An Easy Way to Fix Buckled Watercolor Paper
If you’ve ever painted with watercolors, you have almost surely experienced warped, buckled paper. Typically, this is a result of using wet on wet techniques or washes and applying a lot of water to your painting.
Clearly, watercolors are meant to use a lot of water, however, the resulting wavy and wobbly paper isn’t exactly ideal.
When your paper buckles, it is typically a result of one of 3 things:
Wrong Paper: If you dare to use paper that is not watercolor paper, you will most certainly find that your paper won’t hold up or perform properly. Make sure you are using watercolor paper that is solely for watercolors.
Cheap or Low-Quality Watercolor Paper: If you ARE using watercolor paper, make sure it is 100% cotton and at a minimum 140 lb or 300 gsm in weight. Anything lighter is not going to hold up with wet on wet techniques or washes.
A Lot of Water: If you enjoy wet on wet technique and washes, and employ them heavily, it will be nearly impossible to avoid warping and buckling. If you tend to use a lot of water with your watercolors, consider using watercolor board which is watercolor paper adhered to a backing which will prevent it from warping completely.
If you are using good quality watercolor paper and are finding that you are indeed experiencing buckling, check out my YouTube video below to learn the most simple way to fix the problem. It is super easy, completely safe and low cost.
0:00 Introduction
0:40 What causes warped paper
0:55 Easy Fix to the Wavy Paper Problem
2:05 What Happens at the End
If you’ve been painting with watercolors, share in the comments below if you find your paper buckles. And, if you’ve tried fixing it, have you used this method? If not, how have you fixed it?
Keep calm and watercolor on,
