If you've ever tried to ink some gutter lines on a comic page or any straight line with a ruler, & wound up with infuriating feathered ink smudges when removing your ruler, this post is for YOU!
I found a work around to this problem. Yeah, some rulers have a bevel, & it is an option to just flip that ruler 'upside down', leaving the beveled side down & keeping a small gap between the paper & the ruler edge...but some rulers are only beveled on one side, or not at all.
Here's what you can do to any ruler to keep all your edges useable & evenly gapped off the drawing surface: buy a roll of double sided tape, cut a few small pieces & stick them to the corners of your ruler, on both sides. (DON'T remove the piece of plastic covering the other adhesive side of the tape.) Then place a few extra where you feel the ruler flex, this is usually halfway between the first pieces.
Now you must keep in mind, standard ruler use allows you to swivel the body of your pen in all directions so long as the tip doesn't lift, BUT, with this modification, you must take special care to steady the angle of your pen while ruling a line. Any major deviation could allow the tip to wander under the gapped edge of the ruler.
50 practice lines & I'm sure you'll master this modified tool & never curse the gods for smearing your pristine pages with ink again!
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