Hi Kimberly :) I have a bunch to catch up on :) I've had a bunch of serious and some of which they aren't sure how or if they'll resolve, but it'll be at least 6 to 12 months before they even begin to know...until then I'm trying to regain use of my right arm, which I could move just fine even if painful, just fine before surgery, but woke up to barely being able to move my fingers and that was it. I'm also now on home oxygen because he paralyzed my diaphragm on the right side, so it obviously won't work which means no deep breath and its floated up and pushed into my lung by half...so...yea...I'm a mess and o clue when or if it'll get better. But, we moved to a different doctor so at least we feel we can trust what he says and he's very honest. Anyway...I'll be in and out...I don't sleep much at all cuz I have to be sitting up or I can't breathe at all. But I look forward to looking through lots of video's I've missed in recent weeks :) I'm trying to not lose it :) so, just trying to keep my head in beautiful fun things and stay inspired for when I am hopefully able to get back to doing some myself :) So...sorry...just wanted to let you know why I'd not been saying hello :) I always wonder if I need to stretch or not. Ill have to try some with and without. But I'm sure it make a huge difference on whether it's a large landscape, like you said, that you'll be covering completely with water and paint..as opposed to a few flowers. Please forgive the mistakes no doubt everywhere in here...I'm trying to catch them, but, my head is pretty fuzzy from lack of sleep🤦🏼♀️🙄😳 I look forward to seeing what you do for this landscape!! One day I'd love to have huge papers for large scale paintings...I'd be doing more loose clouds n water...but I'm not great at it so, not yet ;) I'm super curious about the gator board!! I can't buy anything new for a very long time with medical junk and my husband having to loose so much work because of this and taking such good care of me. 🥺 ugh...anyway...moving on..won't be able to stop if I start😭 ...so...I'd love to put it in my wishlist list. Just under that name? I've been wanting to maybe get a thin piece of good mdf to have something very straight even for a larger size paper. But...I'll have to look for this too. Just having fun making dream lists and keeping focused on fun things to do in the future :) Does the paper rip a all as it shrinks? I guess if it does its at the very outside edge :) I hope you and your family are doing well!!!! :) Thanks again for all your efforts to put out fun and informative videos!! Truly appreciate it!!🥰
Hi Jade! It's good to hear from you! I'm sorry you are having such a difficult time with your health. Keep your hopes up. This too shall pass. As to your questions, the board that I use to stretch paper on is called Gatorfoam Board. You can get it at any art store. I think Amazon has it as well. It comes in different sizes. It cost around 20 dollars for the size in this video. But if you are not working this large you can get a smaller/ cheaper one. If you have trouble with using a stapler you might want to try using Brown gummed tape. It worked okay for me, but I didn't like having to cut it off of my finished painting, and then clean my board with soapy water. There are ups and downs to using both. You can always just tape down your paper with masking tape or clips. It's not a big deal if it buckles. You can always smooth the ripples out later. I made a video on how to do that. I haven't had any of my paper rip by using staples. But, I've only ever used Arches 100% cotton paper for stretching. So I don't know how it would work with other paper. I'd say you would be fine with any cotton paper. I haven't started my big painting yet. I have been waiting for a good time to get into it. I like to have large blocks of uninterrupted time to work on a large painting like that. I will try to see if I can figure out how to set up a camera to film it to share with everyone. Best wishes to you, I hope you have a speedy recovery. Take care
