Quick way to stretch watercolour paper

by Paul Fisher
If you are going to use a lot of wet washes on watercolour paper less than 400gms in weight, your paper will need to be stretched or it will 'cockle' and distort badly making it difficult to get consistent colour tones and hard to mount properly. Here you can learn how to stretch paper in 10 quick and easy steps.

The Australian artist Charles Sluga showed me this technique that he uses when he does his overseas tours. It will give you a well-stretched piece of paper ready to be painted on within five minutes.
I have used this method on previously used and un-stretched paper that had ended up cockled and it has allowed me to flatten the paper by stretching it and paint on the reverse side with success. 

Step 1
You will need:

• A stiff board at least 30mm bigger all round than your paper
• Hairdryer
• Gummed paper tape
• Cold water and large brush
• Paper towel
• Tape measure and pencil

Step 2
Apply plenty of water to the reverse side of your paper - make sure it is nice and glossy with water.

Step 3
Turn the paper over so that the paintable side is uppermost and wet this side too. Leave the paper to fully soak up the water for 5 minutes and then smooth any wrinkles out with the brush.

Step 4
This stage is very important - dry the paper around the edge where the tape will go, with the paper towel.

Step 5
Tear off 4 pieces of gummed paper tape keeping the long and short pieces separate.

​Steps 6 and 7
Apply water to the first piece of tape   .... and smooth it down over the edge of the paper - do the same with the other 3 pieces of tape.

Step 8
Use the hair drier to dry the tape - it is important to make sure the tape is dry before going further.

Step 9
With the tape dry, start drying the paper working from the outside towards the middle of the paper going round in successively smaller circles.

Step 10
Finally, with the paper dry, mark a rectangle just bigger than the aperture of the mount you intend using and you are ready to draw and paint.

Finally ... We hope you found this useful - good luck and happy paper stretching!