I've been enjoying more of this email discussion with a reader and it's getting me to think out some things, which is fun, so here's a bit more of the thoughts on my comic art that it's gotten me to write out : ) :
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What I like for corrections/effects is a waterproof white--I think acrylic--stuff called Deleter 2; you can even mix it with watercolor for tinted opaque layers, and probably more pages of mine than not have Deleter 2 on them in one or more places. ^ _^
The thing is I suppose that I actually like making a mess of things. = D I even feel kind of uncomfortable about it when I somehow manage to do a page where I didn't have to go back and blot over anything. There's something about having a messy aspect to a page that--well, I suppose I just have fun MAKING the mess, but I think also it gives my mind more room to play as I look at the image, and I enjoy that, too.
So at any rate, getting a flawless image is not my aim. (In fact, not that I do it on purpose, but I have long felt that well, if I have an obvious flaw--a similar strategy to Downton's wash eyes, I suppose--then the reader won't notice the multitude of less obvious flaws. ^ _^) Now that I think of it, although I really liked the Marvel superhero comics I was reading as a teen in the mid to late 80s, for instance, and liked drawing, I never seriously considered trying to be a comic artist back then because I didn't feel like I could make such polished drawings (and if I'd known what the original comic art looked like in person back then I'd probably have felt that even more!). I didn't come to A* until I was quite a bit older and had worked in other fields for a while, and for The Man, and I guess finally felt like, well, this is what I can do and I enjoy it so I'm just gonna do it my way. ^ _^ And part of that seems to be having fun making messes and being able to say "To heck with it!" = D I have in the past tried to do nice clean work but invariably found that it felt physically uncomfortable to do and resulted in something remarkably stiff and soul-less. It just doesn't seem to be how I work.
Also, I should warn you that my long-term goal is slowly to make the comic weirder and weirder. ; D I'm not sure if that will manifest through the art *style* so much, but now that you've got me thinking of it, it might. I certainly can't expect that I'll get much neater with age, anyhow. ; ) = D