Princess Park, mixed media on board

You might like painting with watercolor but become frustrated with the framing and matting process. Learning how to mount watercolor paper on board can be the solution. I also personally like a simpler look and want to avoid the glare of glass.

You might also be interested in: Watercolor and fluid acrylic: similarities and differences

Here is how to mount watercolor paper on board

You will need:

• A board
• Extra heavy gel medium, I used Golden extra heavy gel medium
• Watercolor paper or a finished watercolor painting
• A stiff brush
• A spatula to help with the spreading of heavy gel (optional)
• A clean brayer
• an X-acto knife

You have to ways of mounting watercolor paper on board:

• You can do it with your white paper,let it dry and then paint afterwards.This technique has the advantage of stretching your paper at the same time you are mounting it.
• Alternatively, you can mount your painting after it has been painted. The advantage here is that you are sure you like the painting before you start mounting it, but you also have to be very careful not to put any of the medium on the painting. Click here to see a tutorial on how to mount your painting on board : How to mount a watercolor painting on board

I did apply gesso and left it to dry on the board before starting the process of mounting the watercolor paper, I later learned that it was not a necessary step as the gel medium will act a a barrier between the wood and the paper as you want to avoid the acidity of the wood to come in contact with the acid free paper.

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

Golden Acrylic Mediums Range of consistency from pourable to moldable, with various levels of finish and transparency. Create glazes, extend paints, build texture, change finishes. Gel types: Soft, Regular, Heavy, Extra Heavy, and Pumice.

Apply the heavy gel on the board being careful to spread it evenly and along all the borders and corners.

Then place the watercolor on the board and use a speedball brayer to make sure you don’t leave any bubble under the paper.

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

Speedball Hard Rubber Brayers A hard synthetic rubber roller (80 durometer) makes these brayers ideal for light carving or gluing applications, and excellent for rolling down print surfaces. – Deluxe Brayers

Leave the gel to dry overnight, if possible with a heavy pexiglass sheet on top, you could use glass or a lighter sheet of pexiglass and put some weight on it. If you don’t have any glass or pexiglass you can put some weight on the corners so they don’t curl up while drying, or place the board face down on a clean surface.

Let everything to dry overnight.

Then trim the sides with an x-acto knife. The sides can also be sanded if needed.

I did also experiment with lighter papers, like a drawing paper ( 90 lb), the same method is working well although I did get a few wrinkles, especially in the corners.

Do you prefer the look of paper mounted on board or framed?