Beginner with watercolours

[Japxican]

I'm new to watercolours here and I've been learning mostly by experimenting. However, for any of you who have been painting with watercolours for a while and are quite experienced at it, I have a question. Do you prep your paper before painting on it? I read in a watercolour book that it's ideal to prep your paper. How's it done? I know my paper gets waterlogged and wrinkly when I don't.

 

[sneezingleopard]

I know it's beena while since you posted this but figured it can't hurt to answer anyway. Not sure what the book is reffering to when they say "prep" but I knwo what i do before painting with WC.

Basically to keep teh paper from rolling up and buckeling you need to either tape the edges down with masking tape or use a special brown paper/tape that goes along the edges of the paper to hold it down. that's hard to apply and not sure what it's called and you have to prewet the paper, stretch it and let it dry with that method so for now try the maskign tape which you can just put on the dry paper and begin painting. You will want to try the tape on a piece of spare paper first to make sure it won't rip the paper when you take it off. It's also a good idea to use a thick paper for watercolors. SOmething 90lb-300lb . Depending on what kinds fo effects you're goingfor you could wet the paper down befroe starting your painting and that will give youa wet on wet technique.

I'm a childrne's book illustrator for a living and just began using watercolors for finished work. used to use oils but they got expensive and take forever to do an entire book with. You can check out my website and see a video tutorial I did for one of my watercolor paintings. www.matthewgauvin.com It's more for folks who've had a bit fo experince with watercolor but maybe it will show you some of the stuff that's possible. I also use a very controled method in that video which most watercolorists tend to like that medium for all of the cool techniques and effects you can get.
-Matthew