HTML5 Dynamically create Canvas

The problem is that you do not insert your canvas element in the document body.

Just do the following:

document.body.appendChild(canvas);

Example:

var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');

canvas.id = "CursorLayer";
canvas.width = 1224;
canvas.height = 768;
canvas.style.zIndex = 8;
canvas.style.position = "absolute";
canvas.style.border = "1px solid";


var body = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];
body.appendChild(canvas);

cursorLayer = document.getElementById("CursorLayer");

console.log(cursorLayer);

// below is optional

var ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillStyle = "rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2)";
ctx.fillRect(100, 100, 200, 200);
ctx.fillStyle = "rgba(0, 255, 0, 0.2)";
ctx.fillRect(150, 150, 200, 200);
ctx.fillStyle = "rgba(0, 0, 255, 0.2)";
ctx.fillRect(200, 50, 200, 200);

Via Jquery:

$('<canvas/>', { id: 'mycanvas', height: 500, width: 200});

http://jsfiddle.net/8DEsJ/736/

It happens because you call it before DOM has loaded. Firstly, create the element and add atrributes to it, then after DOM has loaded call it. In your case it should look like that:

var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
canvas.id     = "CursorLayer";
canvas.width  = 1224;
canvas.height = 768;
canvas.style.zIndex   = 8;
canvas.style.position = "absolute";
canvas.style.border   = "1px solid";
window.onload = function() {
    document.getElementById("CursorLayer");
}