Froissage Technique Mistakes and How to Fix Each One

Froissage looks effortless, but certain froissage technique mistakes come up again and again, in classrooms and in studios. The good news is that each has a clear cause and an easy fix. Use this page as a troubleshooting checklist alongside the step-by-step froissage guide.

1. The paper tears

What happens: The sheet rips when you open the crumpled ball, or splits along a crease when you add paint.

Causes:

• Paper too thin for the amount of water.
• Opening the ball by pulling the corners.
• Crumpling the same sheet too many times.
• Scrubbing with the brush on wet paper.

Fixes: Use 100-120 gsm drawing paper; open the ball from the middle outwards; crumple two or three times, not ten; lay the wash with a soft brush in one or two passes. If a small tear appears, it can become part of the image or be backed with a scrap during mounting.

2. The creases are invisible

What happens: After painting, the sheet looks like a flat wash with a few faint lines.

Causes:

• The wash is too dark or too opaque.
• Heavy paper crumpled loosely.
• Acrylic or gouache that sits on top instead of sinking in.

Fixes: Dilute the colour to “weak tea” strength; crumple tighter; switch to lighter paper; use ink or watercolour. Our page on froissage with ink and watercolour explains why washes gather in creases.

3. The colour turns muddy

What happens: Bright colours turn grey-brown, especially where creases meet.

Causes: Too many colours; mixing complementary colours (such as red and green) wet into wet; going back over a damp sheet.

Fixes: Limit the palette to two or three harmonious colours; let one layer dry before adding another; resist the urge to fix things while wet.

4. Puddles and blooms

What happens: Pools of colour collect in low areas and dry with hard edges or cauliflower-like blooms.

Causes: Too much water; an uneven sheet; drying on a tilted surface.

Fixes: Blot puddles with a tissue straight away; use less water; dry the sheet flat. Some artists like blooms, so decide whether this is a problem for your image.

5. Nothing appears in the creases

What happens: You stare at the sheet and see only lines.

Causes: Looking too closely, too soon, and expecting a complete picture.

Fixes: Turn the sheet through all four orientations; look from across the room; squint to simplify; photograph it and view it small on a phone. Start with something simple, such as a face, a bird or a mountain ridge, and let the creases supply the details. Leaving the sheet overnight often helps.

6. Overdrawing

What happens: The finished work looks like an ordinary drawing on wrinkled paper.

Causes: Outlining every crease or filling in large areas with pen.

Fixes: Draw only what the creases do not give you, such as eyes, a horizon or a few edges. Ladislav Novák’s froissages keep the crease network as the main structure of the image; see Ladislav Novák and froissage.

7. The drawing bleeds

What happens: Pen lines spread or blur.

Causes: Drawing on damp paper; water-soluble pens; adding washes over non-waterproof ink.

Fixes: Wait until the sheet is completely dry; use waterproof fineliners or Indian ink if you plan to add more washes.

8. The finished piece will not lie flat

What happens: The work curls and cockles and will not sit in a frame.

Causes: Uneven drying; heavy washes on thin paper.

Fixes: Press between clean sheets under weight for one to three days. Do not iron. See how to display froissage art.

9. Colours fade

What happens: A piece on the wall loses its colour within months.

Causes: Fugitive pigments (some inks, tea, coffee, markers) in direct light.

Fixes: Use lightfast colours for work you want to keep and hang it out of direct sunlight. The Library of Congress advises minimising light exposure for works on paper.

10. The creases never turn into a scene

What happens: the sheet looks interesting but abstract, and no picture emerges however long you look.

Why: you are looking for small figures in a sheet whose creases suggest something larger, or you are viewing it at too close a distance.

Fix: Step back and look for a horizon instead of a figure. A band of creases across the sheet often reads as a mountain range or coastline, and once you paint a sky above it the whole sheet becomes a landscape. Our guide to crumpled paper landscape painting shows several ways to do this. Other tricks help too: turn the sheet through all four orientations, squint so detail blurs, or look at it through a small window cut in scrap paper. If you are working with a group, swap sheets; someone else will often see an image you missed. The tendency to find images in random patterns is called pareidolia, and our page on pareidolia in art has exercises to train it.

Prevention: Crumple at least twice so the crease network is dense, and use a darker final wash so the creases are clearly visible before you start looking.

Quick checklist

Problem	Most likely cause	First thing to try
Tearing	Paper too thin	100-120 gsm paper
Invisible creases	Wash too dark	Dilute more
Mud	Too many colours	Two-colour limit
Puddles	Too much water	Blot, dry flat
No image	Looking too close	Rotate, step back
Overdrawn	Too much pen	Draw less

For choosing the right paper and colour in the first place, read froissage materials.