How to stop drawing paper warping in a frame?!

[becky31]

Hi there,

My forte is pencil drawing, and I've recently started selling my work, mainly on a commission basis. I've recently noticed on one or two of my framed pictures that the paper has started to warp/ripple slightly in the frame and I'm not sure why....I have been working on ~ 165gsm. Could it be that I need to work on thicker paper to reduce the chance of it warping? It's only happened on a couple, and they were framed at different framers so it's unlikely to be a framing issue!

Thanks in advance - any advice would be much appreciated

[alexanderjohnson]

Hi, I make silkscreens on paper and have had the same issue for 30 years! Slightly thicker paper might be better but all paper buckles to some extent, at the framers ask them to 'pack out' the paper, this means putting something behind your drawing to push it against the mount from behind. Some framers use card for this, but bubble wrap cut to size works just as well and is lighter. Good luck!

[ajac63]

As suggested, packing out the paper is one way - I've found that using card works well. Another method is to glue the paper to the backing board which works for me.