Artist Tips: How I handle ink mistakes

Artist Tip: How I deal with ink mistakes 

I love working with pen and ink. It’s definitely a challenge to create by hand, especially since there is no CTL Z when you make a mistake. Some of my mistake where when a drop of ink would falls, usually I can work it into the design. As Bob Ross would say “We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” 

Sometimes mistakes are too big to ignore, well in my kind of work, So I’ve had to run a few experiments to find a way to remove spilled ink. I did do some research on the internet as well. Some tips out there didn’t work or caused more damage than good. 

A few techniques I’ve seen on the internet simply do not work. 

Someone suggested letting the ink dry and then simply using an Exacto knife and slicing the top layer of paper where the undesirable ink lays. I tried this technique, for this to work you have to have a very steady delicate hand and the ink can not be so heavy it seeps through the top layer. I personally did not like this way of ink removal at all. You are damaging the paper and this damage can be seen in the final product. 

Two is using bleach. Some will state this works because you are bleaching the paper back to white. Most papers do go through a bleaching process. However I found that using household bleach not only makes the paper smell it also turns the paper yellow making your small mistake into a larger problem. The bleach often spreads and soaks into the paper, making a small dot grow into about 1/4 inch yellow stain. Bleach also damages the texture of the paper making it thinner and almost looks like its been torn.

What I have found to have worked is a two step process depending on the severity of the mistake. 

Here are three things that I found that really helps me. 

One : If you are quick enough you can reverse ink splat mistakes by simply using paper towels. What you do is take a corner of paper towel into the drop of ink. The ink should slowly soak into the paper, continue to us clean paper when the ink stops seeping into the paper towel. A lot of time you can get majority of the ink out of the paper doing this or very close. Be careful not to dip the paper towel into the ink too deeply, if you do this you can cause the drop to spread making the mess even bigger. 

I use nail polish as a substitute for rubbing alcohol.

Two: If there is ink still left over the next step is to use alcohol with a q-tip. If you have rubbing alcohol nail polish remover works just as well. Soak the q tip in the alcohol and gently dap and rub the ink out the paper. You want to be very careful when doing this rubbing as too aggressive can peel or tear your paper noticeably. 

Three If you don’t want to risk damaging the part you can use Dr Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White . To use this solution you must dilute it with water. If you do not, once dried it will crack and flake off the paper. You want the solution to be little thicker than watercolors. Then just simply paint over it. The only reason why I don’t use this too often is if the paper you are working on is not bright white you may see where you painted once it dried. 

There you have it. The three techniques I use when I make a mistake that needs to be fixed and the two tricks I would never use. Keep in mind some mistakes can also be fixed digitally or you always have the option to start over, which I’ve done many times.

The illustration after the ink mistakes were corrected.