In his video Why I Stopped Taping My Watercolor Paper, Matthew White demonstrates a way of working without tape: you wet the back of the paper and let the surface tension hold the paper to the board while you work. This also has the advantage of giving you longer wet-in-wet working time. Although I’m happy with my with Holbein soft tape, I’m always curious to try a method that would reduce the amount of art supplies I need to buy and eliminate one vector of waste, so I gave it a shot.
For these paintings, I used 6x9ish cuts of Arches 140lb/300gsm cold press paper. I think this method wouldn’t work for 300lb/600gsm paper because the dampness wouldn’t reach the other side, but you also don’t really need tape for such thick paper because it lays flat anyway.
Attempt #1
Really happy with it. I did this in one layer, and used lots of water. The method worked as advertised. The paper stayed stuck on the board while I worked, and it did seem to stay workable a bit longer than usual. It dried flat, and was easy to peel off when dry.
One thing I noted was that the back of the page was a mess. Not really a problem since I don’t do anything with the back usually anyway.
Attempt #2
This one was more iffy. Although the paper stayed stuck to the board while I painted my first layer, it lifted and curled while it dried.
I wanted to do a second layer, so I wet down both sides again, but because the paper was so curled, it no longer adhered fully to my board.
Revisiting Matthew White’s video, I realized that while he describes painting in three phases – lights, mid values, and darks/details – he also talks about the paper being “still wet” at various points, making me think he may do all those phases in one go. Usually, I build my painting in layers, drying each in between, to allow for techniques like wet-on-dry and glazing, and because I will often work five or ten minutes at a time throughout the day. The no-tape method may not be as well suited to multilayer paintings.
Conclusion
Pros of the no-tape method:
- Doesn’t use tape; one less supply to worry about
- Longer working time wet-in-wet
- Well-suited to painting in one go
Cons of the no-tape method:
- Paper can dry curled
- Not well suited for multiple layers
- Back of the page ends up messy, so you can’t do something else on the back
Overall, I found this method a bit too unpredictable to rely on, and it didn’t lend itself well to a layered painting style. I think I’ll stick with tape (get it???). But it’s nice to know that there’s a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency way of working if I find myself out of tape.