Stretching your Paper

I got an email from another budding artist asking me about stretching paper properly. I thought maybe others would find it helpful if I added a wee bit to this site to cover the stretching process.

Before you can get started with your painting in water colour you really have to prepare your work surface - in this case good quality water colour paper. Unless you buy a block of water colour paper, which has gummed edges round four sides, your paper will buckle when it starts to get soaked. This is an unavoidable reaction of water and paper! However, if you have pre stretched your paper, when it dries out it will return to a flat, tight surface.

To accomplish this you will need a good quality, unvarnished drawing board. Boards with melamine surfaces or formica etc are unsuitable as the gum tape will not stick to them. Your board should be at least three inches bigger on all sides than the paper you are stretching. You will need gummed tape which you can buy at any art store. It comes in different widths - I use three inch wide tape. You will also need either a small basin of water and a sponge or access to a sink.

Step one - Take your gum tape and roughly measure it against each end of your paper and cut yourself four strips to size. You don't have to be precise so long as you over do it and not under do it. Put these strips to one side making sure not to get them wet yet.

Step two - Soak your paper. It's preferable to lie your paper flat in some water, but if you don't have a big enough container or sink just slide it in and out from side to side. Don't leave your paper in the water for more than a minute or two. If you do you increase the chance of it tearing when you handle it to stretch it. Take it from the water and allow the excess water to run off. Don't wipe at it with a cloth or sponge.

Step three - Lay your paper in the centre of your board being as careful as you can not to leave wrinkles or large bubbles. Smaller bubbles should disappear during drying.

Step four - Take the first of your strips of gum tape and submerge it in the water. Remove immediately and run the strip through the index and second finger to remove excess water. Place the strip over the appropriate edge of your paper overlapping it on the paper by at least half an inch. Resist the temptation to wipe your hand along the tape to make it stick. What generally happens when you do this is that you squeeze the adhesive out from under the tape and there isn't enough remaining to stick to the paper. If you feel it is still too wet gently dab with a dry cloth - but not too much. Repeat for the other three sides.

Step four - Leave your board somewhere flat to dry naturally. Taking a hair dryer to it is strictly forbidden :-) No seriously this may cause the paper to dry unevenly and cause buckling. If you've done it right, when the paper is dry it should be nice and tight to the touch and ready for painting on.

Step five - When you have finished the painting take a very sharp knife and a metal straight edge and cut the paper off the board. I generally cut round the edge of the paper which is visible under the gum tape as this gives more of a border for framing and mounting purposes. If the paper has stuck to the board - this sometimes happens if you repeatedly use the board for stretching paper and sum gum is left behind - I find that if I slide my metal ruler under a loose side and gently rock it whilst moving toward the stuck side this is enough to ease if off the glue.

I hope this is of some use to you and that you'll find the stretched paper good to work with.