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CHOOSING YOUR PAPER by Pammy more here

Water colour paper is categorised by weight, in grams per square metre or pounds per ream, (500 sheets). 190gsm (90lb) 300gsm (140lb) 425gsm (200lb) 640gsm (300lb) Paper that is less than 200LB should ideally be stretched before use, but the size of the paper can affect this, you can generally get away without stretching small pieces of paper, except for the lightest (90lb), this will always need stretching.

We will do an exercise that will demonstrate the difference between two paper weights, two small paintings will result, the one painting on paper that only weighs 90lb, the other painting on paper that weighs 140lb, so that we can have the experience of working on both.

The lighter paper will buckle when the water soaks in to the surface, and will become difficult and cause problems. Ideally both these weights of paper should be stretched first, because they are only small pieces of paper we could manage without stretching the heavier paper, but the lighter one would always be better to work upon pre-stretched.

It is possible to stretch some paper, after the painting is complete, with the heavier papers, you can simply wet the back of the painting, then weight with a heavy object such as a book and leave to dry. This method would not solve the problems of buckling that happens on the lighter papers, and only pre-stretching will solve this. We now have the experience of working on three types of paper, as we mostly work on 200lb weight.