How to Stretch Watercolor Paper With Staple Method

#how_to_stretch_watercolor_paper #reginaswatercolor #art_video
For self-taught beginner watercolor artists, keeping your paper from bending or curling or rippling can be a frustrating experience. Is it the paper? Or the paint? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe...but probably not. Typically, when water and pigment are laid upon any quality or cheap paper watercolor paper, some buckling will occur.
Regina demonstrates in this video how to stretch watercolor paper using staples and gator-board and provides tips to help you get the best results.
Let us know in the comments if this was helpful OR...share your method for stretching your paper.

[@cecilhoo9097]

Good job and most of all it looks like it works

[@sholly59]

Hello Regina, I’ve been a watercolor painter for more than 20 years so I’m not a beginner. I stretch my Arches watercolor paper in the same way you do with staples. But suddenly I’m having a bizarre stretching problem that I haven’t been able to solve. I’m hoping you can come up with some ideas to help.
Suddenly, the staples that are used to attach my paper to my gatorboard are pulling out as the paper dries. All of them are clearly being pulled out by the forces caused by the paper drying.
My original thought was that my gatorboard was getting old and maybe it had too many holes in it. So, I bought a new board, but the problem persisted. Eventually I tried a different stapler, different staples, different brand paper, shorter and longer soaking times, but nothing has helped. I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been using this method successfully for many years now. Do you have any ideas what might be causing my staples to pull out?
Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Gary Shollenberger

[@WhymsicallyMade]

I NEVER thought to use foam core board!!! Thank you so much!

[@jasonhughes2305]

Make sure it's the more rigid Gator board

[@waymire01]

I use the 6x9 bee paper often.. and it does just fine taped down dry. I have a painting hanging on my wall right now with a double wet in wet background, and multiple glazes on the main subject.. and it's flat as a board. During the painting itself it swells a bit but zero buckling. Just be sure it's bone dry before you release it from the tape. In fact I find it handles water better than Arches.

[@ReginasWatercolor]

Great tips! I love how taping Bee Paper down creates a clean, crisp border on the finished piece 😊

[@waymire01]

@@ReginasWatercolor You can get that on stretched paper as well just pop some tape over the staples after it dries.

[@rubyr3654]

Hello where can I buy the gator board and sketchbook you used? :)

[@ReginasWatercolor]

Online art supply stores such as Blick's or Jerry's Artorama and great resources for supplies, I cannot remember which one I used for the gator board here.

[@ReginasWatercolor]

Had to review the video to figure out what paper (it's been a while). This is actually the fuchsia illustration from our first coloring book available here: www.reginaswatercolor.com/store/p133/book.html#/