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Xadrea — Artwork Storage and Protection
Published: 2011-05-16 16:25:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 5188; Favourites: 99; Downloads: 127
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Description
Alrighty then! I've been planning on making this tutorial like all year! Knowing how to keep your work safe and sound is super important, and this is tutorial will give you the cheapest and easiest ways of doing so! Of course, if you can afford better, by all means DO BETTER, but if you're like me, and can't, I think these methods which are tried and true by me should be able to get you by!Also, this tut is in two parts, the next one will deal with how digital artists should save work, and photo documentation of your traditional works
I hope it's helpful!
edit: links! links for everyone! [link]
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Comments: 63
I've heard a lot of conflicting views on printer paper. What's exactly wrong with it?
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My first beef with it is it has no tooth, it's extremely smooth. Personally I like drawing on surfaces with a bit of texture. But the main thing about it is the paper is non archival. There is acid from the wood paper is made of that degrades and eats the paper (it's what causes yellowing and makes paper crumble to dust) Printing paper is ok if you're not creating masterpieces on it, or if it's quick studies. But if you're doing serious work, selling anything, or doing anything for school, skip the printer paper and go for artist's paper
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Ah. I like the smoothness. Mostly just for the feeling rather than how it affects drawing. But I really had no clue that that happened. Thanks.
A quick question, is there anything wrong with using smooth paper?
I guess I'll use printer paper for preliminary sketches and non-art stuff.*has a whole pack*
it's probably a good thing I got so many sketchbooks for my birthday then. Thanks for explaining. ^^
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oh there's nothing wrong with smooth paper at all! if that's what you want to draw on, you can indeed get artists paper which is smooth as glass ^ ^ the feeling of the paper under the pencil is pretty important
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Ah, thanks for letting me know. I found that I ended up with more smudges on paper that wasn't too smooth.
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no problem! it's a trial and error thing with supplies sometimes lol, you find out what works and go with it!
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...woops, so I actually put that on here haha
Ah well, the feature kinda went out to both tutorials, so doesn't matter much
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I've featured this as Daily Feature on the front page of #deviantART-Related
#deviantART-Related is the unofficial group for the dA related gallery, and our Daily Feature is a private initiative to serve as an alternative to DDs while there's no GM for the gallery
We featured your tutorial for today with the following description;
Whether you're a digital painter, a musician or a writer - How to Backup Digital Artwork by =Xadrea helps anyone who has his or her work stored digitally to keep it safe. (And for Traditional Artists there's always her Artwork Storage and Protection tutorial too!)
Given 2011-05-22
Featured by `namenotrequired
Keep it up
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daaaaw! well thanks!
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Welcome! 
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Hah, I have two portfolios because of my art studies.
In my case I have a huge one where I put my college work, and I've just stored all of my sketches in my desk.
I had forgotten about racks! I don't have room for those but it's a good idea for later.
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Alt least now i know when i can use printer paper (for study,sketch,journal,doodle,etc) and when i should use sketchbook paper (for serious artwork). thank you
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Oh YAY! It's finally up!
I hope I've learned the stuff about papers earlier ;;v;; /looks at yellowish papers with old work
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there is natural acids in paper pulp that degrade the paper over time, basically it eats itself, which is why non acid free papers yellow and become brittle or disinegrate over the years. some do it faster than others, but when you make and store art, you are doing so with about 100 years in mind
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now THAT's something really interesting! I'll pay extra attention to this attribute from now on! ^^
btw... I saw in a comic a character spraying her pencil-works with something... do you happen to know what could that be as well? XD
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it's called fixative (fixatif), it keeps the pencil (or whatever else you're drawing with) from subbing off the paper, but you can still work back into it by erasing or drawing more ^ ^
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sounds like a treasure!
*notes down on shopping list*
Thankiiiieeeeees!
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Very good! I totally forgot about racks! I have 3 portfolio cases, one huge "green" case for work above 18x24, one durable hardcore leather case for storage, and one super heavy duty waterproof portable one for on the go and additional storage.
I'd like to add one additional detail for preservation. I like to use manilla envelopes inside the portfolio cases as well. It'll help guard against the corners getting damaged and possible bowing.
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lol sounds like you're all set then!
and yeah! manila cases sound like a really cool idea! plus their lightweight too! i'd never even think about it
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I did better in art when I only had humble printer papers and pencils... then things about art medium start to becoming fetish
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well, you know, its just me, or maybe some did become to too~ when one starts to think that in order to get better, one must have the better quality medium, then it starts to becoming the reason for one to start doing things, not actually pouring the idea down.
tl;dr, "must.... have... expensive tools, better tools, then i can start to work/break my art block"
in this case, its the paper, i think I did well in drawing on printer paper, but now I have lots of other kinds of paper, just to look for "Bristol"-feel paper, without doing anything much(except after i just bought the other one). 
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oh i see, well for that you'll just have to remind yourself that the quality of your work isn't entirely dependent upon it's physical make up ^ ^ although having better materials gives you more incentive, it isn't the end all
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I'm not a drawer but a writer, but it's helfpul anyway! Thanks
Also, it'd be helpful if you put those links in the artist's comments so we can click them rather than having to copy them to the url bar
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reminder to do so!
Ah, alright!
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There's a problem...if you do use sketchbooks to store drawings, you might not be able to scan from them most of the time.
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that's not true, i scan from my sketchbooks all the time lol, it all comes down to problem solving ^ ^
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If you mean scanning this stuff in one piece at a time, wouldn't that make your pictures look slightly choppy?
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i'm not sure how that would make things look choppy? because it doesn't lol, a sheet is a sheet is a sheet, whether it's attached to the bound portion or not, i scan every image one at a time, why would you try to scan more than one? you only scan one when you do it with single sheets anyways lol
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I meant if you had a sketchbook larger than the scanner.
As for pages, I'm worried about that dark portion near the spine of the book.
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lol that's not likely, most scanners are fairly accomadating, and you know you can crop off any parts of the paper that are too close the spine digitally... i don't usually draw that far up either so that the page can be removed if need be without harming the drawing
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@.@ That part about the paper I already know about, but until sketchbooks come down in price and up in paper, I'm having to stick to print paper.
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well, always remember you don't have to buy name brand to get decent artists paper. you can buy sketching paper at drugstores too that is acid free and pretty cheap, and i've even used white construction paper at times (acid free too) because it's very cheap ^ ^
when i suggested sketchbooks, i didn't mean spend 10 bucks on one lol, even i don't do that
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D8> They're more like 4-5 dollars, where a 500 pack of printer paper is only about 2-3.
I only see 2-3 brands of paper wherever I go, some green covered one for top folding, and strathmore and carolinapad for spiral bound.
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