Stretching Paper

If you want to do paintings or washes on paper, you need a paper that can handle that - such as watercolor papers.

Even with these papers, unless they are 260-lb weight or higher, they will buckle when wet. So you need to "stretch" the paper.

What that means is wetting the paper enough to let the fibres in the paper loosen up and stretch out, and then drying the paper in this stretched state so that when you go to paint on it, it won't stretch any further.

So here's what you will need.
• your paper
• a flat container wide enough to put your sheet of paper in, with sides high enough to put some water in
• cool or cold water (not hot water, as it will remove sizing from your paper)
• a smaller container for water (if using the butcher's tape)
• butcher's tape or gummed brown tape
• or stretcher bars
• or a heavy duty stapler
• a drawing board
• several sponges

After the paper has been soaked you will need to fasten the edges in some way so that the paper can dry in the stretched out position.

You can use the butcher's tape, or staples, or stretcher bars, if you have them.

Start by putting cool water in your flat container - deep enough that you can dunk the paper into it. Let the paper soak for several minutes - just long enough to let the fibres expand. If you leave the paper in too long, you may run the risk of loosing some of the sizing on the paper and it won't work as well.

Once the paper has soaked enough, pick it up and gently shake it to remove most of the surface water. Then lay it out on your drawing board - which needs to be laying flat. Use one of your sponges to carefully smooth out the paper. You can also use your fingers, but it's a good idea to wash them first to remove any greases that may be on them.

If using the butcher's tape, moisten each strip one at a time with one of the other sponges, then lay along one edge and attach it as firmly as you can. You want about 1/3 of the tape to attach to the paper and 2/3 to attach to the drawing board.

Or you can use a heavy-duty stapler to staple down the edges of the paper.

Or - if you are fortunate enough to have stretcher bars for your size of paper and drawing board, then attach those.

Allow the paper to dry out completely by placing the drawing board in a flat position so you don't get water puddling along a bottom edge and causing the paper to dry unevenly. Once completely dry, go ahead and use it for your project.