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The following article was published in our article directory on June 15, 2010.
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Selecting and stretching water colour papers

Article Category: Arts and Crafts

Author Name: Rob Tyrrell

Artists have many painting surfaces to choose from, but if they're using water colours the best choice has to be hand made water colour paper. The high quality types are hand made and offer the artist a selection of surfaces to suit their painting techniques. These hand made papers can be identified by a watermark, this not only gives you the manufacturers name but shows you the correct side to paint on. All papers have a 'right' and a 'wrong' side, the 'right' side having been carefully made-up for the artist with size and uniform texture.

There are three important paper groups:

1. 'Hot pressed' paper; (now and then referred to as HP) has a smooth hard surface. This kind of paper is recommended for drawing, pen and ink or line and wash. Nevertheless, it is normally thought of as too smooth for some water colour techniques.

2. 'Cold pressed' paper; this is often sold as 'NOT', as in 'not hot pressed'. This is a more textured paper with a semi-rough surface. It offers a good support for water colourists who want to produce smooth washes or fine detailed brush work. It has a medium texture and is generally considered suitable for the novice painter as you can create most water colour techniques on it.

3. 'Rough' paper; this is the most textured of the water colour papers, with a very pronounced "tooth". When the artist applies a thin wash to this paper the finish can be speckled, as the pigment gets caught in the surface cavities. It will also leave higher areas white giving a brighter effect. These traits are used by the artist to great effect, however, they are unpredictable and can be difficult for the inexperienced artist to control.

Stretching water colour paper

Paper weights are measured in Pounds, and based on the weight of a ream of paper (480 sheets). Light weight paper, that is to say anything around 70lb or less, will be more cost-effective but runs the risk of wrinkling quite badly when wet. A problem that is unavoidable if the artist is using large areas of wash.

The best way to try and avoid this problem is to stretch the paper. You can get specialist frames for stretching water colour paper, but these are more suited to heavier weights of paper. A frame offers little support for lighter papers, which makes them vunerable to damage, though they do offer a very satisfying surface to paint on, similar to that of stretched canvas.

Even so, paper can be stretched on a wooden panel or board. To do this you'll need to firstly soak the sheet of paper in a shallow tray for a few minutes, keeping the paper flat. Take the paper out, holding it carefully by one edge and shake off the excess water. Lay the wet paper on the board or panel, this should be free of dirt, dust and lumps and bumps. Make sure the paper is completely flat and starting with water-soluable gummed paper, this should ideally be about 3 inches wide, to tape one edge of the paper to the board. Repeat this on all four sides. Next, push a drawing pin into the tapped corners of the paper, this will help prevent wrinkling as the paper dries. As the paper dries, it'll shrink slightly, the gummed paper will dry out with the paper and grip the edges to the board, creating a taught surface on which to paint.

Keywords: water colour, water colour paper, paper type, stretching, stretching paper

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