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GENERAL HELPFUL ART TIPS SMUDGE-PROOF Nothing is worse than having smudge marks all over your delicate pencil drawing. They’re annoying to erase, and have a tendency to mess up your original lines. But alas, there is a few solutions that you can take, here are the two main ones I’ve worked out.  When you’re in the middle of a drawing, that’s usually when a lot of smudging occurs, especially if you’re like me, with hands that drag along the paper. What you can do is find a piece of paper, and place it on top of the area already drawn, so your hands can move freely without worrying about messing up existing lines. Of course always leave a peak of the lines so you can continue off it, unless your paper is transperant.
Now, lets go onto storing the drawings, especially with sketch books, since the pages shift a lot. A good thing to note is: do not draw pencil sketches on both sides of the paper! This is like a double-smudge action, where they rub off against each other, and the result isn't pretty. I know, I’ve done it, and it ruins everything! Some people like to wedge blank pieces of paper between the pages, but that still tends to smudge a bit. So what I like to do is use glossy paper, because the surface is smooth, and the pencil can’t find a grip to smudge on. I have some transparency sheets that are perfect because it protects the sketch, but you can still see it because it’s clear! But you don’t have to go out and buy them, because they’re quite costly, I just had them left over from a project. As long as the surface is smooth and slippery, you can use anything, really. HIDE THOSE MISTAKES!  Mistakes. How we cringe whenever we make one. But it’s part of the learning process and if you never make any mistakes...well. You’re just not normal. If you can spot out the faults you’ve done, that’s great! It means you’re learning and can tell what doesn’t look “right.” This gives you ample to work on for the next try.
But there is a way to mask your mistakes and falters. If you’re like me, and like to jump into a drawing using ink (or any other non-erasable media) without any guideline drawing, you make mistakes all the time. A great thing to keep in mind is when you make a mistake, draw a line wrong, or accidently splotch: Make it work. Incorporate your mistake with the rest of the drawing. Maybe make it into the design and build off the line you’ve misplaced. For instance, if you angle the shoulders awkwardly, just play off the line and form it into a part of the clothing. Add a cape, head-dress, anything. A great way to mask mistakes, especially regarding mis-formed proportions is making it into a tattoo. Tattoos are abstract and incorporate a lot of design, so blending your unwanted line into a mass of tattoos can work out pretty well. Mistakes aren't always bad. You can form an idea that sprung for a little ol' line you mis-drew that you would have never thought of. To perfect mistake masking involves a lot of creativity, so let your imagination run rampant. POSING AND POSES This section isn’t about how to pose exactly, but more on tips to get a pose. If you’re having trouble with posing, the best thing to do is to find a picture of the actual stance you want. Remember, you can’t draw a pose unless you know how it actually looks like. The reason why a lot of poses turn awkward is because the artist only knows vaguely how it looks like, instead of exactly. The body is a tricky thing; if you angle an arm a certain way, you’re going to need to change the angle of the back, chest, torso as well. Everything is connected to each other, so if something moves, another is bound to, too. With a picture, you have the exact proportions, joints, placement and everything you need. As odd as it sounds, the less clothes your reference picture has, the better. That way you don’t have any material blocking your view from seeing the body, because that again, would make you do guess work, which is not what you want!  Also, try combining different reference photos together and try to differ your own artwork from your reference as much as possible.
If you don’t have a photo with you, or can’t find the right one, just use, well...yourself. You can manipulate your body to get the exact pose you want. Take a picture, or simple use a mirror. (Note: nope, that photo is not me) Those wooden posing dolls can also be very handy, but even those aren’t as flexible as an actual human, and the hands are usually just clumps of wood, so you’ll have no help in that area. I know I bought one of those, but honestly, haven’t been using it much... OUTLINING With outlining, it applies to plenty of mediums, from inking, pencil, and even digital coloring. To make a picture really just pop out of the pages, use thick to thin lines, and thin to thick lines. Don't limit yourself to only outlining in black. Try different colors!  Instead of just simply drawing/inking the picture with a normal line, the thick lines add emphasis in certain areas, while as the thin can soften it up. In the example here, you can see clearly the difference in thickness. These lines usually start in corners or the arch of a curve, then fade out, in this case, his jaw. If you gradually thin out your line ever-so slightly, it’ll add a more natural look. If you thin out your line right away, it adds a harsher look, such as the outline of the face in the example. But if you look at the lips, you notice that the lines are less dramatically thinned out, so the focus is with the entire lip itself, instead of maybe, the corner of it.
When it comes to outlining with ink, go through your lines several times, but delicately so the ink doesn’t blotch out too much. Study your tip to see in which were the ink pours out to avoid facing the paper with it. Because it can distribute out too much ink at once. SHADING WITH INK  There are four main types of shading when it comes to ink, atleast, that I’ve done. Shading techniques with ink, of course, applies to other mediums too, especially pencil. It's all in the effect you prefer. Even mix them up, don't stick with just one type, combine a few together. The drawing on the right, is a combination of stipple and cross-hatching, which I find, fits neatly together.
 1. Hatching - shading with only one set of lines, usually at an angle. The effect is more spaced out but the closer your lines are, the darker your shading will be, so keep that in mind when you’re trying to achieve a gradient (light to dark, dark to light).
 2. Cross-Hatching - same technique as the hatch shading, but instead of having one set of diagonal lines, you have another set that overlaps it. Cross-hatching is a great way to add texture to your shadows, and looks great from a distance too. Adding more lines at various angles on corners and edges makes the fold look "deeper," like you see in this example.
 3. Stipple Shading - pretty much means shading with tiny dots. This type gives off a more airbrushed feel and the closer you space the dots, the darker the area will be. The size / diameter of your dot also influences the look. With speckles, you have to be careful that your dots don’t have a tail because that won’t give you’re the right effect. Your hand has to sort of, spasm, and vibrate to get a lot of dots at once, which can make it ache! Also note that the placement of the dots should be random, and not in a particular pattern, or line.
 4. Solid Shading - where your shadows are completely black, and filled in. This doesn’t have the textures that the other shadings do, but adds a blocky look. It’s also easy to achieve; just outline your shadow, and fill it in. Simple as that. Try just shading in your shadows instead of outlining. You can get a great silhouette look that way.
USING WATER TO SHADE WITH INK  To get water-color like shading, without actually using watercolors can be useful if you don’t have them on hand. It also adds a great smudgy, and blurry effect, making an picture more appealing to look at.It’s simple and easy, just take a brush and wet it. I don’t suggest using a really expensive, or important brush, because depending on your ink, some might still stay on the brush. Avoid white bristles! If you don’t have a brush, you can even use some tissue, fold it so it has a nice tip, and wet that. With the moist tip, run it along an area of the inked lines. The ink of course, can’t be water resistant, like a Sharpie, or else it won’t work. Just treat it as you would a painting,  making sure that the brush picks up ink from the lines. If you’re having trouble with getting the ink, go to a dark area, pick up the color from there and bring it back to the place you’re working on. With the example, I had to pick up the ink from the hair area to use on the face. You’ll also find that you have to wet your brush many, many times.
How dark your shade is depends on how water-soluble your ink is, or how many times you run your brush along. For the example there, I had to run water along it quite a few time. I used a Pilot ink pen, which I find, seems to smudge better when you use a tissue on thick sketchbook paper. Which reminds me, beware of soggy paper! Use thick paper, or if possible, watercolor paper. Press is down with a heavy stack of books when it’s semi-dried, but if you’re using thin paper, it still tends to wrinkle. WATER-COLOR BORDER  Alright, so here's something that’s really easy. To get a border around a watercolor drawing, what you do it find masking tape (don’t use extremely sticky tape, like box tape, because it’ll just rip the edges) and place it evening along all four sides. Press firmly so that no paint can go underneath the
tape, but not too firmly, so you’ll have difficulty taking it off. Paint your little picture on top, and it's important to "bleed the edges." Which pretty much means; overlap the tape with paint. When you’re done, simply remove it gently and gingerly. And voila, a neat white border.
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