Stretching watercolour paper: An absolute must for any watercolour artist. I stretch my paper before painting to prevent the occurrence of 'cockling', cockling is where wet paper rises and falls the minute you begin to paint. The very first wash of colour is complete ruined just because of this issue and the remedy couldn't be easier, stretch it first.

Right, to start with we need a board to stretch the wet paper onto, I have always used 3/4 inch exterior plywood, why exterior, because it resists the water well, this in turn prevents the board itself from 'twisting' out of shape.

To stretch the paper.

First I lay a piece of dry paper onto the board, this enables me to mark the 4 corners of the paper onto the board, see the first image on the left

I then use tissue paper, second image left, kitchen tissue or toiled rolls will do, any kind of tissue will serve the same purpose.

Well 2 purposes, 1, it keeps the reverse side of the paper clean and 2, it enables the paper to stay nice and moist longer,this gives me more time with my 'wet-in-wet' washes.

Once I have the board prepared I then get my gummed paper tape and a half full water bowl. Now I cut the gummed tape to appropriate lengths, approximately 1 inch extra to each length, so if the paper is 20 inches long by 15 inches wide I cut 2 pieces of 21 inches, then 2 pieces of 16 inches.

I then get a dry tea-towel which I use to 'pat' the edges of the wet paper dry, I suppose any dry cloth will do the same thing.

When I am absolutely sure everything is prepared and ready to have wet paper laid down and then fixed to the board I get my paper and shuffle off to the bathroom.

Now the next part is basic, you fill your bath to a level that can accommodate the paper and have a space around it so the paper just lies flat in the water. Look at your watch now as this is important, the times that use to soak the paper for vary depending on the size of it, example, a full imperial sheet, I give 15 to 20 minutes in the water, contrast that with 5 minutes for a piece of paper measuring 14 inches by 10 inches.

I have found over the years those times suite me and my type of painting. You could use whatever times suite you, these will only become apparent after you have tried it a few times. One important thing for me to mention is that, say you put a full sheet in the bath and left it for an hour, it would simply tear away from the gummed tape. As the paper shrinks it gets tighter and tighter, something has to give and it will always be the gummed tape tearing.

Okay, I have a full half imperial sheet of paper in the water, after 20 minutes I lift it out and allow the main water content to drain off, after a couple of seconds I hold the paper in two hands and treating it like gold carry it to my prepared painting board, tip, rock the paper back and forth while going to the board, it keeps the remaining water from draining off.

Now gently place the paper onto the tissue, making sure there is no tissue 'poking' out from the sides.

Taking the tea-towel I pat down approximately 1 inch of the paper on all sides, you need to get the edge of the paper quite dry, I don't fiddle about, I tend to go round twice and that's it. Now a procedure that may be tricky in the beginning but gets easier the more you do, I need to get the gummed tape damp, not too wet but damp.

I run the tape through the water bowl to get it wet, then holding the tape in my right hand. With the tape in-between my index finger and second finger I run down the length of the tape letting excess water drip back into the bowl

This image on the left shows the paper after I have secured it to the board with the tape, you can see that I have no more than half an inch of tape stuck to the paper edge, usually it is less than this.

As I said earlier a smaller piece of paper is easier to handle but the procedure is the same, just don't forget to paint your picture the day after, don't leave it for 4 months!

That's another story though...see the next menu link 'How Not To Stretch Watercolour Paper'.

I do hope this article helps you as I struggled for years until I found this way of doing things..