Where the heck is that sketch?

Do you often find yourself searching for that sketch you did a while back?

Do you get frustrated looking through piles of paper for that exact sketch you know would be perfect?

Do you have a system?

If you don't, read on and hoepfully I can give you a great tip I am using to organize my drawings.

 

If you are like me, you sketch on paper, in pads, or whatever flat material that lies around.  And in my opinion nothing replaces the sketching on paper. I can sketch in bed, in a waiting room, looking at tv, talking on the phone... etc. 

I often sketch on the backs of paper too, because I can go through a lot of paper and isn't it often the case where that drawing that you were scribbling about comes out spectacular and it is, of course behind another drawing.  That also hinders my search of drawings and sketches. 

Do you also stuff your drawings in filing cabinets, drawers, piles on top of your drawing table, on shelves, in between books and pads... I hope I am not the only one ;-).

Anyhow in between working as a graphic designer and illustrating and trying to write, I search for my stuff alot!  I've tried different systems of organization... does organization and artist go in the same sentence?  Not for me, I'm a little disorganized.  But that really frustrated me and so I had to find my things quickly and I was really fed up at not being able to find them when I need them.  I mean I do not want to look everywhere, through the piles of paper to find what I need and it only gets worse when I am working on more than one project.  Needless to say, the more I would search for that " special " drawing the more disorganized my papers would get.  Filing was tedious and I did not like going through file folders.  So I just wanted to share with you what I do now to find that sketch, thumbnail or comp etc... and now when I am coming up with story ideas.  It's not that long and it hardly costs anything!

What you will need is binders, different colored ones. 

Indexes (you can also use your file folders cut in half and three hole punch them.

Then write on the tab of the file folder.

I separate them by theme such as :

manuscript, thumbnails, comps, character sketches, environment, stories etc...

When I work on a specific story, I put the manuscript I am working on in the front section, 

I keep a double spaced print.   I also make dummies and what I do is I use the plastic transparent sheets and stuff them in there.  There are binders that have pockets and you can put your dummies in there.

I gather all my papers and try to work as much as possible in a 8.5 x 11 format for sketching and that way it is easy to just three hole punch.  If you don't want to three hole punch your drawings, you can buy those plastic protective sleeves that you can insert in binders with a space that is already allocated for the three holes.  That way you see both sides of the paper and keep your drawing intact.

If your working on more than one project, use a couple of binders.  So the red is one thing and the blue another.  If you have more projects and you need more binders just write on the spine of the binder what the project is.

This way, I find you can quickly spot the binder, open the section 

and quickly flip through the pages and find what you need.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other way to find that little thumbnail, comp or drawing!

Keep drawing or writing... just keep being creative!
Anne-Marie

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