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1500 questions
42
votes
7 answers
How to cut a tiny circle in paper?
When papercutting, one often has to cut very small circles, like below. When I do that, I often break my blade. How should I cut small circles or other small holes? Think about ...
Should I apply pressure or not?
Should I only turn the knife on its…
Keelan
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37
votes
4 answers
What is the proper way to sharpen a pencil?
I wasn't aware that there could be a proper or improper way to sharpen a pencil till I read this (Keep pencil leads from breaking during transportation?):
I sharpen my drawing pencils the "proper" way, with a knife.
Why is sharpening with a knife…
Aquarius_Girl
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35
votes
10 answers
How can paper be glued to cardboard without creating wrinkles?
In my projects, I often wish to affix a piece of paper to a more rigid material, like cardboard, and to do so using relatively large sheets of paper (say, around a square foot or two). However, I find that it is very difficult to get the paper to…
Milo Brandt
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32
votes
3 answers
What is the advantage of having an angled drawing desk?
I grew up using normal desks in school and drawing in art class on tables. I have drawn on tables for most of my projects, but every artists desk has a lift to it.
What is the purpose of the varying angles of lift to the desk? Is this just a matter…
leigero
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27
votes
12 answers
How do I remove labels from glass jars/bottles?
Glass jars or bottles provide a great base material for many crafts, but the least expensive option (reusing food jars or wine bottles that would otherwise be discarded) require me to do some surface preparation. Specifically, I need to get the…
Erica
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25
votes
2 answers
Calligraphy pens not laying ink evenly
I have a few calligraphy kits, with an assortment of some 20 nibs among them. I believe most are Manuscript brand. They all take the cartridges, and are not dip pens.
Out of the box, none of them are laying down ink evenly for the full width of the…
user24
25
votes
4 answers
What are the advantages of watercolour paper over sketch paper?
I've been looking around for some paper for watercolour painting. Watercolour paper can be over double the price of sketch paper.
What makes watercolour paper better? Should I invest the money, and buy the watercolour paper, or save my money and…
Tim
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24
votes
9 answers
I need an alternative to leather
This is my first time trying to make a costume out of anything other than cardboard and sheets. I wanted to make Greek armour out of real leather but my mum said that real leather is very expensive and very hard to work with. So I started searching…
Cadence P.
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24
votes
6 answers
What are good ways to spray paint a QR code on a footpath?
The QR would be of a URL. The QR should be big enough like 4 A4 size papers. I though of cutting out the white boxes from a printed paper and spray on it but what about white dot islands. The precision needs to be good enough for a cell phone camera…
thevikas
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24
votes
6 answers
How can I avoid smudging my pencil drawings?
I'm very new at drawing. I'm not very good at pencil types yet, but it seems like whichever pencil I use (I have a set of 12 ranging from 6B to 5H), I end up with smudges.
Is there a way to reduce the number of smudges I make? Or should I resign…
Kareen
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23
votes
2 answers
I have a model with a latex allergy: what are my other options?
I do amateur make up for a local theater group. We have a few of our actors and extras that have latex allergies. Generally I simply avoid using prosthetics on them since I do not have a good solution.
So what are good options for people that can…
Chad
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22
votes
2 answers
Why do pencils offer a larger color variety than watercolors?
Please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I observe, you can easily get 100-150 colours in a set of pencils, but if you go for sets of watercolors, there's rarely more than 24-36.
Why so?
J. Doe
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22
votes
2 answers
Differences between HB pencils
Pencils seem to have different types:
From what I've seen, there's a few types:
HB
2HB
B
and so on.
What's the difference between all the different pencils? When do I use one or the other?
Zizouz212
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21
votes
3 answers
How can I safely sharpen a small craft knife?
I have a small craft knife (almost like a scalpel, really) that's become rather blunt over the years. It's no longer safe to use because it's so blunt, so I need to sharpen it.
What are the safest ways to do this, considering its small size?
The…
Åna
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21
votes
3 answers
Why are RGB and CMY the primary colors?
The RGB color model is supposed to describe how additive color works, and the CMY model how subtractive color works. But a number of things don't add up, some even appearing to violate laws of physics. Just a few examples:
Red, green, and blue…
fixer1234
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