Do THIS and your watercolor paper will STAY FLAT
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- čas přidán 8. 03. 2024
- This is how you avoid buckled or warped watercolor paintings. Follow my simple process to stretch your watercolor paper and it will stay flat while you paint and forever after. It’s easier than it sounds and it’s not just for professionals.
If you stretch your watercolor paper, your finished painting will be ready to frame, scan, or sell immediately.
Also, check out this amazing hack for framing your watercolor paintings (even weird sizes): • Make Framing Affordabl...
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½” Gatorfoam Gator Board (similar: amzn.to/4c6Rx7k)
Stapler: amzn.to/3PeaI5D
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I found if I dampen the BACK of the paper, then weight it down w/books, the ripples will flatten out.
Yes, I’ve done that too 😊
I did try that with the cactus painting before filming this video. It flattened some, but was still buckled.
This method works for me too
How did you make the bubbles on the koi painting, please?
It’s a lifting technique. I will have a full tutorial of the Koi fish painting in my new course, Creative Textures for Watercolor. You can join the waitlist here: jackiehernandez.studio/coming-soon
You can also just soak the whole paper - both sides - and stick it on a flat surface and then start painting. The reason paper warps is due to the fact that only one side of the paper gets wet. Warping happens due to moisture getting absorbed unevenly. If one side is wet, the fibers of the wet side expand, but not on the dry side.
That’s a great tip for painting wet-on-wet or painting in one sitting. I typically work on my paintings over several days, so I prefer stretching.
You can flatten the warped paper by gently and evenly misting the back with a water sprayer and then weighting it down with books.
Thank you. I’ve had success with that in the past, but it didn’t work for the cactus painting. This video was filmed after trying that.
Weight it down while still wet?
Excellent! I love that you actually said "You don't actually stretch the paper when doing this" because when I was a newbie that confused me. Can't wait for your class! Both of those paintings are gorgeous. Thanks so much for this and all of your videos. Love from Kansas. 🌻
Thank you. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the videos and I look forward to your comments 😊
Man, that koi and that cactus painting are incredible. You're amazing.
Thank you!
I saw that stapler, and my eyes went wide. It looks like a modern version of a stapler I have had since grade school that I ADORE and would never get rid of. Then you mention that it's a VINTAGE Swingline, so no, there is no new version for me to try, but I just wanted to acknowledge that those things are... beautiful.
I love my stapler. It’s all metal and has a nice weight when you hold it. My mom gave it to me over 20 years ago and I have no idea how long she had it before that.
We were taught to backwet the paper while painting and skip taping entirely
So you backwet it and then slap it onto a board dry side face up?
Do you paint immediately?
@@blufudgecrispyrice8528Yes, that's right
That cactus looks so damn good!
Thank you!
This. Is great! I used to stretch my paper in the bathtub and tape it down onto plywood with the old fashioned paper tape that’s hard to find anymore. You had not only to have a clean bathtub, but all the soap, shampoo, etc. had to be completely cleaned off. Eventually I stopped stretching my paper and decided to live with the warp. Your way of stretching is so much easier. Thanks!
I hope you’ll try it this way. The clean storage bin makes it so easy to pull out and stretch paper anytime. When I was a beginner, I read so many mixed reviews on the gummed tape method and realized it takes a huge border of paper. So I decided to keep it simple and use staples.
Yes indeed. We didnt have gator board back then. Ive still got my half imperial plywood board with bits of sticky paper strip still on the edges. 😂
Must find some of this board.❤❤❤❤
You can wet your finished pieces from the back, then press them. 100% flat after that
You can easily unbuckle a sheet of paper: put the worked side of the paper face down and with a wide brush lay fairly abundant water onto the other side, then cover it with a heavy flat surface (i.e. a wooden board with some thick books on top). Within a few hours the sheet will be dry and perfectly flat. Don't worry, the water won't pass through the paper and ruin your drawing.
Thanks. Before filming this video I tried that method and left it under the books for three days. I’ve had success with that in the past, but it didn’t work for this piece.
I do this but I eliminated the "soaking bin" I use a hake brush to flood the back of the paper, turn it over (on the gatorboard) and then flood the front. I make sure the paper is soaked and then staple. I even stretch full sheets this way.
Great idea. I’ve seen other artist do it with a sponge too. I think as long as the paper gets soaked through, it works.
I recently had this problem but luckily saved the painting by backwashing it and then placing kitchen towel on top and pressing it. I will try this to prevent future buckles.
Glad that worked for you.
I absolutely love the way you did this tutorial. No nonsense, straight to the point. I wish everyone did their tutorials work this way. Your work is so beautiful. I’m so inspired. Thank you, I really appreciate this. ❤
Thank you so much! I appreciate your feedback.
Abit out of topic, but your cactus painting looks amazing. The blending on it looks soo smooth✨️
Oh thank you! It took a few layers to achieve.
I think this is why I prefer using the blocks. But this was a really great video and very well explained!
Thank you. I really want to try blocks, but I love using a lightbox to transfer my sketches. I am starting to do some more abstract painting though without a pencil drawing, so blocks might be the way to go.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Yes it's so much better with a lightbox! When I transfer with transfer paper sometimes it's hard to lighten the carbon.
I never knew the difference of foam core vs gator baord. This explains so much, thank you
Glad to help. Besides being waterproof, the gator board is just as light as foam core.
this is perfect! concise but still detailed, thank you for showing the visual indicator of when it’s ready!
Glad it was helpful!
I have that exact same stapler! Great job on the tutorial and lovely art. Thank you!
That’s fun! Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this tip!
Unless you're in any kind of hurry, you don't need any kind of tub to submerge your paper. You just put your paper flat on the board and wet it with a big, flat brush. Go back and re-wet it a couple of times as it absorbs the water. Give it at least half an hour to absorb enough water. Then fix it along the edges, by whatever means. Most people seem to use glue paper tape, but board and staples may be an improvement. I'll certainly try it. This way allows you to easily use large sheets of paper without risk of damaging them, and also use very fragile, unsized paper (if you bend such paper, particularly when it's wet, you'll very likely cause invisible wrinkles which will stand out as soon as you wet it with paint, as the wrinkle will absorb paint differently).
To me, the value of painting on stretched paper, is not so much that the finished painting is flat, as the advantages of painting on a flat surface that doesn't buckle and affect paint flow. A flat, finished painting is just a bonus.
A buckled finished painting can otherwise be flattened in so many ways. Flat press does indeed work. You just have to give it time enough, which is months, not days. But you can also iron it from the backside.
that green is so delicious to look at!
Thank you.
Thank you for this information very helpful.
Wonderfully done! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for watching!
This is a wonderful help! Thank you so much for sharing this info!
You are so welcome!
Brava! Very clear instructions!!
Thank you!
Great video and explanation. Thank you for sharing that, it’s a great tip!
Thank you!
Jackie...This is AWESOME 🎉.
I love this. Thank YOU soooo much. I will be trying this with my next painting.😊
Yay! I hope it works well for you.
I took a watercolor course it the late 70s. Gadder board replaces the fiber board insulation for housing construction. Now replaced by blue Dow foam sheets and it's competitors. Never hear at the time the other things you mentioned. Still have the original board. Children and other thing caused me to stop painting for decades but I have in the last few years started again.
So fun that you’ve started painting again.
Thank you so much!❤
I just take a brush and and brush it with water on the back of the painting and place it between two boards. I place some books/weights on top and let it sit for a few days. Comes out flat.
The staples DO stretch and flatten the paper very well. I just dont like the stapled edges.
That method has worked for me on many other 8x10” and smaller paintings. Unfortunately, this cactus painting buckled much more and wetting the back and leaving it under books for three days did not work. What you see in the video is after I tried that method and ironing it.
You can tape a wider border so you can cut the stapled edge off afterward. I cut off the entire border for float mounting or I put the art behind a matte, so the border isn’t visible.
It should be possible to rewet the back and flatten even large pieces. The trick is that it has to be wet evenly all over the surface which takes some concentration. THere are all kinds of methods to do with wetting paper before and during the painting session also that help maintain flat surface whilst painting and for controlling different wetnesses as you paint for different effects, it’s just that these are never shown on youtube as they are little understood. I’ve only ever seen one shown on a Russian channel and there were no subtitles. Luckily I knew the method already. It’s all about controlling the water and in restretching it needs to be very even across the surface. On large sheets it can dry out at one side whilst you are still wetting the other and you. may not notice it’s happened but it’s enough to be uneven and so you maintain some cockling. It’s not easy but it’s possible and I’ve done it several times. You do have to be careful of the painted side of course.
Thanks for the demo. I never knew what I was doing wrong. The paper always buckled when I painted. This is the reason why I gave up on water color. An 'a-ha' moment for sure.
Oh no, don’t give up. I hope you’ll give this a try.
Thanks ….Often, I buy it in a block and you don’t have to worry about this. They are more expensive of course but they save a lot of time. I tape mine down before painting on it and that works for me.
I haven’t splurged on blocks. It always bothers me they are so much more expensive. Also, I prefer to transfer sketches onto my watercolor paper using a light box. I can even do that before I stretch the watercolor paper, which wouldn’t be possible on a block.
Thank you, very helpful
You're welcome!
oh Thank you for this tip
Merci, I will trÿ on my next watercolor project. I will have to find a France larger size
what a great idea! it makes so much sense…. i will get some gator board. Thank you
Your welcome. I hope you like working on stretched paper.
Brilliant! 👍
Subscribed!
Thank you and welcome!
I use a narrow metal palette knife to lift the paper and staples all around -- just seems quicker and there's never any fiddling with the paper edges to pull it from the board
That’s a great idea! I will definitely start doing that.
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I just subscribed and am looking forward to watching your other videos. Your method is so straightforward I'd like to try it, but wondered if you can reuse your gatorboard multiple times? It seems like the staple holes in roughly the same place might render it more difficult to staple down new paper after a few times.
Thank you! You can reuse the board many, many times. You can also use both sides.
I didn't know you could open normal office staplers this wide. What a revelation! I've only ever used the gum tape to stretch my paper and that often doesn't hold. Thank you so much for this.
Your welcome. Not all staplers open flat, but the one I linked in the description does. I hope you give it a try!
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor I checked mine and it opens up to 90°, enough to staple the paper to my board. :-)
I was taught in college to use stretcher bars and staples. You can use more sizes of paper and since I don’t have huge tub for soaking my watercolor paper I use a wall paper tray and roll my paper through the tray until it is soaked well! I cut my paper down as when using the stretcher bars the paper curls around the edges and it is easier to cut the excess off! Nice video, thanks for sharing.
Great ideas. The wallpaper tray is genius! Thank you for sharing.
The Cactus painting is amazing! Can we have a tutorial on that?
Haha I’d rather have that too!
Have you tried soaking and stretching 2 or 3 multiple sheets together on the gator board at the same time? Just curious to see if it works.
I also used to stretch paper and tape it down with gummed paper. My goodness that gummed paper is hard to get off the board when you are done! I love the idea of using staples. Thank you
I hope you give it a try. For smaller pieces it works great and you don’t need a wide border of paper.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor So you can't use just staples for larger pieces of paper? Another question: how many times can you use the gator board before it forms holes and stops accepting the staples? This is the easiest and most concise video on stretching watercolour paper I have ever seen, nicely done.
You can use staples for larger paper, but more of them and you probably need to put them in further from the edge. I don’t work larger than 12x16, so I haven’t tried it. Most artists I’ve seen that work larger use gummed tape or a combination of gummed tape and staples. I think gummed tape requires too large of a border (paper waste) for smaller pieces.
Thanks for this, a simple way to stop the dreaded buckling! I love the cactus painting! Can we have a turorial?
Thank you! I didn’t film this painting, but I will add it to my list of tutorial ideas.
I have had little trouble painting on a block of Baohong 100% cotton paper(the green one). Honestly, all the 100% cotton stuff does little buckling once dry. It does some when wet but nothing like cellulose paper does. I tried wetting the WHOLE page by brushing a little water on it but that made it all so much worse. Someday I might try this when working with single sheets.
Baohong blocks are on my list to try. For most of my paintings I do a lot of wet-on-wet painting and many layers and stretching the paper really helps.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Thinking about it more, I think a block does something similar to paper stretching. Since it’s secured on all four sides, it dries flat just like the stretching does after being wet. I also use a lot of water, almost all wet on wet really and layers, God bless cotton paper. I tend to wet the whole sheet at least once putting down my base layers and often a couple times. So it gets wet yet can not retract due to the glue. I avoided blocks for a long time but now I’ve been converted. But blocks suck for acrylic which is my other medium.
You just demystified the stretching process for me! I have watched others do it on videos, but it still confused me. Thank you for very clear instructions and explanation for why to do it. One question: Can you do multiple sheets ahead of time for future use? Does storage time affect the stretching?
I’m glad this was helpful. You can stretch multiple pieces. I usually do, but I use them up pretty fast. I haven’t left anything on the board for more than two weeks.
i attended a waterdolor workshop before where we had to wet paper with a sponge. this process honestly looks a lot faster and less tedious and i can't wait to try it out :DD
Tf you mean less tedious? You just wet the paper with a damp sponge and that’s it, how is this any better?
@@Jasondurgen I meant the sponge process I experienced had us coming back occasionally to sponge it again for a while and because the sponge was rather small, an even application wasn't guaranteed. The process in this video is a bit of the set it and forget it type and a lot more even and it looks like something I'd be willing to try out, is all I meant. Apologies for the confusion
I never noticed this- Thank you sooo much for your help! :')
What about the staple holes? Love your work.
If you frame your painting, the border and staple holes are hidden behind the matte. You can also trim off the white border and float-mount the painting - I have another tutorial on that option.
No I don’t want holes all around my paintings. I find that using heavy paper solves the problem and framing under glass flattens out any bumps anyway. Also using tape is not a problem if you paint after the paper is dry and only remove the tape once the paint is also dry. Flat as a pancake..!
Unfortunately, I let the cactus painting dry for a few days before removing the tape and it did not stay flat. I don’t mind the staple holes in the border, which wouldn’t be visible under a matte or I can trim off for float-mount framing.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor ..it’s all personal preference. I tend to use glass clip frames so the borders would show. I like the simplicity they afford. It’s odd that your (very beautiful!) cactus painting did that…it’s usually foolproof drying like that. I wonder why?
I love your channel! Thank you for sharing all your great tips and skills with us
Thanks for watching!
1. At some workshops I’ve seen people wet both sides of the paper then put it on large piece of plexiglass(?) and hold with bulldog clips. 2. Not cheap, but 300 lb paper is great.
I will definitely try 300lb paper when I start painting larger paintings.
I’ve tried the wet paper on plexiglass method. I like it for small 5x7 pieces. It’s not really a paper stretching method though. The paper only stays flat while it’s wet.
I love painting on stretched paper.
This looks doable for me as trying to use that gummed “brown” tape was so messy!
Now to find the right gator board?
Right?! And I’ve heard the tape doesn’t work sometimes. There’s a link in the video description (click More…) to a board.
Thank you so much Jackie! I do have a question, though. In your video, you painted on the paper while it was still stapled to the gator board. Would it still stay flat if you removed it from the gator board before you painted?
no
You do need to keep it on the board while you’re painting and until it’s completely dry afterward. Every time you add paint or water the paper fibers expand again, so it needs to stay “stretched” the whole time.
Great idea. If you add “stretch” to the title it will be easier to find this tutorial
Thanks!
Could I use multiple pins? I don't like the idea of wasting staples each time I paint.
It would be worth trying. I think you’d want something with a flat head, so the pins aren’t in your way while painting. Also, I think most tacks or pins will make larger holes than the staples.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Hmm, that's a fair point. I'll try with staples, then experiment with weights or something. Thanks for the fantastic video!
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor I was wondering about the holes, the Staples leave
The body of the staple will help hold the paper in place. The stretching of the paper while drying will stretch and widen the pin hole of the staple pins or push pins. You want the body of the staple to push down into the paper.
Wouldn't it be possible to use something more reusable to stretch the paper? Just spitballin' here: what if you used those clip-on border frames for the canvas (paper) size? I don't know their exact name, but I used to get them cheap at Walmart when I needed to prep pictures for an art show on the cheap without a whole custom frame.
I used 300lbs cold press and never found the need to stretch, even at 140lbs paper. If I go less than that then its worth doing. If my paper is buckled after the painting I leave it a few days then Iron it between baking sheet paper and then file it for a day of two to make sure it stays that way.
I tried pressing this painting under books after wetting the back and it didn’t work. I definitely need to try 300lb paper.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor The 300lb paper is beautiful to paint on, very thirsty paper as well, I can see you having many happy painting days using that weight paper. I use the 300lbs as much as possible. I buy Hahnemuhle 300lbs gummed pads 9x12 inches for around £28 ($36) each to paint on when I'm overseas otherwise I use full imperial sheets. Oh if you use the iron, remember steam off... Your painting won't forgive you if you don't lol
Do you leave the white border where the staples were? Or cut it off before selling the painting? I like the white border look but i have never tried stapling the paper worrying that the border will look completely ruined after im done 🥲 are the holes too aparent? Will it look unprofessional to sell a painting with holes in the white border? 😅
You can trim off the staple border. Or if you prefer to keep a white border, tape a wider border, so you can trim off the staple holes and still have a white border around your painting.
Typically, watercolor paintings are framed and the border is covered by the matte. If you’re selling your art, you could sell it already mounted in matte. That’s a beautiful way to present unframed art. Then all your collectors need to do is put it in a frame.
Hoooo boy, with how expensive 100% cotton paper is you couldn't pay me to cut any away
😂 My method only takes a 1/4” border all around. Stretching paper with gummed tape requires a wider border that must be cut off at the end.
Baohong is a great alternative and much cheaper than Arches, and it's also 100%cotton
@JackieHernandezWatercolor when I did art in school we always soaked our paper and used the gummed tape method!
Thanks for it. Does it work with 200gsm paper?
It should
About how many times can you use a piece of gator board before it has too many holes/becomes unusable? I am interested in this method but am also afraid of needing add regular gator board purchases to my supply list.
I’ve been using mine for two years now and no issues. It’s also double-sided, so if one side wore out, you can flip it over and use the other side.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Thank you! That's great to know.
I live in a pretty tiny house and have little room for storage. At most I can try having a single gator board. But that means one piece of stretched paper at ready. Is it ok to stretch the paper then remove it from the board to save for painting at a later time? That way I could stretch a few pieces and have them ready. I use blocks some, but they are really expensive, and they still warp for me. That one little spot not glued down warps with the water I use and does not flatten back down. I use Arches and recently tried Baohong. The Baohong did not warp while painting. Although I let it completely dry first, after removing it from the block it curly up significantly on one corner and had a bit of a wave, far from flat. Thank you for the great video!
The paper needs to stay stapled to the board until you’re done with the painting and it’s completely dry. If you paint smaller, you could staple more than one piece of paper to the same board. I used to do that before I realized I could cut my board in half.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Thank you. I figured you’d say that, but I had hope otherwise. 💛
Did you cut down your gator board to match the size of your paper? Can you cut gator board similar to cutting foamcore? When I was in college our watercolor instructor suggested buying a material called homasote to use as a watercolor board to attach our paper to with tape. Homasote is a material found at home improvement stores. I'm thinking of trying this technique out on the homasote board that I have to see if I can use it in place of the gator board. If not, I will get some gator board. Thanks for this helpful video.
My gator board is a few inches larger than my paper all around. I like being able to rest my hand on the edge of the board outside my paper. It’s not as easy to cut as foam core, but you can cut through it with a utility knife. I’m not familiar with homasote but if it’s waterproof and accepts staples, it might work.
I think homesite won't do well if it gets too wet. It's an inexpensive substitute for sheetrock.
@@trumpetingangel yeah, I tested it out. Since the watercolor paper is wet on the back the homasote material creates yellowish stains on the backside of the paper. Homasote works well for a board to paint on but not for stretchiing watercolor paper.
Joder como pintas!!
I have never had success stretching wc paper. I was hoping this would be a new method. I use blocks or aqua board. I like the aquaboard; avoid the expensive framing process and it is very forgiving.
I am planning to try aqua board soon. I love the look without the frame.
I've been using the Fabriano artistico hot press watercolour block and the glue is so pathetic that the paper lifts off the block while you are painting, even with a border of tape applied. As a result all of my work has buckled. Compare this to the Arches or Saunders Waterford blocks where you really have no worries in that sense.
Yes I love aquabord! The colours are so much more vibrant and they lift off beautifully if you want them to…brilliant product!
And if you live in a place that doesn't have gator board? What's alternative?
Amazon
Have you tried watercolor tape, when it's wet? Let it dry first and keeps it flat
I’m not sure what you mean by watercolor tape. On the cactus painting I used artists tape to hold it down. When the painting was finished, I waited a few days before removing the tape. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for every painting.
Hi, can I use cellulose water colour paper also like that? I bought a booklet of Canson watercolour painting pad. Later found out that it's not a good absorbant for wet on wet painting. It shows patches every time
It won’t really change the qualities of the paper that you don’t like.
Only works on cotton paper.
It’s a trade-off. The painting might be flatter but the edges will have multiple holes from the staples.
If you frame your art, the staple holes are covered by the matte. You can also tape off a wider boarder and trim off the staple holes.
Using staples is an unusual way of doing things (imo). I use gummed paper tape. Soak the paper, put it on a flat surface (board), slightly dry the edges with a clean towel, take 4 pieces of gummed paper tape, wet them with a sponge (1 by 1) and tape the aquarel paper to the board. Use a towel again to firmly rub over the gummed tape, so it attaches tightly. That way the gummed tape will dry before the rest of the paper dries (and shrinks and puts tension on the gummed tape). Allow for the entire thing to dry completely.
Using gummed paper tape allows you to work with big format paper as well (like 60 x 80 cm, soaked for a few minutes in a clean and soap-free bathtub :), which is amazing if you take into account how much the soaked paper shrinks when drying and thus how much tension the gummed tape has to deal with.
I used the gummed paper tape when I took art in high school. The paper tape did a good job and those paintings are still flat 50 yrs later. My other concern about the staples was if the paper stretching might make the holes tear but it appears to not be a problem.
@@yardhog Risk of tearing increases with paper size, I would think. But then: amount of staples also increases with paper size, so… I dunno… Never used staples and won't start using them either.
I'm not comfortable with the idea using staples. I try to avoid those in my daily life as I'm not sure if its environmentally friendly. My country have bad disposal system so i worry it'll end up in some animal’s stomach, poking wildlife or peoples feet.
Just use gum paper tap.
Pinholes.
I still rely on gummed paper tape for stretching paper.
Right. It matters if you’re planning on framing the piece with white border showing. And it’s not just holes, there can also be rust.
At art school my teacher taught us to do it with a sponge
No big deal ! I use a steam iron, a pillow case, and a a piece of 1/2" piece of plywood. I set the iron on 'cotton' or high. iron the painting flat cover with another piece of plywood, weight it down then allow to dry. Been doing this for years. Works great, have never damaged a painting. Storing your paintings flat and properly (temp and humidity) will keep them ready for scanning, copying or mounting!
Is it called gator board in the UK?
The brand is Gator Board and you may see it called Gatorfoam. I also linked to another brand in the video description that is similar.
I don’t like staples in my white border…
Then use tape
Don’t use your bathtub. A friend did & some of her hair conditioner must have survived her scrubbing 😢 needless to say it destroyed the quality o the paper.😪
Good warning. That’s why I love my storage bin.
I wonder what Gater/Gator board is called in the UK?
I think we would name K Line🤔
Gator Board is a brand. I would search for “waterproof foam core” and see if you can find something similar. Your local framer may know, since Gator Board is also used for mounting photographs and artwork.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor Thank you.
does that work with non cotton paper? i use canson watercolor paper, the cheapest ones. arches is way too expensive for me :/
I’m sorry, I haven’t tried it. In theory, you could stretch any paper, but you’ll have to experiment with how long to soak it and how far in from the edge the staples need to be. I stretch 100% cotton paper because many of the techniques I use, like masking fluid, wet-on-wet, and lifting, work best on 100% cotton. I tried Canson XL when I started and it couldn’t support the type of painting I wanted to do.
yes it does and use gummed packing tape instead of staples, we did this in art school
Sounds great. Where do I get gator board? How thick should it be? Sounds like it would be good to have a few sizes. Does it come precut to useful sizes? If not, how do I cut it? It looks like the open ends don’t have to be sealed, since it doesn’t absorb water. I hope you’ll answer 😊
There’s a link to a board in the video description. You can also get it at art supply stores. I ordered my first board from Blick Art Supplies. I recommend 1/2” thick, so you can use standard 1/4” staples. Gator board comes in a variety of sizes. The board you see in this video was a 16”x24” board that I cut in half to make two 12”x16” boards. You can cut through it with a utility knife. You can leave the ends open. I hope that helps.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor How long does a gator board stand up to repeated stapling? (Other than keep cutting the gator board smaller and smaller after use...). Many thanks!
If you use the thinner foam board, the paper will actually cause the foam board to buckle as it dries.
I’ve been using my gator board for two years and still have no issues. I paint on various sizes of paper, so the staple holes don’t end up in the same place. I cut my board in half, so I have two. You can also use either side of the board, so if one side did get too many holes, you could flip it over.
My comment is about those foam boards that are easily found at places like Michaels, Walmart, etc. I think a lot of people think they are gator board, but they are just cheap, thin foam boards for the most part, and a sheet of watercolor paper will bend those as it drys. I did once find a thicker board at Michaels, but it still wasn't the same quality as the gator boards sold by Blick and others who primarily deal in art supplies.
Excellent tips! Sure seems like a hassle but i can see the difference. Where did you get your gator board? I believe you can also use that brown tape with glur on one side and then you only need a plexiglass backing. But it is messier.
I’ve never tried the gummed tape. I’ve heard it doesn’t always hold and I think because of that some artists use the tape and staples together. There’s a link in the video description to a waterproof board.
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor thank you! Agreed...gummed tape is not the way to go
@@JackieHernandezWatercolor I've never understood why you would need tape and staples at the same time.
What about the several holes around the paper?
The staple holes are in the white border. When the painting is framed, they are covered by the matte. Or, the borders can be trimmed off. If you want a white border without holes, you can tape a wider border and trim off the stapled edges after you’re done.
Watercolor block
Can you re-use the gator board several times?
Yes
Absolutely. You can also use both sides of the board.
Wait you’re not supposed to iron the paper flat?
You can iron the paper, but it didn’t work for me and it makes me nervous ironing my finished painting.
The issue i have with this is that we have enough excuses not to paint today, and stretching paper 24 hours in advance is a big excuse not to paint today, including the time and setup to go throught this. And bonus for us watercolourists is that watercolour painting is cheap. So make it more expensive and go for heavy weight paper, move from 140lb to 300lb. Buy it in sheets to limit the expense rather than pricey blocks of paper. Then we don't have an excuse not to be painting as we didnt prep. People moan at the cost of materials, but $3 on a piece of paper is less than a coffee. If you painted 3 painting a day with 300lb paper for 5 days a week for a year with artist grade paint that is less than $20 dollars a day $100/week, $5k per year. Sounds like a lot, but doing the same on 140lb paper with artist grade paint would cost about $3.7k per year. Not much of a saving, and i havent accounted for the gator board. That extra $1.3k per year is a lot of money to some people. But not much for a Western mid-level worker to indulge in a pursuit. It's a small percentage of a yearly wage. So don't be giving yourself excuses not to paint, or some prep to complete before you indulge, just cut back on all that excess, make your own coffee and shut up & paint.
Or...... you could just invest in 300 pound ( weight) paper..it holds up to heavy brush strokes and more water... its a bit more expensive.... but decide how much is your TIME worth? Personally, when i want to paint ..i want to do it.....right now...not think 24 ahead.... but, you be you..😊😊
This isnt the way to stretch paper, just wet the paper, any paper! And use the brown gum tape to tape it down on a wooden board, just leave to dry and your gtg.
Brown gum tape?
@@chriscernoch1532 yes I was also wondering what that is
Isn’t it butcher tape?
This right here! This is how you're taught to do it in professional spaces.
I only know it as gum tape , im in the uk btw. Its sold in all the art shops here.
The paintings are fabulous, but your advice on how to stretch paper is off. You can pretty much stretch any paper and I was taught to stretch it on a board using gum tape. Also, I didn’t dip my paper in a tub, it was enough to run it under a tap. As you are talking about thicker more expensive paper, then dipping it in a tub makes sense to get an even amount of wetness. But, your leading people to think they have to use specialist cotton rich paper.
Thank you. There are many methods for stretching watercolor paper. I made this video to share my preferred method and what supplies I use.