Hi guys! This video is going to be all about water, paper, and chickens! I wanted to do a tutorial on painting feathers and bird skin but my phone decided otherwise and so I thought of doing a tips&tricks video about paper stretching and about how to keep the paper from buckling. I painted this colorful chicken painting without stretching the paper but with the help of one of the tricks I learned. You can see for yourself if the paper stays flat and I will show you how to prevent your paper from warping at the end of the video plus will share another two tips as well!
So, first of all, if you still don't know what stretching is - it's preparing the paper before you paint so it does not buckle or warp while you paint.
There are many watercolor artists who soak their sheet of paper for 15 to 20 minutes (the paper needs to be completely submerged in water) and then staple it onto a board, letting it dry. This way the fibers of the paper stretch out evenly as it dries and the paper remains flat while you paint. The problem is that it takes a long time, you need to leave the paper drying for at least 10-12 hours to make sure it is completely dry.
There are two simple ways to keep the paper from warping.
First is by painting on a glass surface. I don't mean painting straight on the glass, what I mean is you put your paper onto a glass surface, I use a glass cutting board I bought at the local BnM but you can get them in any store that sells stuff for kitchens. The cutting boards are usually very thick and don't break easily so that's a plus, on the other hand, there is the size issue, they are fairly small.
So, to keep the paper flat you simply put it onto the glass surface and paint, the water will make your paper adhere to the surface of the glass preventing it from buckling. You can soak the other side of the paper, the one that goes onto the glass to be sure it does stick.
Another way is by taping the paper to a board with masking tape, but not over the edges of the paper, you will have to put the masking tape on the reverse side of the sheet of paper and stick it to the board that way. Let me show you how.
Let's see my chicken painting, you can see that the paper buckled very slightly and here's a photo of it after it is dry, the paper is flat.
Now I'll show you how to do this.
First, you need to cut the masking tape so that it is the same length of the side of the sheet you are going to put it on. Then, fold it twice like so and make it adhesive on both sides. Now stick it onto the paper. Do the same with the other three sides. Now, turn the paper over and stick it to a board. There, this will prevent the paint from leaking under the paper and will keep the paper flat when you paint! It might buckle a bit if you use a lot of water but as it dries it will flatten itself out.
Oh, by the way, here's another tip. If you cannot find a big enough board to tape your paper to try getting cheap frame. I had a large glass frame fall and the glass and the frame broke but the back of the frame remained intact. That's what I'm using for my larger paintings, cheap, handy and large enough.
That's it for today, hope you found this video useful. Like, share and don't forget to subscribe! Ciao!
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