Passion for Paper
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Original art by @jnart
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I, like many before me, have struggled to understand how the paper works when painting watercolors. Water-Art start from basic and work our way towards mastery. Perhaps the biggest relationship in this art is to the paper.
It receive all our love, all motives and all broken dreams. Knowing his lover makes life much easier.
First lesson - all watercolor paper that absorb color expands. It will buckle when pouring on a lot of water. Some solve the problem by painting on very thick paper or painting with very little water in the paint. But I LOVE water - lots of water - so here's a guide on how to attach paper.
Paper comes in blocks or as loose sheets. Part of the problem with buckling paper can be solved by leaving the sheet in the pad. Then the paper buckles if you pour on a lot of water but will get quite tense when it dries.
You can also remove a sheet of paper and avoid stretching it. Thin paper buckles a lot and thick 600 g / m2 paper does not buckle despite much water. A smaller sheet bends less than a large paper. I find it hard to paint some techniques on buckled paper and you might have to process it further to fit it into a frame.
If you want to attach a loose paper to a board, there are five ways (as I know about). The first is to use regular masking tape - It's a fanatic tool also in the painting process - but is usually used to tape around the edges. You stick it on a dry paper, and it is often enough for those who only paint one part of the paper at a time. A shortcoming is that the tape does not work well on wet paper.
The next simple way is to simply staple the paper to the to the board in the edges. The method makes the job and stretch the paper when it dries, but there are some problems with this way. Among other things, patterns can be formed if water is gathered under the paper.
Then there is the way I try to use more and more often and that fits watercolor painters who wants more control even though they paint wet in wet. You soake the paper to make it swell - then fasten the paper and let it shrink and stretch, sort of like a drumhead. Then, when you paint wet, the paper is still flat. The problem is that there are many who try this but do not get it and give up. Another is that there are strong forces when the paper is stretched - so the tape can loose its grip or the board may brake. Some find this way tedious and stiff - I find it helpful.
Finally, you can glue the paper - I do not do it but may show it anyway some day - because in some cases a combination is the best way. To stretch large paper - glue, watercolor tape and staples may be required to be sure that it will hold the paper.
A paper stretcher is also an alternative I haven't tried but many like it a lot. https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/cat-perfect-paper-stretcher.htm
My next tutorial will show how you can stretch your paper - drumhead - method ;)
And Next Water-Art tutorial will be about different types of paper. I almost only use one type of paper - a bit because it's awesome, gives amazing effects, is reliable and durable, but mostly because it's extremely expensive so I get to feel like a poor artist...
Hope you enjoyed this post!
I will send upvote each comment I get and send send 2 SBD to the one person who answer the following question:
What is your favorite way to use paper of the ones described in the post - and why?
You can order portraits via my website: http://jnart.se/hem. Paying with crypto currency is possible.
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Instagram: jnart.se
And see other awesome work from Water-Art and other projects at my blog! or folow @Water-Art - @marty-arts and @jungwatercolor
wow I love this story! thank you so much. I had information about the topics I was curious about!
Your welcome!
I just saw a new round of the iTalent contest come up on @ivan.atman's blog and would love to see the team from WATER ART submit an entry:
https://steemit.com/art/@ivan.atman/italent-contest-or-round-2-or-auditions-until-23-rd-of-march-or-all-talents-accepted
It can be an existing work from an existing post (as long as it is recent), so I'd love to be able to vote for some of my favourite artists here on Steemit :)
Thanks for the advice, I'll check it out
Great work @jnart !
Yay!
Thank you; I needed to know everything you just said; I think I am going to love your courses.
That's wonderful! I'm sure you will!
I didn't even know there is so much to the preparation of the paper in watercolor :p How do artists normally control the amount of water that they pour onto the paper?
The type of paper that you use, how much does it cost for those 20 sheets in a pad?
My paper cost like 2.3 US-dollar per 30x40cm paper.
Yeah, there can be a lot of preperation in watercolor. Normally you control the amount of water with your brush.
That is quite expensive because you're looking at close to $50 USD per 20 page pad :p I don't imagine that other materials and equipment for watercolor art is also equally expensive?
Not by far the most expensive but as you can read in Marty-arts latest post - there a many different. You have to find your own favourite :) pigments is expensive but last long, and there are a lot of different brushes as we will show later. What to try it out?
Thanks for sharing this techniques. I will definitly try wathercolour painting because i like how amazing colourpalys are possible. But for now im going with acryl colours, they are also new for me but they are also a lot of fun! :)
Yes it's only nuts like me that try to do all at once. Seldom the best way. I think you can learn a lot of useful things later on that you can apply in the acrylics. I search for the common ground between them
Mate its great to work on many different things, your works show my its working out for you! ^^
But i myself feel like i have so much to learn, thats why im sticking to one drawing tool for a time ;)
I had no idea there were so many ways of "preparing" the paper so it doesn't buckle, this was super useful. I'll definitely try them out to see which one suits me better. Right now I'm not using watercolor paper; I asked for it in a couple of stores and they looked at me like I was an alien! I don't know if I'll be able to find it here in Venezuela. Maybe I'll have to buy it in Amazon.
For the moment, I have a block with paper sheets that are very thick, called "cartulina" in Spanish (not sure of the translation). So it holds the water good enough. I noticed that when I use the paper when it's still attached to the block, it doesn't deform, just a little bit in the parts where I apply too much water, but when it dries it doesn't look bad. However, if I take the paper off and do it in smaller pieces, it looks weird. I almost had an heart attack the first time that I weted the paper and it rolled up.
That day, I searched a bit and I learned about using tape to attach it to a surface and it's easier to work. I like it because it's a fast and effective way to avoid the paper to buckle. But I only do it if I'm not going to use the whole paper.
Wonderful comment! Yeah, .any times the block is enough Amir masking tape. But when you dive deeper into this medium you will find some problems especially painting.with lots of water. See you around!