cards (transparencies) and place them inside the deck box provided

Position the deck

Place the deck box on the far right space at the bottom of the mat

Create the display row

Draw out 5 Art cards from the deck box, placing 1 into each space at the bottom of the mat

Distribute background cards

Each player takes 3 Background cards (colors do not matter) and places each into their own card sleeve

Distribute inspiration tokens

Each player takes 4 Inspiration tokens (shaped like a paint palette)

Determine first player

Choose the starting player however you wish

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose one action

On your turn, either "Take a new Art card" from the selection row OR "Complete 1 Painting"

Hand limit restriction

If you have 5 Art cards in hand already, you cannot take this action and must Complete a Painting instead

Evaluate cards left to right

Starting with the left-most Art card, decide if you want to take it into your hand

Take a card

If you want the card, take it along with all Inspiration tokens on it

Skip a card

If you wish to skip a card, place 1 of your own Inspiration tokens on it to move to the next card to the right

Continue until selection

Repeat until you have selected 1 Art card from the 5 available

Refill the display

Slide remaining Art cards and their tokens to the right to fill the gap, then draw a new card from the deck box to fill the right-most empty space

Construct your painting

Take any 3 Art cards from your hand and slide them into 1 of your Background card sleeves

Score against all categories

Compare your painting's icons to each of the 4 Scoring cards and earn 1 Ribbon of matching color if requirements are met

Claim grey bonus ribbons

Grey Bonus Ribbons are awarded only if the painting has the Bonus icon, giving grey ribbons based on how many times the shown element appears

Thematic elements

The illustration and names on Art cards have no gameplay relevance

Icon locations

At the bottom of Art cards are different icons scattered across 5 different color areas based on position

Grey ribbon icon

This bonus icon awards Grey ribbons for matching elements on the constructed painting

Winning

How to claim victory.

Game end trigger

The game ends after all players have completed 3 paintings using their 3 Background cards

Skip finished players

If a player completes their 3 paintings while others haven't, their turns are skipped

Score colored ribbons

Refer to the 4 Scoring cards to determine how many points are earned based on how many Ribbons of each color you have

Score grey ribbons

Grey Ribbons are worth 2 points each

Determine the winner

The player with the most points wins

Break ties

Ties are broken by the player with the most leftover Inspiration tokens

watch & Learn

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Canvas

Get Ready

On Your Turn

Winning

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