This painting has nothing at all to do with stretching paper! However, I thought I'd include it to decorate this post, because I like it, and because it shows how wet watercolour paper can get during a painting. It's called 'Dawn Breaking over Keith' by the way! It was painted by wetting the entire sheet, painting the sky fully wet-in-wet, and then, once dry, painting the land - again wet-in-wet. This painting used a lot of water!
Until you can handle wet-in-wet, you can't unlock the potential of watercolour, in my opinion. Some of the best effects you can create are done with the paper wet. And anyone who has ever tried to use lots of water on unstretched paper will know that the paper just warps and crinkles when it gets that wet. This means that the paint 'pools' in the furrows and runs off the high bits, making it impossible to get an even finish. It also feels horrible to work on. I think this is one of the main reasons why people try watercolour and almost immediately give up.
In fact, I recently did a step-by-step with an art group and I found that almost everyone had brought paper which was either unstretched, or had been partly stretched. The group members told me how difficult they had found it to stretch paper. Many had just taped down the edges of dry paper, which makes matters even worse: the paper wants to expand whan wet, but the tape prevents this, resulting in even worse 'cockling'.
So, in this post, I want to show you how I stretch paper in the hope that this may help you. I have found increasing difficulty in stretching paper over the years because, in my opinion, the quality of gummed tape available has declined. Sorry if you make gummed paper, but it's true! I've found that, increasingly, a stretched piece of paper would become ruined as it dried because the gummed tape had let go. I have a solution which has a 100% success rate for me, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
You need: your paper (this works on any paper of whatever thickness), a board which should be thick enough to resist bending, as the paper will pull hard as it gets stretched (I use 12 mm MDF board), gummed tape (the type you wet to activate the glue), some PVA woodworking glue (white glue) and a clean towel. Oh, and a bath, or something else you can fit your paper in to get it thoroughly soaked.
First, cut some tape into 4 lengths: 2 long and 2 short, to a few centimeters long than the sides of the paper. Put them to one side within easy reach.
Make sure the paper is the right way up. Many papers have a correct side for painting and a wrong side, although may are fine on both sides. The correct side is usually the one with the random, toothed pattern. The wrong side normally has a more regular pattern with less tooth. If the paper is watermarked, you should be able to read the watermark correctly, and not back to front. The best way to know which side is which is to follow the paper's sides from when you remove it from the pad or from the pack!
Keeping the paper the right way up, immerse it in the water and agitate it a bit to get rid of bubbles. You can soak the paper from a few minutes up to essentially no limit. Keep ducking the paper under to maximise its water take-up. There appears to be quite a discussion about how long the paper should be immersed for, with opinions varying from a few seconds to several minutes. What you are trying to do is get it wet, so I think a few seconds is way too short. I use Saunders Waterford and I soak from a few minutes for the 140lb paper up to about half an hour for the thicker papers.
Pull the paper out, keeping it the right way up, and let the water drain off as you hold it by an edge. Then, keeping it the right way up, lie it on an open towel, wrap the edges over and remove all the excess water. The paper is now damp and it will be continuing to expand, so don't hurry. Expansion is what you want. Keeping it the right way up, transfer it to your board.
Now, run a small amount of PVA glue around the edges of the paper and smear it into a film, staying within a centimetre of the paper's edge all the way round.
Now, wet a piece of tape (I start with the top edge, but feel free to be different!) by dragging it quickly across the water surface and letting it drip for a few seconds. Now stick the tape down, leaving at least a 1 cm overlap over the edge of the paper and smooth it down a bit. Repeat for the other 4 edges. Finally, wrap the edges of the towel over again and remove any excess moisture, being careful not to move the tape.
Now leave to dry naturally in a flat, horizontal position, preferably overnight. What will happen is that the damp paper will try to contract as it dries, but will be prevented from doing so by the tape. The tape will be assisted in holding against the strong pull of the paper by the glue, which dries as the paper dries, becoming stronger all the time. By morning, the whole lot will be dry, and the paper flat and taut, just waiting to be painted on! If needs be, you can use a hairdryer to speed the process but I think it's better to just plan ahead, and stretch paper before you need it.
Stretching paper like this will vastly increase your enjoyment of watercolour if you've not stretched paper before. If you've yet to take the plunge and try the medium, make sure you do this and start properly - it's worth the few minutes it takes.
There are other ways of stretching paper, of course: some people wet it and staple the edges down to the board. Others just use bulldopg clips to hold the edges. However, this is the method that I use. It looks great when dry, does not encumber your painting like I find bulldog clips can, and produces great results. Happy painting!
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