Watercolor Paper Stretching

Using Gatorboard!




It has been a while I have been out of painting Watercolor for a number of years, the biggest draw back was getting back into the groove and feeling comfortable again.

One of my weakness ( in other words lazy) was finding a simple way of doing the basics. Stretching watercolor paper is one of them.

So where do I start, I guess the first frustrating problem was paper.

Do I use sheets or a block. I always been particular to Arches Watercolor blocks.

I dislike stretching watercolor paper by immersing in water and using brown paper packing tape. I just find it takes to long to prep for.

That is why I always used a Watercolor block.

Well after researching the problem I found that Gator board was the way to go.

Now I needed to find resources on just how to use the board.

What was frustrating most web sites kind of just breeze through how to actually stretch the paper and casually touch how to adhere the paper once soaked.

I did find one video on "Cheap Joe's" web site. That cleared up some of the issues I had.

Since I buy my supplies from there I decided I purchase one, the cost seemed reasonable so what did I have to lose.

The one thing I hate about ordering on line is the time frame once one has place an order. Unfortunatly I have limited access to a variety of artist materials where I live.

Once I received the order I was please on how light the board was.

Well what I saw on line didn't really go into details on the proper stages from immersing the paper to attaching it to the Gator Board.

Well I thought about it and here is how I processed through the stages.

First as described by Cheap Joe's video, I did my pencil sketch, next I flipped the Watercolor paper over, took my spray bottle and soaked the paper, I then took my two inch brush and started to evenly spread the water from side to side evenly.

I was surprised how easily the application of the water was soaking the paper, I saw some buckling in certain areas, so I dipped my brush in water and applied it to those areas.

Next I flipped the paper on to the Gator Board, to the painting side with the pencil sketch. I aligned the bottom of the paper on a border that I applied to the board and that I use for alignment.

I then sprayed the surface, used my brush to evenly distribute the water evenly, in areas of bucking I used the brush to apply more water. Once the Watercolor paper seemed to lay down flat I went to the next step.

I used a standard stapler and proceeded to staple the paper to the board, I used about one inch separation from each staple applied along the borders.

I was satisfied how smoothly this went. On my first stretching there was some buckling, I was worried that I had did something wrong or missed an important point from the video.

Again I looked at what I just accomplished and thought well I just ruined that set up.

I walked away and let it dry.

Well to my surprise the paper was taunt and ready to go.

The painting went well and I was pleased.

So now when I find deals on single sheet buys I will not be hesitant to purchase a good buy than just relying on Watercolor Blocks.

I really like the Gator Board and find it easy to stretch the Watercolor paper, the old soaking way I was taught just took to long and was aggravating. The brown packing tape to adhere to the Watercolor Paper to the board was a hassle.

The tape always seemed to come off the paper while painting and was difficult to remove once the painting was complete.

Now it takes me maybe 15 minute to soak and apply to the Gator Board, stapling was easy and I can use drafting tape and the paintings have nice white boarder, this is especially helpful for me when framing and matting the painting.

Hopefully this will help out when applying a soaked paper to a board.

One other nice feature is the board can be used over and over, this is a real benefit other than the reasonable cost for the board.

I hope this will help other people who have experience this problem and lead to sharing of new ideas to stretching Water color paper.