Artist Advice

That is a common problem with tech pens. The heavier and more aggressive you erase, the more ink will come off. Some things you can do to help:

• sketch lighter so you can erase lighter
• after erasing, go back and re-ink areas
• use steel nib pens or brushes
• use a draftsman cleaning bag (a cloth bag filled with eraser dust). Its not as effective as a rubber eraser, but great for large areas, light pencil marks, and smudges. 
• experiment with different paper. A heavier bristol paper will absorb the ink better.
• Lightbox your image and ink it on another sheet of paper.

-Pencilcat

If I could just add to the help you gave the Anon looking for help with the ink coming off the paper when they erase their pencil lines, they could try using plastic erasers like the Staedtler Mars Plastic ones you get in most stationary and art shops. They can prevent ink being lifted from pages and they’re cheap. And leaving the ink to soak into the paper for a few minutes extra might be beneficial too.

@ the ink anon, if working on bristol paper, which i find works nice with markers + inks, doesnt bleed a lot, letting it set for five minutes works before erasing works fine, but you’ll still probably need to go over a couple of lines, especially if youre erasing hard. If youre working on marker paper, as the name says, paper made specifically for makers and inks, i find using a kneadable eraser works better than a regular white eraser.

tsaizheng replied:

also @ inking anon: I always run a kneaded eraser over a sketch before I ink it; this lightens the sketch and you don’t have to erase as hard to remove the lines (if at all!). I agree with the other inking suggestions as well.