Stretching watercolor paper

You may have heard the term "Stretch Your Watercolor Paper". This does not mean: you will make your paper last longer, nor does it mean you...

​You’ve seen it happen… Right ? You lay down a nice watery wash of paint, you settle down to enjoy your painting, and then… It all goes lopsided ! When watercolor paper absorbs liquid, it buckles and deforms, leaving ridges and depressions which make paint flow difficult to control. It’s a nuisance which all watercolor

By Barbara Tibbets in Art Tutorials > Painting Tutorials I’m a watercolorist and have been painting since the mid 80’s. One of the hardest concepts to grasp as a beginner was WHY I would want to stretch watercolor paper. For a little background, my very first watercolor class was at a craft store. That instructor didn’t bother to stretch paper and most of us were using watercolor pads like these in order to save money on materials. I fell in love with […]

Use a piece of Masonite about an inch wider on all sides than your watercolor paper. Soak the paper in water till thoroughly wet. Place paper on Masonite.. Hold in place with screen molding or lattice strips and Bulldog clips all along the edges about 1/2 inch. No tape. No Staples. Clean border.

Stretching your watercolor paper is an important step because it keeps the paper from wrinkling when you paint. The first step in paper stretching is soaking the paper. Then you can staple or glue the paper to a board. Alternatively, you...

How To Stretch Watercolor Paper is usually stretched on a smooth and hard surface made from plastic, and industrial wood

Learning to paint with watercolors has been a lot of fun, but there have definitely been a few bumps along the road. One of the biggest frustrations that I ran into when I was first getting started was that my paper wouldn’t stay flat. The minute the water touched it, it would buckle and wrinkle.

You may have heard the term "Stretch Your Watercolor Paper". This does not mean: you will make your paper last longer, nor does it mean you are grabbing it's little paper arms and helping it stretch. :) (Sorry for my little bit of humor there.) What stretching your paper means, as most of you may know, is to wet it and attach it to a surface to keep it from buckling when you paint on it. Why, you ask, do I need to stretch my watercolor paper? The answer is, you don't. It totally depends on…

Buckling paper is a frustrating and common problem when painting with watercolor which is why I always recommend new students start with a watercolor block. However, there are going to be times when you want to paint much larger or in a different non-standard size. In those cases, you do not have to put up ... Read More about How to stretch watercolor paper

If you’re coming here to learn about stretching watercolor paper, I’m the wrong person to ask. I’m way too lazy to do that. “But you work 10 hour days, Roman.” Yeah, t…