Artist Tip #2 - Flattening a Finished Watercolor Painting

Watercolor paper expands when wet and shrinks when dry, and often not uniformly.  Most watercolor painters struggle with the resulting ripples in completed paintings.  We've all seen a rippled painting framed, and not looking very good because of the gaps between the rippled paper and the flat mat.  A ripple along the top edge is particularly bad, as the overhead light casts a shadow from the mat, leaving a scalloped dark pattern at the top of the painting.  So... how does one flatten a finished painting?  If our paintings are professionally framed, the framer may have a large flat iron to flatten them.  But if we're doing our own framing, we need an approach that doesn't require large and expensive equipment.

I've tried a number of approaches, including:

1. Dry-ironing the painting on a hard, flat surface.
2. Steam-ironing the painting on a hard, flat surface.
3. Dampening the back of the painting and pressing it flat under a board and weights.

Approach 1, dry-ironing the painting, is quick and works somewhat.  If the paper is badly wrinkled, it's difficult to get the larger ripples out.  And although an ironed painting is "locally flat",  it tends to curl toward the iron at the edges, though this may not cause a big problem once it is held in place by a mat.

Approach 2 can lead to disaster (listen to the voice of experience).  The steam can push through the painting and deposit some of the paint on the flat surface, smudging the painting when the paper inevitably moves while ironing.  I do not recommend this approach at all!

Approach 3 works best for me.  A fellow artist, Marlene Gremillion, told me about it.  I very lightly mist the back of the painting I want to flatten, being careful to not get it too wet.  I then put it face down on a hard flat surface, and put a rigid board on top of it.  I then put some heavy weights on top of the board.  Often, I make a sandwich of painting, board, painting, board, etc. before putting on the weights, and flatten several paintings at once.  After about 3 days, the dampness is gone, and the paintings are flat.  I've included a photo of this setup in my studio.

So, if I must flatten a painting and I need to frame it right away, I've found dry-ironing it is a decent approach.  But if I have a few days, misting the back and pressing it flat works best for me by far.

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