Canvas

Canvas is a board game about making art, designed by Jeff Chin and Andrew Nerger and published by Road To Infamy Games in 2021. It is for one to five players, who take the roles of painters assembling transparent cards into individual works. The game’s premise is not a story about a named artist or a fictional art career. Its subject is the process of creating paintings from layered visual elements, then judging them against changing criteria.

Each player begins with a blank canvas card. On a turn, a player may take one of the available transparent Art cards from the market or paint a finished piece by placing cards from their hand over the canvas. The cards are printed with illustrations and icons; when layered, their images combine into a single composition, and their icons can become visible or be covered by other cards. Players therefore make choices about both appearance and scoring. A card that improves the visual arrangement may hide an icon needed to meet a scoring condition, while a useful icon may not fit the intended image.

The game uses shared scoring goals called Scoring Cards. These criteria determine which visible icons earn ribbons, the markers used to record points. Because the scoring cards vary between games, players must adapt their paintings to the goals in play rather than pursue one fixed scoring formula. The market also creates competition: taking a card removes it from the shared display, and the available choices change as players draft.

A completed painting consists of a canvas and three transparent Art cards. Players give each work a title and may describe it, adding a brief presentation to the visual puzzle. The title and explanation are part of the table experience, but the formal scoring comes from matching the finished image’s visible icons to the current criteria. After the required number of paintings has been completed, the player with the most ribbons wins.

Canvas is notable for making transparent cards central to both its appearance and its decisions. The physical layers allow players to see one illustration through another, producing combinations that cannot be represented by simply placing ordinary cards side by side. The included sleeves and easels help display the works upright, so the finished paintings can be viewed by the group. Its compact turn structure makes it accessible, while the shared market and limited hand create choices about timing, opportunity, and which elements to preserve.

The game’s appeal comes from the tension between composition and points: players are not only collecting attractive images, but arranging layers whose overlaps change what the painting shows and how it scores. Each session produces a different set of criteria, available cards, and combinations, giving Canvas its distinctive identity as a light drafting game built around making and presenting layered art.