Flattening watercolor paintings 6.16.2022

When I create a watercolor painting, sometimes the paper buckles and warps, depending how much water I use in the painting. This post shows how I flatten those warped paintings.

Here you can see how my small paintings warped.

Start with a flat board or surface. I’m using a clean piece of paper, too, because I never know what scraps of drawing media might be left on the board:)

Lay the painting upside down on the clean, flat surface. These are greeting cards, and only part of the cards I painted on warped. The warped parts of the cards are what I make sure are laying upside down on the flat surface.

Spritz the back of the painting lightly with water.

Lay a clean towel over the damp paper. The towel helps soak up some of the moisture.

Place heavy books atop the towel.

I pile them about 4 books high so it’s good and heavy. Let this sit for a day.

Voila! The paper is nice and flat:)

Another view of the flattened paper.

Here’s one of the watercolor cards I flattened. You can purchase my watercolor greeting cards in my Etsy shop.

I use watercolor paint on non-watercolor paper, too, and run into the same problem of warped paper. This flattening process also works on non-watercolor paper. Just make sure to not use too much water when you spritz. Watercolor paper is thicker, and can handle more water. But spritz a thinner paper too much and the water will bleed through to the front of the painting. And now, I’ll get back to painting:)

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