Question about storing your sketches (genga, douga)

transmet · Post by **transmet** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:52 pm

To all of you out there collecting from current shows, what do you find to be the best way to both safely store your sketches while also still being able to get to them effectively (meaning without having to dig through a box).

What I'm looking for is is something similar to storing cels in Itoya books. Are larger binders a way to go, for example. Are they financially feasible to someone with hundreds of pages of sketch work? Is this even making any sense?

Anyway, I'm really just looking for feedback as to how you all store your sketches and then go from there.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:34 pm

I put each sketch in a separate cel bag! Then I put all the sketches from that scene or series in a bigger cel bag. I don't buy the binders since I like spreading out all my sketches on the floor and looking at them!

EternityOfPain · Post by **EternityOfPain** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:21 pm

Not sure about everyone else but this is how I store my sketches. From the time I get them etc..

1. I take all the A++ sketches/genga and store them in 4 mil mylar (sometimes I put two in one mylar however I tend to not like doing that often.)
2. I get the other rough genga,layouts,douga and place them in a larger 2 mil mylar.
3. I place all the A++ sketches/genga/layouts that are now in 4 mil mylar in ITOYA (so i can easily view the best sketches of each cut (hence what you see on my site 99% is in the ITOYA).
4. I store all the other rough genga, layouts douga and place them in http://www.dickblick.com/zz153/02/ . I have a box for douga, genga, etc. I try and keep the sets together in this fasion. I have over 5+ boxes and they are amazing.

This is pretty much the setup for I. Keep the nice sketches in 4 mil mylar in ITOYA for easy viewing and store the other not so good sketches in a 2 mil mylar and place them in the box from dickblick's.

birdie · Post by **birdie** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:22 pm

Most of mine are in those plastic cases dealers and deputies ship stuff in. I would be interested in that larger binder, but they don't give dimensions.

Would it hold entire cut sets?

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:18 pm

I put them in a cel box...... So simplly I have to dig out when I want to see them

Thanks, transmet for a very useful info

Gonzai · Post by **Gonzai** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:54 pm

I would say that about 90% of my Hikaru No Go
genga is framed. I choose which sketch is my favorite,
and that is the one I show. The rest are sealed in a
cel bag and stored inside the frame behind the sketch
that is showing. As for the matching douga sketches,
they are stored in cel books in a large box. I am not
as fond of the douga as I am of the genga, plus there
are usually tons of sketches with each set. A set that
I have coming has well over 200 sketches. I would
hate being Roboflonne and have to put all of those
in individual cel bags.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:55 pm

I would love to have some big giant douga sets!

I just have mostly gengas and layouts so there really isn't that many!

SME · Post by **SME** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:42 pm

I used to store my sketches in those hard-plastic cases that Rinkya sends out their cels in, but constantly digging to find certain sketches became tiresome.

I recently switched to putting my sketches in hang-folders inside a filing cabinet. I have real easy access and without pulling the whole folders out I can easily browse through them to see what cels I have. This is similar to a sketch box, but I don't put them all so that there is no room to view the sketches. For me, I find this method easier, but everyone has their own tried and true methods that work.

For really big sketches, I just use an oversized Itoya cel book. It gets really hard when you start to realize just how many sketches/cels you have. ^_^

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:06 am

EternityOfPain wrote:4. I store all the other rough genga, layouts douga and place them in http://www.dickblick.com/zz153/02/ . I have a box for douga, genga, etc. I try and keep the sets together in this fasion. I have over 5+ boxes and they are amazing.

Where did you place the boxes? Are they somewhat stacked on top of each other?

Since Dick Blick was having their box sale (Redwolf mentioned it) I ordered three 11X14 boxes and two 13X19 boxes. That should help me organize much of my sketches. I still have stuff that won't fit in 13X19 boxes though.

I still need to find my favorite sketches from the sets, bag them and put them in ITOYA folders. I'm grown tired of it being so difficult to find and look at my sketches. It's no good obtaining stuff when you can't look at them in person every once in awhile (not without great difficulty).

But I need to keep track of which sets the sketches originally came from. Has anyone found an easy way of doing this?

EternityOfPain · Post by **EternityOfPain** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:26 am

Keropi wrote:
EternityOfPain wrote:4. I store all the other rough genga, layouts douga and place them in http://www.dickblick.com/zz153/02/ . I have a box for douga, genga, etc. I try and keep the sets together in this fasion. I have over 5+ boxes and they are amazing.
Where did you place the boxes? Are they somewhat stacked on top of each other?

Since Dick Blick was having their box sale (Redwolf mentioned it) I ordered three 11X14 boxes and two 13X19 boxes. That should help me organize much of my sketches. I still have stuff that won't fit in 13X19 boxes though.

I still need to find my favorite sketches from the sets, bag them and put them in ITOYA folders. I'm grown tired of it being so difficult to find and look at my sketches. It's no good obtaining stuff when you can't look at them in person every once in awhile (not without great difficulty).

But I need to keep track of which sets the sketches originally came from. Has anyone found an easy way of doing this?

The boxes are stackable, for example I have a shelf in my desk that I can perfectly stack 3 of them and they can easily hold there own weight. For the 5-6 others I store under my bed.

One method I have found in organzing the sketches is first initially storing the sketches in either bag A (for dougas) or bag B (gengas etc). First the point of seperating is that in most cases some sets come with a huge amount of dougas (partials, random lines etc you know the drill) so I would perfer for them not to be in the same bag as my genga (which I value far more). I place all timing sheets on the backs of the douga bags (so looking at the back of the bag you see the timing). To distinguish the sets I write on the top bag the Cut #'s for later reference. On my computer I have preview pictures of all my sets and there corresponding Cut # so if ever I want to see what I have for a specific set I just go in my piles and match the cut # on the top bags with what I have. I have found this system to be great however I am always open to new ideas if anyone has more input.

KT · Post by KT » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:38 pm

I put mine in a drawer...And my best ones go in my celbooks...And my sequences sketches (the ones that aren't so good), go in a big box.

I'm pretty unorganized

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:59 pm

EternityOfPain wrote:The boxes are stackable, for example I have a shelf in my desk that I can perfectly stack 3 of them and they can easily hold there own weight. For the 5-6 others I store under my bed.

Well that's good to hear. I don't have many places to put boxes since the flat areas in my room are either too close to the back wall or the flat areas already have something sitting on top of them.

Last night I took out most of my sketches and measured them to see what sizes they came in. Most of my sketches were of 10 1/2 inches X 11 3/4 inches size (I left some leeway in the measurements because of the bags being larger than the papers). My second most common sketch size was 10 3/4 inches X 15 inches.

I have so many sketch sizes:

8.500" X 12.50"
9.000" X 12.50"
9.500" X 11.00"
9.500" X 15.25"
10.00" X 14.75"
10.25" X 11.75"
10.25" X 12.25"
10.25" X 15.50"
10.50" X 11.75" My most common size
10.50" X 12.50"
10.50" X 13.25"
10.75" X 15.00" My second most common size
10.75" X 17.00"
11.00" X 14.50"
11.25" X 19.50"
11.50" X 11.75"

Most of these will fit into 11X14 or 13X19 inch boxes just fine. Later on I'll need a box to fit my 13 1/2 inch X 18 1/2 inch backgrounds into.