So I looked into swingx which extends JPanel and was able to achieve the results I was looking for with the following code:
public class Canvas extends JXPanel{
public Canvas(){
DropShadowBorder shadow = new DropShadowBorder();
shadow.setShadowColor(Color.BLACK);
shadow.setShowLeftShadow(true);
shadow.setShowRightShadow(true);
shadow.setShowBottomShadow(true);
shadow.setShowTopShadow(true);
this.setBorder(shadow);
}
}
And the result: