Why do you want a drawing archive? The answer decides how you will organize your archive.
For me, seeing my own progress is the most important. My archive is a bit like a timeline.
Here’s my current folder:
First I have my main archive folder, dubbed “Tekenstudie” (Dutch for “Drawing Study”). That folder is divided into years and then into months (1 January, 2 February, 3 March, …). My commissions have a separate folder.
The file names have a set format: date – keywords – imag/ref/life – time
1. Date
I start with the date in the format YYYYMMDD, so I can easily compare pictures from a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, … As a bonus, the images are automatically sorted! When I use “sort by date”, the computer sorts when the file was created, not when the drawing was actually made 🙂
2. Keywords
Next, I pick at least one keyword. Why? When you compare old and new drawings, you understand your improvement better when you compare the same subject. We could compare this year’s dragons to last year’s calligraphy, but will that tell us how far we’ve come?
3. imag/ref/life
Now the third tag is very important: imag/ref/life. What does this mean? The tag “imag” is for a drawing made from my imagination. When I used an example, like a picture, I add “ref”, short for “reference”. If I drew from a real life object, the tag is “life” as in “drawing from life”. For a combination you could use a tag like “imag+ref”.
Why does this matter? Because the quality of your drawing changes with it. Your referenced work might be technically better, but maybe your work from imagination is more colourful and interesting. Your experience and style creates a gap between the work from imagination, reference and life… Comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges.
4. Time
Lastly, I keep track of how much time I spend drawing. This is a personal quirk, but I still think it’s interesting to note how long a drawing took you. Over time you get faster and it will be another way to show that you’ve improved. Or it shows you that you draw too fast! I need a course in Patience 101…
If you also want to sort by medium, you can make subfolders like “Oil”, “Digital”, “Sketchbook”. I don’t do this because I like the monthly overview. Oh, and because it feels better to open a stuffed folder and saying “woah, I drew a lot that month!” than opening a subfolder and saying “oh, I made seven ink paintings”.
If you were doubting how to sort your art, I hope this helps. Maybe you have a totally different system: tell me in the comments! How many of you have no system at all, but instead a bunch of files named “gfhljehu”? 😉
– Iris