In 2019, a dear friend of mine asked if I would take a commission to do a painting of Crater Lake for her. I was honored! This was my first and only commissioned piece. I hesitated at first, as I had never done a large format watercolor painting before (It ended up being 24”x36”), and I knew it would take many hours to complete in between the tasks of motherhood. But this friend of mine is OH SO DEAR! Thus, I embarked.
The first task was finding paper. I am loyal to the Arches brand, so I started there. (Not a sponsored post, I just love their paper. It allows for beautiful water flow, has lovely texture, and works well for lifting.) I usually paint on their blocks, but this time I bought full sheets (2’x3’) and ended up painting on the whole thing!
Stretching Your Large Watercolor Paper
I learned about stretching your watercolor paper ahead of time. This, supposedly, is to reduce buckling and warping in the paper as it gets wet and dries over the course of painting. Some people submerge the full sheet in a bathtub. I opted for spraying it down with a spray bottle, taping it when it was thoroughly wet, and drying it with a hair dryer on the “cool” setting. Maybe I didn’t do it right, because I STILL dealt with significant buckling, as you’ll see below. Thus, at the end, I learned about IRONING your artwork. 😆 Yes, you read that right. Feel free to leave your paper stretching techniques in the comments!
Materials
I’ve already talked about the Arches paper, but brushes and paint are critical too. You are going to need brushes that hold a LOT of water and pigment. I bought this Silver Black Velvet brush and Sterling Edwards large flat brush just for this painting. I used a professional grade watercolor paint imported from Poland and sold here on Etsy. If I do another painting of this size, I will buy tubes instead of pans, because you really go through a lot of paint when creating at this scale.
Pictures & Process
Ok, lets jump into the pics. I began work in September, painting on weekends, so I didn’t take time from homeschooling.
This quick time lapse shows a little of the process.
Finished Artwork!
My precious friend was good enough to pass along a few images of the painting framed and displayed in her living room. I finished the painting in December after about 3 months of weekend painting. It brings me joy to know she and her husband are still loving it!
If you have questions about the large format process or materials used, feel free to comment or pop me an email at homeoncemoreart@gmail.com.
To browse my watercolor paintings for sale on Etsy, click here.
