watercolor - smooth blend

[G.]

hey guys, im new to watercolor and i had a couple of questions for ya.

first off paper prep. i bought some watercolor paper and noticed it
badly wrinkled up into a pile of junk when i started painting on it, so
i found out about "stretching" the paper. i soaked the paper on both
sides, stretched it out and taped it down. just as soon as i put some
water and paint on it though i had the same wrinklely problem. can you
over soak the paper? do you have to leave it tapped down when painting
it? what am i doing wrong here. secondly - im trying to figure out how
to go from a solid black to a nice and neat faded edge. if there are
any books or anything to get my on the right track let me know. im a
total newb and you can probubly tell by this post!

thanks

-Garrett

[Awe Gust]

In article <1155937159.9...@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
gbf...@gmail.com says...

>if there are
>any books or anything to get my on the right track let me know.

I would guess there are at a minimum about
1,000 books on "how to watercolor for beginners."
Don't you have a library where you live? Or
you can do a search on the web using such terms
as "how to watercolor" "painting watercolors" etc.

[salmon]

Hi Garrett,

Welcome to the wonderful world of watercolour. The following link may
be just what you are looking for
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jvsalmon/charger/charger_index.html What
you are trying to do is what is called a colour gradation, you will
find info on that in the link.

[G.]

salmon,

thank you so much! thats exactly what i was looking for.