LESSON #17 - How to Stretch Watercolour Paper

[eftpower1]

here is a picture of a "tiny, insignificant little wrinkle in the brown tape, no big thing. It's ONLY 2 & 1/4 inches long

Details

And here is the damage

Details

what you are seeing is a piece of scrap watercolor paper stuck thru the resulting tear, and the pencil marks I tried to use to show the size of the tear ( shown  From the back of the painting)  the tear is also about 2 & 1/4 inches long [ it is UNDER the tape so it does not show and a mat would cover both the tape and the tear.

A lesson well learned, hope this saves other from similar problems

brian 

[Lillian]

That's interesting, Brian.  How did your paper tear in the first place?  Was it when the tape pulled away from it as it dried?

[eftpower1]

I'm assuming it happened as the paper dried.  I did not discover it until I cut the painting free from the board.

I know Dennis ( I think) spoke about how much pressure / pull the drying paper exerted. It sure does get "Drum tight"
Brian

[Lillian]

It's amazing how much pull that paper has when it shrinks as it dries.

I'm glad you've got the tools to stretch your paper.  I know how frustrating the buckling was for you.

Thanks for posting a good tip.

I think I might try using a cheap dollar store canvas and try stretching paper over it, stapling it to the back as in the blog link Nina gave us.  That sounds interesting and no reason why it wouldn't work.

...just another thing on the back burner.  I'm busy concentrating on the drawing course right now.  Also, I still have paper left in the blocks I bought ages ago.

[Val]

I have never been able to find the parcel tape here in the caribbean so have used wide masking tape. Works reasonably well, but does have its ups and downs as well.   

[ImBatman]

Hi everyone

Even though I have been stretching paper the way Dennis describes in the lesson for a couple of months now, this is the first time I attempted to paint the painting he does in the lesson (I'm progressing through them in order.)

Let me know what you think of my efforts.

Batman.

Details Stretching Paper (seascape)

Stretching Paper (seascape)

[dennis]

Batman the clouds in your painting are perfect and the effect very nice. 

The mountains and the trees and bushes are very dark and gray-black whereas they should have  been a greenish colour. What colours did you use to mix for them?

[ImBatman]

Hi Dennis,

Ultramarine, and combinations of either cadmium yellow and or yellow ochre, plus Burnt Sienna to darken. They are darker in the scan than the actual painting, but are certainly on the grey side, rather than green.

I think I was using too much water, because the greens were too transparent prior to trying to darken with the Burnt Sienna. Was Burnt Sienna the wrong colour to darken with. I thought it was a shade of red... Albeit a very brown one. I was trying to get some shadow colour in there.

I did try some Viridian too, but it was coming out too golf course green for my likening. I wanted the deeper, deep green look. The only part I was really disappointed with was the green of the foreground bushes. I would have liked them a bit greener.

Batman.

[ncwren]

Those are really nice clouds!

[anita]

great clouds batman 

[ImBatman]

Thanks ladies

I was really happy with how they turned out. Actually it was a bit of a shame to cover them with the trees in the foreground.

As to the greens, looks like I'm going to need to revisit that lesson and do some of those swatch sheets that Dennis left as an optional extra exercise.

Batman.

[dennis]

Burnt sienna is actually  dark shade of orange and not red, that is why it went into the gray muddy shade.

If you want to use viridian for greens you must add another colour to it to tone it down. Add orange to viridian and you will get a shade of sap green, for example.

[ImBatman]

Okay, Dennis.

As I said, I think that I need to go back and do some of those swatches you have in the notes to get a better understanding of it. I didn't do them first time round, just the full painting and moved on.

Batman.

[Lillian]

I really like those clouds too, Batman.  Except for the grey, a nice painting.   

Lesson learned on mixing greens, huh? 

  Dennis, mental note taken re mixing orange and viridian to make a sap green.  I will experiment.

[Honeysuckle73]

 Great clouds batman. To me they are one of the hardest things to get right. I am going to start the wc course this week..

Batman -       for being featured member painting.  You truly deserve it.  Your Tui is beautiful