How to store drawings?

I come one day to visit my friend-the artist and see: in the hallway is a huge old, but still strong wardrobe, which does not fit stylistically with the interior of the apartment.

What's this rarity?- ask.

A friend says that in this closet she kept sketches. She opens the door, and there.... Mother dear! There in neat stacks laid out hundreds or even thousands of different drawings, and under the stacks date signed: ... 1998. ... 2000. ...2005. and so on.

- Here is the archive! I thought.

Now there is a lot of information about how to draw, what you need. Master artists give advice to beginners on painting and drawing, shoot video lessons on drawing, organize courses and workshops on different techniques and techniques of painting and drawing.

It's great that professional artists share their experience and skills. But almost no one talks about how to store paintings (finished works), how to take care of them, so that the works of creativity are preserved in their original form and how to organize your Studio to a novice artist.

Let's take it in order. Of course, if you constantly practice drawing, accumulates a lot of educational and creative work. It is desirable to keep them all, but you need to figure out how to do it. Of course, if you are used to making sketches, sketches in albums or notebooks, they will not “run up” throughout the apartment. Enough to fold ended sketchbook in a box or put them on the shelf. But, often, drawings (let's first deal with them) are executed in a different format, and on different sheets. In this case, folders can help you.

FOLDERS.

1) Transfer folder

I have a lot of them: homemade and purchased, with handles and without, different sizes. To begin with, you should have a folder of one of the standard working formats - A3, A2, A1 - with handles for carrying or with a long shoulder strap. Folder must be dense, hard, desirable from waterproof material. With it you will move to different places: in the open air, drawing lessons in art school, on a joint sketching. When folding into a tube, sheets of paper are deformed, crumpled, the paint layer breaks, so the folder will help to bring the finished work, drawings and just sheets of paper to the house safe and sound. In this regard, the folder wins in comparison with the tube. Save on such a folder is not necessary, as it is bought once, and will serve for many years. In bad weather, the folder is simply irreplaceable: snow, rain, dirt will bypass your drawings side.

2) Folder for storing finished works.

You will also need it. You can have folders of different size and quality, depending on the format of the finished work and purpose. For example, small engravings I keep in stationery cardboard folders A4, placing them by year of work: so they are easier to find if you need it. Small folders I keep in drawers horizontally, but if they are sufficiently “plump", it is possible to make them in the rack, like books. My professor at the Academy does so, and between the folders still inserts labels with special information.

The larger works are stored in my folder, the format is slightly less than A2 - it is quite spacious and has protective valves on three sides, so that even non-standard sheets do not fall out of it.

The biggest drawings and sketches I have stored in a large rag folder with impregnation. All the works in it are arranged in sheets of thin paper or tracing paper for better preservation. I advise you to do the same, especially with large format sheets, so that when removing and applying to each other, the sheets are not dirty and not rubbed. The first time the difference will be imperceptible, but after 5-10-15 years the stroke will deteriorate, the back sides of the work will get dirty, (especially if some of the drawings are made of soft material) and the work will gradually become unusable.

3) Folder for sketches made with water-soluble paints.

It is good to sort into separate folders landscapes, still lifes, portraits painted with watercolor, gouache or soft materials (charcoal, pastel, sanguine, Russian clay). Folders, of course, will be a lot, but they will be easy to navigate and there will be no problems with the search. By the way, the work performed by water - soluble paints, especially fragile-they can not be stored in the light, even in decorated form. Therefore, if such sketches are just waiting for registration or just an exercise in the process of your painting training - let them lie in a specially designated folder.

Any paper fades, darkens and loses strength under the influence of sunlight. Some artists use it for natural aging of sheets before the beginning of work. Such drawings, of course, look original, vintage, but the finished work is still better to save and not subject to fading. For this reason, so rare exhibition of watercolors and graphics, so usually in museums there is no permanent exhibition of graphics.

Also suitable for storage of drawings box or low box (retractable or with a cap).

Canvases, in a state of semi-dry and already dried, it is more convenient to store on the shelves of the rack. Usually, the artists fill in them to the cross rails-the delineator. They hold canvases vertically, protect them from falling, breakdown and punching. Wet oil paintings are hung on the walls in the workshop, so that, thanks to the light and air currents, the oil paint dries quickly and evenly. Often professional artists write several paintings at the same time. As a rule, they are all in different degrees of a residence permit (somewhere underpainting, where someone's main residence, somewhere detailing or finishing glaze). The placement of all this arsenal on the walls of the workshop helps to correctly distribute the attention between all the paintings, to monitor the degree of drying and readiness of each of the stages of painting.

And, of course, you should pay attention to the location of your repository of works in the room: if sheets of paper are hanging from the shelf or sticking out of the folder it is better to place them higher or farther away, so that constant touches, bends, crushing them not to spoil. For example, the cabinet door when closed can periodically "chew" hanging edge, and it is deformed or broken. One of my dad's paintings died just because it was hanging next to the wardrobe and the door that opened kept hitting the wall next to it. The picture fell from the vibration and cracked until the paint layer shattered completely.