Cheap Art

The New Community Blog is Ready for Your Ideas

This is going to be a fast post today. I have no new artwork to share, and we haven’t received any new masks lately (the ghosts will be arriving any day now, folks – time’s flying by fast. Submit your Halloween-related items here and show them off to the world.) But I did manage to [...]

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Paper Clay – An Alternative to Paper Mache for Young Artists

Since this is a blog devoted to paper mache, what I’m about to say may seem like blasphemy–I’m going to suggest that paper mache may not be the best craft material for very young children. First, I’ll tell you why I think that’s true, and then I’ll tell you why I think paper clay is [...]

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Self-Publish an Illustrated Art Book, Part 3

So – let’s say you’ve finished the manuscript of your illustrated art book. Now what? How do you transform your manuscript from a file on your computer into a real-life book that’s available for you to buy and sell yourself, or for the public to buy from Amazon.com? The company discussed in the video is [...]

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Self-Publish Your Illustrated Art Book, Part 2

This is the second video in this series. In this one, I show you the software that I’m using to create my illustrated art how-to book. These are not usually recommended by self-publishing “experts,” (they usually prefer the much more expensive Adobe versions), but my total software investment was $100. Compare that to the total [...]

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How to Build a Book – Part 1

This video is the first of a short series showing you the tools I used to build my new book about paper mache clay. If you’ve ever considered writing or illustrating a book, but you let the idea drift away because you thought it would cost too much money or it would just be too [...]

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Bluebird Ornaments – 7-hr Bluebirds Revisited

A few weeks ago, Donnisha asked for some tips for making the 7-hr paper mache bluebirds into Christmas tree ornaments. What a great idea! I wrote the bluebird tutorial almost exactly 1 year ago so folks would have a fast, easy way to create a present for someone who loves handmade gifts. (I think most [...]

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My New Makeshift Photo Studio

This post shows the new tabletop photo studio I set up for taking pictures of my paper mache animal sculptures. The total cost includes a new Fujifilm FinePix S1500 camera, new daylight florescent bulbs and colored fabrics to be used as “seamless” backdrops. My little makeshift photo studio seems to work quite well for close-up [...]

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Two New Lion Cubs

My last two life-sized lion cubs are finished. This one is sleeping with her head on one paw. Her brother, below, is stalking one of the other lion cubs from the same litter, which I showed you on a previous post. This is the last of the big cats, at least for a while. They [...]

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Halloween Skeleton – in Progress

A few weeks ago a reader named Addie sent me an email describing her latest project – a full-sized skeleton made from PVC pipe and paper mache. Just thinking about all the challenges in a project like that makes my brain hurt, so I had great respect for Addie, even before she sent photos of [...]