After a month of regular sessions you have a lot of drawings, and a question comes up: where do you keep them? You can file pages in a folder, glue them into an album, photograph them on your phone, or keep a practice journal in an app. Each has its strengths, and the honest answer is that a combination of two works best.
Paper options
A folder with sleeves
- Pros: pages don’t crease, and they’re easy to flip through or pull out to lay side by side.
- Cons: notes about the drawings have to live separately or on the back.
- Best for: people who draw on loose letter-size sheets.
A sketchbook or album
- Pros: drawings are already in date order, and you can write notes on the facing page.
- Cons: markers soak through to the next page, and you can’t pull a page out to set it next to another.
- Best for: people who like everything in one book.
A box
- Pros: holds everything, even large formats.
- Cons: easily turns into a pile; finding a particular page is hard.
- Best for: people who draw a lot, in different sizes.
Digital options
Photos in your phone’s gallery
- Pros: always with you, nothing to install.
- Cons: drawings get lost among other photos, and there’s nowhere to keep notes about them.
Notes or a document
- Pros: photo and text together, in date order.
- Cons: awkward to scroll once there are many entries.
A practice journal in an app
- Pros: photos and notes together, in date order; easy to browse and compare; nothing gets lost.
- Cons: you need an account, and it’s worth checking who can see your entries.
In Neurojournal, the practice journal is private: only you can see your photos and notes. You can delete entries one at a time, and download or delete all your data along with your account.
Why combine them
Paper and photos answer different needs:
- paper — to hold a drawing in your hands, lay pages out on the table, put a favorite on a shelf;
- a photo with a note — to remember what you drew, when, and what you noticed, and to scroll through months quickly.
The simplest combination: a folder for the pages + a practice journal for photos and notes. After a session the page goes into the folder, and a photo with a few words goes into the journal. A minute of your time, and nothing gets lost.
Keeping it organized over time
- Date the back of each page — in pencil, in a corner.
- One folder per month or per season. It makes reviewing and comparing easier.
- Take the photo right away, while the page is still on the table.
- Don’t keep everything. Warm-up scraps and practice templates don’t need to go in the folder — they’ve done their job.
What comes next
How to take a photo that looks like the paper is in How to Photograph a Drawing, and how to look back over your drawings once a month is in A Month of Practice. The practice journal lives in your Neurojournal account, alongside the course; the first module of the course is open without an account — start there.
