Papers and the like...

This is partly a post to push that damn' spammer out of the way to be honest: and Dawn - there's two of them in most of the threads; kill, disfigure, maim! I was interested though to see a comment on Rupert Cordeux's latest painting (by Alan Bickley) damning Bockingford paper with which he says, he can't get on at all - actually, rather than damning it he observed that probably the fault lay with him, because Rupert produces such miracles on it. This resonated with me because I used to use Bockingford, but moved on fairly recently to one of the lower-cost ranges of Fabriano paper, and at first it drove me to murderous impulses..... I couldn't get on with it, ruined a couple of paintings (lie: there were four of them!) and kicked myself for abandoning the Bockingford rough 140lb paper I'd never had any trouble with at all: I'd bought the Fabriano because I just felt like a change - whimsical old fool.... I could tell it had considerable strengths - it took a lot of working and punishment, in particular. But it appeared to be so incredibly hard-sized that wet on dry painting was next to impossible: I could do that with Bockingford even in skies, but on the Fabriano the paint just wouldn't move: I tried to apply a wash, and the brush almost came to a halt on the paper - it wouldn't spread at all; it wasn't that it soaked it all in, even, it just ... well, the paint just sat there, resentfully. I tried getting over this by painting wet into wet - it worked better, but buckled horribly: getting any kind of horizon line was impossible, because you can't paint a straight line on bubble-wrap, and that would have been a similar experience. So I stopped and had a think. The problem was obviously that the paper needed to be wet, or the surface just died on me. But when wet, it turned into a series of hills and vales, reminiscent of the land of my fathers. So - it needed stretching. I didn't stretch paper - I had always stuck it to the board with masking tape in the past, which was good for Bockingford but would have been hopeless for the Fabriano, because it doesn't hold the paper taut and won't stretch it beyond a very slight degree. I noticed that Steve Cronin uses Fabriano, but employs jubilee clips to hold it to his painting board, and adjusts the tautness of the paper during his painting session. I didn't want to try that - a) my board is just the wrong size for it to be possible to fasten quarter Imperial paper to it in that way, b) I didn't have any clips (c) I'm too lazy and mean to go out and buy them). So I had to stretch paper for the first time ever. And I made a real bugger's muddle of it - couldn't get the amount of water right, tape wouldn't stick or lifted off in just the wrong places, ran out of (sorry about this!) spit - so I had a roll of gummed tape dangling from my mouth, where it had dried on my tongue .... I looked at myself in the mirror at this point, and just went into hysterics..... you clumsy, useless, silly old wotsit were among the remarks I would have uttered, if I could have spoken: hard to do that when you're giggling your head off with a roll of tape stuck to your tongue, beard, cheek.... But I persisted. I learned. I can now stretch paper like an expert. I could give classes in it. My paper is taut, I can flood it with water, and my Fabriano doesn't buckle and ripple all over the board. The actual painting remains problematic, but at least I can handle the materials. So a change of paper, while it drove me mad to start with (a short journey, you may think) actually did me good in the end, because I learned a skill I'd not had before: I can now stretch paper - and by the way, if you've never done that, it's wonderful to be able to paint on a really tight, responsive surface. Now, the Fabriano is a pleasure to use, its strengths are apparent, and I can paint on it with watercolour or fluid acrylic. Take this as encouragement if you have trouble with your paper. I have to be honest: given a choice, I would prefer to use a heavyweight paper, preferably Arches or Saunders Waterford (of those I've tried before; there are several others) which didn't need stretching, and which could take a lot of working. But these are expensive, and on the whole they're special occasion papers for me. Even so - while I can't explain to anyone who has trouble with Bockingford how best to adapt it to your needs, because I've always found it responds very well indeed to mine (I might have an idea or two if you tell me what your specific problems are) I can tell you that if you stop and think and don't get too upset with your paper and just throw it out in a frenzy of frustrated fury, you can usually work out how to adapt it to your way of working. There are always going to be papers you like more than others, just as there are paints you prefer to other probably equally good brands, but given we're not all in the millionaire bracket it's useful to know that even if you've bought a packet of 100 sheets of quarter Imperial and the first few just aren't working for you, you can still adapt them to you and yourself to them. All papers are not the same, and don't behave in the same way: it would be lovely to be able to try them all, but when they come in sheets of 50 at around £20 each - well, if YOU have that sort of money to hand, we need to get together: just don't abandon hope because your new paper is different to your usual one. Sorry to all those grannies I've taught to suck eggs, but you'll understand why I've done it. A whole page of our scabby shabby scammer spammer was just too much to put up with.