Caring for &
Archiving Artwork

Whether you are building a portfolio or not, keeping your finished artwork in a safe space is always a good idea. Find a place at home where you can store finished work that’s away from anything that could harm it (ie: water, humidity, high heat, sunlight). If your work is 2-dimensional, you want some kind of shelf, folder or file that your work can sit flat in or on. If you have 3-dimensional pieces some kind of shelving might work well, or carefully wrapping them and storing them in a plastic tub could keep things safe. However you choose to store it all, keeping things safe and together will help you stay organized. Consider storing other things like process work that went into the creation of your projects. Things like sketches, mockups, models, color studies, etc. can all be considered process work, and some schools and colleges want to see that in a portfolio.

Portfolio archiving has become more and more simplified thanks to the digital world we live in. Digitally archiving your work is an important step in building your portfolio. Not only will this preserve your work for a long time to come but it will help you to document your artistic development. Most schools and colleges ask for digital submissions when sending a portfolio with an application. Planning ahead and photographing your work along the way will help you narrow down your portfolio selections when the time comes to submit them. You should also consider documenting your process work.

To photograph your work use a quality digital camera like a DLSR or a smartphone with a high quality camera built in. There are also many resources available to you at school. Should you need to use the school equipment please schedule a time with the Visual Arts SML or one of the art teachers to help you.

Organizing your digital portfolio is just as important as keeping track of your physical portfolio. As you take your photos be sure to store them on your computer or laptop in an organized fashion. Keep a folder on your hard drive or desktop that’s clearly labeled and easily accessible. Within this folder consider keeping a folder for all of the original images, a folder for edited images and a folder of your final portfolio images. Coming up with a naming system for files is helpful, too. For example, you could name your files by the artwork’s title or project. Be sure to also keep a backup of your images. An convenient and familiar way to do this is to use your Google Drive.