When should you stretch your watercolor paper?
Clamping watercolor paper with tape - How to do it
How to outline with tape to achieve a white border on your watercolor painting
"Hi my name is Mette Hansgaard and I teach watercolor physically in Copenhagen and online at kunst og kurser.dk My video below shows you in just 3 minutes how to stretch your paper if you want to start learning how to paint watercolor."
Do you want a white border on your A4 watercolor? Then I recommend that you consider using an A3 drawing board. You can take your watercolor paper and with regular tape, tape a fine edge along the paper. Clamp it to the drawing board. Avoid attaching it too tightly, as it will break when you remove the tape.
Wet on wet watercolor exercises are often painted on a stretched pad. If not, you can use a drawing board and a roll of tape to stretch the paper. Then it's smart to tape your watercolor paper with tape.
When should I stretch my aquarium paper with tape?
When you're working very wet-on-wet and don't want your paper to curl, mount the paper on a board. If you want white edges around your watercolor, tape your paper to a drawing board or table.
Do I need a drawing board?
The advantage of a drawing board is - you can rotate the board. You cannot rotate the table. With a drawing board, you can rotate the design as you go. That's why a drawing board or wooden board can be useful when you're stretching watercolor paper before painting wet-on-wet watercolor exercises. Use a larger drawing board - than your paper. You might also be creative and use cardboard or something hard.
Paint watercolor on 300 gsm paper - skip loose sheets or paper in rolls for wet-on-wet exercises such as large landscapes in watercolor
When you want to stretch your paper to paint wet-on-wet watercolor exercises, you use either regular tape or painter's tape. You have to be careful not to get it too tight or you risk damaging the paper when you take the tape off again.
Use the tape you have in your closet or find the right one at Kreatima next time you shop
Place regular tape or painter's tape along the edge of the watercolor paper. Apply the tape at the same distance all the way around - if you want a nice even edge. You can use a book or a ruler to trace the edge.
You can use a book to sketch it out. That way you don't have to use a ruler.
Be very careful with the tape because you risk it sticking, so you need to remove it carefully and as soon as the design is dry.
I don't normally use tape, and you don't need it to paint in my online course. However, it is an advantage if the entire paper is painted wet on wet in one exercise.
So when is it smart to tape up?
If you have loose sheets - or paper in rolls - this can be an advantage. The paper won't wrinkle as much.
In the Northern Lights and Landscapes course, it can be a good idea to stretch the paper. It is therefore also shown in this program.
Watercolor landscapes can be found here.
You can buy drawing boards in your drawing and painting supplies store.
Online painting course by Mette Hansgaard. Kunstogkurser.dk
When should I tape up my aquarium paper?
It can be difficult to know exactly when it's needed. For example, I don't use tape tensioning myself. Some students experience this. That's why I've made a video to help.
However, there are a few rules.
When painting watercolors, there are some exercises where clamping with tape can be very useful.
- When painting on loose watercolor paper sheets.
- When you know you want to use the wet-on-wet method. That is, with a lot of water on the sheet so that the colors can flow.
- If you notice that your paper has a tendency to bulge more than usual.
- If you want a white border around your watercolor paper, you can also use mounting tape.
Thank you for reading along
Regards
Mette Hansgaard, Artist
See Mette's online courses at www.kunstogkurser.dk