83. How to Create a Digital Catalog and Archive for your Art

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spk_0 Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Self-Tot Artist Podcast.

spk_0 The podcast will be explore all things related to being a self-tot artist.

spk_0 I'm your host, Lauren Christine and today we are talking all about creating a digital

spk_0 archive and a digital catalog of your artwork. Whether you are, you know, a serious

spk_0 semi-professional artist or just making art for the sheer joy of creating, having a

spk_0 digital archive can be a game changer and a very useful and I'd say, I mean, just an educational,

spk_0 a self-educational self-development tool, almost. Before we dive into our topic, we are going

spk_0 to start with our review of the week. This is the time when I remind all of you to leave

spk_0 me five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and write me a review on Apple Podcasts. That

spk_0 is where today's review comes from. It is from Teeny Eagle or Tiny Eagle and they write

spk_0 the headline is Not a Newbie. I am not a super new artist but I'm so happy to have found

spk_0 this show. You present information clearly, it doesn't sound gimmicky or condescending.

spk_0 You answer questions that I didn't even know that I had. I look forward to every episode

spk_0 and come away learning something new each time. Thank you. This one is so great. I love

spk_0 what you said about. I answer questions that I didn't even know I had. That is fabulous.

spk_0 That really makes me smile and makes me radiate with joy to know that I'm helping you on your

spk_0 journey. All right. So to all of you out there who have yet to write me a review, please do that.

spk_0 That definitely helps support the show. Let's get into our topic of the week.

spk_0 Lately, I have been writing the wave of a relentless organizational mission throughout my entire

spk_0 living situation and I am aiming to lay a sturdy foundation for order and calm in every

spk_0 nook and cranny of my life. Well, that's my goal at least. It has been a journey of crafting

spk_0 systems, discovering the perfect solution for every organizational problem and trying to find

spk_0 homes for all the little items in my house and really just trying to simplify my living spaces.

spk_0 Make sure that all the stuff around me is organized and things that I love, not stuff that I'm

spk_0 just holding on to. So naturally, my organization mission has extended into my art studio as well.

spk_0 For the longest time, I've been yearning to get my studio organized. My creative space was a

spk_0 testament to the chaos of inspiration. You know, stacks of canvases leaned haphazardly against the wall,

spk_0 a jungle of brushes and paints taken over my desk, my easel stacked with multiple paintings and

spk_0 paper and canvas all on top of another. It was clear that I needed to address the physical clutter,

spk_0 but what I was forgetting as I was doing all this cleaning was the importance of getting my

spk_0 digital house in order. As an artist, I have found myself constantly generating digital content.

spk_0 Normally, it's photos of works in progress, scans of sketches, photos of paintings that I took,

spk_0 perhaps to make prints of photos of paintings I took before I shipped off the paintings to their

spk_0 collectors and obviously inless drafts of project ideas and mocked up project ideas. All of these

spk_0 digital fragments were very, very scattered across various devices and folders, making it difficult

spk_0 to track my artistic journey. I realized that if I ever wanted to completely

spk_0 you know, simplify this and really get it in order, I needed to bring

spk_0 some system to the digital chaos. So I started on a journey to organize my digital realm,

spk_0 the digital pieces of my artistic practice. As some of you know, I don't actually do any digital

spk_0 art to be very clear. I'm not talking about stuff I've made on Photoshop or Procreate. I make all

spk_0 of my art the old fashioned way with paint and drawing and physical art, but even with that,

spk_0 I took so many works in progress photos and I have a lot of photos of completed art and scans,

spk_0 so that's what I'm talking about. But either way, so I began creating a digital journal of sorts,

spk_0 a big one note notebook to record my thoughts, ideas and reflections on my artistic progress.

spk_0 And that became a place where I could keep all of the little things that I wanted to keep track of

spk_0 in my artistic world. Now all of this is a work in progress I will add, but I also tackled the

spk_0 sprawling mess of digital files. So I instituted a catalog system that involved naming and

spk_0 categorizing my files, mostly so I could keep track of what year I created them in, so I can really

spk_0 track my progress over time. So whether these were artwork drafts, reference images or project notes,

spk_0 it was like creating a roadmap to my creative evolution. And the goal of this is long term to make

spk_0 locating specific files easier and make it so that I can look back at my past artistic works and

spk_0 reference them and use them if needed. Look, this is a work in progress. Any system is only as good as

spk_0 you maintain it. So once you get a system for your digital storage, it really is more about

spk_0 the maintenance and the upkeep and sticking to your system once you have it in place. So that's what

spk_0 I am trying to focus on. Going through all my back catalog is hard work. Little by little, I work on

spk_0 chunks, but I just figure if I can get everything set going forward, I know that's a huge part of the

spk_0 battle already one. I think about it like a gift to my future self. If I can get a system in place now,

spk_0 catalog my past stuff as best as I can, but just stick to my system going forward,

spk_0 then that is going to be, as I mentioned, that the majority of the battles already one in that case.

spk_0 Okay, so in today's episode, I'm just talking about my process of digitizing things, and then I

spk_0 am going to talk to you about why you should bother creating a digital catalog of your art and

spk_0 how to do it. Let's see. So in my personal process, I embrace cloud storage, which not only

spk_0 provided a secure backup for my work, but it also ensured accessibility from any device.

spk_0 And I will say it's been really nice, and that's brought a lot of clarity to my creative life,

spk_0 knowing that I can go back and reference things. Because like for example, this is one example of how

spk_0 it's useful. I right now have a vision of creating a really, really big piece of art for behind my couch.

spk_0 And I remember there was a piece that I made probably two years ago now that I loved, and it was,

spk_0 it was small, it was maybe 11 by 14 or 12 by 16, and I loved this piece. It sold really, really quickly.

spk_0 And you know, I remember it in my head a certain way, but you know, the details are fuzzy.

spk_0 Thanks to my digital archive that I have, when I keep thinking back to that prior piece, I actually have

spk_0 photos and progress like process photos that I can go back to of that painting. So that now when I

spk_0 create my bigger version of it, or you know, it's similar, I'm going to be able to use that as a

spk_0 starting point, and I'm not going to be guessing how I achieved the effects that I did.

spk_0 This particular painting has a lot of rich layering in it. And so because I have these process

spk_0 photos, and I have the really high quality image of the finished work that I took before I ship to

spk_0 the collector, that gives me so much information that I can use to kind of skip ahead a few chapters

spk_0 when I'm making this version 2.0. So I'm very excited about that painting and the works. Right now,

spk_0 it's very much in my brain. It hasn't happened yet, but I am using my digital archive to make it happen.

spk_0 So that is one example of how this is helpful. So that's just one way that my artistic journey

spk_0 is documented both tangibly and in its digital footprint. And I just want to remind you that

spk_0 getting organized in your studio spring cleaning, if you will, is not just about what you can see,

spk_0 but it's also about creating a digital space for your creativity to flourish and that back catalog

spk_0 so that you can hold on to it and have it when you need.

spk_0 Yes, so this is you know today's big topic, digital artist archives. I'm most curious if you

spk_0 already have a way that you archive your past work or keep a catalog. So I'm very curious about

spk_0 that. What you guys are already doing. I'll say in addition to the digital photos of my art,

spk_0 I also keep a very detailed blog of who buys what paintings from me and where those paintings

spk_0 end up in the world. Mostly I started doing that out of the goal achiever in me. I wanted to have

spk_0 paintings in all 50 states or at least track how many states my paintings have gone to.

spk_0 And so I kept a really big spreadsheet. It's actually a Google sheet so I can keep adding to it

spk_0 over time and that has been really great to have because I know where all my pieces are and what

spk_0 I sold where and what each collector has. So if you are starting to sell your artwork, I would

spk_0 encourage doing that from the very beginning and it can be as simple as a spreadsheet in Google,

spk_0 Google Drive, or you could put it in Excel. Creating a digital archive and catalog of your work

spk_0 is a practice that many artists both professional and hobbyists I think can benefit from. So it's not

spk_0 just for people who want to sell their work. Professional artists obviously use it as a very critical

spk_0 part of their careers. I know that pros track where their paintings end up like way more than I do.

spk_0 But in my opinion, there's no reason why hobbyists can't adopt these practices for our own

spk_0 art journeys. I do think that having that record of your past pieces is a valuable tool that allows

spk_0 all of us to organize our work, appreciate our artistic progress and how far we've come. And as

spk_0 I mentioned, find inspiration in past pieces. So I this is just one area where I've learned from

spk_0 professionals. And in this regard, we self-taught artists can enhance our own art practice. And this

spk_0 is something all of us can embrace as a way to enrich our creative endeavors. So let me just dive

spk_0 into a few very specific reasons. I can think of why you, dear listener, should bother creating a

spk_0 digital catalog in the first place. So let's talk about the benefits. Number one, the first and most

spk_0 obvious one I thought of, organization. Keeping track of your artwork in a digital format makes it

spk_0 very easy to find specific pieces, especially as you're a portfolio grows. Number two, showcasing

spk_0 your progress. I love growth and proof of growth because sometimes development happens and it's so

spk_0 slow and it's so subtle, you don't even realize it's happening or your artistic skill is getting

spk_0 better and better. But you don't really notice it because for you, it's just happening little and

spk_0 every day with your practice. Well, if you have a digital archive or a digital catalog or even just

spk_0 a spreadsheet with old photos of old pieces, that is a fantastic way to track your artistic journey

spk_0 and see how your skills evolve over time, how different things influence you. You can look in

spk_0 hindsight and see if there were certain influences on your work or maybe something that happened

spk_0 in your life at that time, impacted your art and you may be able to see those patterns. Very cool

spk_0 stuff. Number three, marketing. If you ever decide to sell your art or promote your artwork online,

spk_0 having a digital reference catalog available is super duper helpful. It helps you keep track of what

spk_0 you've made, what you've sold and where your pieces ended up and which collectors bought them.

spk_0 So for example, I have gotten messages before from people and they said, oh, hey, I got one of your

spk_0 past pieces and I really want a companion piece to it. I don't have to ask them, oh, what piece

spk_0 are you talking about? Who are you again? I just go to my spreadsheet. I go, I look up what painting

spk_0 was it? What was the title? I can then look in my drop box and find photos of it, progress photos.

spk_0 I can see what colors I use just from looking at the photo. All of that makes great marketing.

spk_0 So if you are aspiring to sell your art, start cataloging your work now.

spk_0 Number four, the fourth reason to create a digital catalog or record of your artwork.

spk_0 Joy, let's not forget the sheer joy of it all. Creating a digital archive and catalog of your

spk_0 artwork is not just about practicality, my friends. It is about celebrating your creative journey.

spk_0 Personally, as I mentioned, I use mine to track all the states where I've sold artwork

spk_0 and watching that less grow has been incredibly satisfying. It's like a visual map of my artistic

spk_0 success. Plus, it really does. If I look back at some of my art from 2020 and then I look on my

spk_0 wall at what I see that I'm painting now, it's very cool to reflect on how far I've personally

spk_0 come as an artist. And sometimes you'll browse through it. You'll stumble upon old artwork that you

spk_0 may have forgotten about that may inspire new ideas or give me the urge to re-explore something in a

spk_0 eye-find. For me, it's something I haven't done as much of, but I know that a lot of professional

spk_0 artists, very serious artists, they look back in their archive all the time for inspiration.

spk_0 Think about fashion designers, fashion houses. They are the masters of going back through the

spk_0 archive, looking at what they have, looking at that digital time capsule of their artistry,

spk_0 picking something, picking a motif, picking a pattern, picking a silhouette,

spk_0 putting a twist on it, and then reinventing it for the future for the modern day.

spk_0 So I think we should all be like those fashion houses and keep records because that is what we can

spk_0 pull from in the future. Now, if you're anything like me, the thought of the words, digital archive,

spk_0 or catalog, that starts to sound overwhelming. So how do you create this digital archive without

spk_0 getting overwhelmed? Well, we're going to keep it simple. We're going to use readily available tools

spk_0 like Google Sheets, Excel. I mean, it could even be a word processor, just simple old Microsoft word.

spk_0 So breaking it down step by step, what I would tell you to do is number one, choose your tool.

spk_0 I think Google Sheets and Google Forms is a great way to go. It's free, cloud-based and

spk_0 accessible from anywhere within internet connection. If you're tech savvy, I actually recommend this

spk_0 trick of creating a Google Form where you create a Google Form like a Google Survey, if you will,

spk_0 that you can bookmark on your computer and every time you make a new piece of art,

spk_0 you enter the information into a Google Form and that structures the information into a spreadsheet

spk_0 is what the output is. So once you fill out the form and you hit submit, it adds it to a spreadsheet

spk_0 and then all of the information is structured so you can sort the answers very easily.

spk_0 I think in a perfect world, that is the best option because it makes it so easy to comply with

spk_0 and you can make it a part of your workflow. The hard part of any system is remembering to do it.

spk_0 So if you have a form and you bookmark it on your phone, you can just click it,

spk_0 enter the info and take a quick snapshot on your phone, upload it and voila.

spk_0 At the end, you have a spreadsheet populated with all of the information.

spk_0 So if you can figure out how to make a Google Form, I think that is the number one best way to go.

spk_0 I think that's my number one big trick of this episode is create a form and use that.

spk_0 Now you can also just use a plain Google Sheets spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel. That's a great

spk_0 Microsoft word. You can just create a word document and start there. That is very simple. You just

spk_0 upload a photo, put in some information and then you can have a running list. It's not the most

spk_0 structured. So at some point, your word document could, the system could break, you could outgrow it,

spk_0 but at least you have all the information in one place and that is more than half the battle.

spk_0 All right. So let's say you're convinced you want to do one of these things. Well, step two is

spk_0 you've got to decide what information you want to include in your digital catalog or digital archive.

spk_0 Here is what I would recommend. All right, the title, put the title of your artwork,

spk_0 the date created, when did you complete the piece?

spk_0 The medium record what materials did you use if relevant? Some of us, you know,

spk_0 we're pretty straightforward. It's either acrylic watercolor and you pretty much know.

spk_0 But let's say you dabble between oil paint and acrylic paint. Well, you may not be able to

spk_0 tell from a photo which one you use. So you may want to record what the medium was.

spk_0 Next number four, I'd say you definitely want to include the size. What are the dimensions of your artwork?

spk_0 If you'd like, you can then put number five, a brief description or you could include the story or

spk_0 inspiration behind the piece. Six, I would put the price if applicable. If you're selling your art,

spk_0 I do think it is very helpful to keep a record of what you sold it for and watch over time how you

spk_0 can increase your prices, hopefully. Let's see number seven, status. Is this piece available? Sold or in

spk_0 progress? And then finally, attach an image. Put an image of your artwork there so you can visually

spk_0 reference it. So if I were you, I would create a Google form and I would put all of these things in

spk_0 there. But again, keep it as simple as possible. If you're just getting started, then perhaps you

spk_0 want to only put title, date, created size and an image, you know, you really can keep it super simple

spk_0 if you want to. But create a Google form, then it automatically populates the spreadsheet for you.

spk_0 If you know what I'm talking about, it's magic and you'll love it.

spk_0 All right. So the next step, let's see. Once you've decided what tool you want to use, you've

spk_0 picked what information you want to include, well then create your digital catalog,

spk_0 populate it and organize it. Once you have it in, you know, in a spreadsheet form ideally,

spk_0 you can then sort your catalog by title, date or any other category to make it easy to find what

spk_0 you're looking for. But the most important step is step number five, which is regularly updating

spk_0 your catalog. As you create new pieces or you make changes to existing ones, be sure to update your

spk_0 catalog. That way you never have a huge backlog of things you have to, you know, populate into your

spk_0 catalog. It keeps your archive current. And I think by following these steps, you'll have this

spk_0 digital archive and catalog of your artwork that will grow with you. It's easy to manage. And

spk_0 I find it to be a very useful tool for your artistic journey. You may not need it now, but

spk_0 yeah, if you're anything like me, boom, you know, four or five years will pass by and you'll remember

spk_0 a piece from a while ago and you want to be able to go back and look at it. So that I think is the

spk_0 most important thing is create this one home where you can track a lot of stuff and all the data on

spk_0 your your pieces. But in addition to that, think about how you organize your photos and your in

spk_0 progress works in progress photos, those I put in Dropbox folders. I've created a way of

spk_0 tagging my art in a way using the file name. I'll put the year first. I'll put the title. I'll

spk_0 put, you know, any information I need there to find it. I put it in the title. So it's easy to find.

spk_0 But I would tell you to create a system even within your folders and where you store your images.

spk_0 It also could be as simple as creating a folder on your phone and making sure to put your art

spk_0 photos in that folder. There you have it, my fellow self taught artists. Today, I'm here to share

spk_0 ideas. I'm here to get you thinking about how a digital archive and catalog could be a helpful

spk_0 tool for you. You know, there are so many different ways to do it. There's no wrong way. I'd say

spk_0 anything you can do to document your creative journey and make your art, you know, accessible

spk_0 if you need to find it later. I think is a very worthwhile mission. So if you are on a spring

spk_0 cleaning tear like I am, don't forget about your digital life and getting your digital life in order.

spk_0 So whether you're creating art for joy and personal fulfillment or as a business and a source of

spk_0 income, I think having your work organized and readily available and all the information you need,

spk_0 that's a step in the right direction. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode on the

spk_0 self taught artist. If you found this information helpful, please consider leaving a review or sharing

spk_0 this podcast with an artist friend. Stay creative, stay inspired and until next time, let's keep

spk_0 those brushes moving. Happy creating my friends.

spk_0 If you're enjoying this podcast, could you take a few seconds to rate the podcast five stars,

spk_0 leave a written review on Apple podcasts, and of course, hit the subscribe or follow button wherever

spk_0 you're listening. That ensures you never miss an episode. These three things go a long way to

spk_0 share this podcast with other self taught artists and keep it going. Thank you so much.

83. How to Create a Digital Catalog and Archive for your Art

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