There are lots of ways to store finished drawings. Every artist finds the best way for them. Today, I’d like to share how I store my finished drawings. It’s not that complex and maybe one of my methods is exactly what you’re looking for.
How I Store My Finished Drawings
I’ve stored finished artwork several different ways over the years. So I’m dividing the methods by age and medium, starting with the oldest works and working forward in time.
Years Ago and Oil Paintings
For decades, storing finished artwork wasn’t a problem because almost everything I did was a portrait for someone else. I painted horses, I finished paintings and sometimes framed them, then I delivered them. There was nothing to store.
For the few pieces I did for myself, I either framed them and put them on the walls, or tucked them into out-of-the-way places. Most of these were oil paintings on canvas panels, so it was very easy to tuck them into little nooks and crannies. It wasn’t very archival, but I didn’t know about that back then.
Some of those old paintings are still in the house where I grew up. My brother lives there, now, and has told me he remembers seeing some. I still have some of them in my closet in Kansas.
Old and Colored Pencils
I used to paint and draw in the room originally designed as a dining room in our current house. We have never used it as a dining room, and refer to it as “The Studio” even though I no longer paint and no longer use it as a studio.
However, it has become something of a gallery. There are works of art and illustrations on one wall. I mounted the artwork to backboards, then tucked it into archival resealable clear bags from ClearBags.com. I can see and enjoy the artwork, while protecting it from dust and dirt.
There are also other art pieces in that room, some matted and packaged, some in frames, and some propped up on the railing along the top of the wainscotting. It’s a pretty eclectic collection, but it’s all older. The most recent piece is just a couple of years old. The oldest one is from 2013.
More Recently and Colored Pencils
In between the older colored pencil work and the new small work, I used a variety of storage methods. The most easily accessible ones are a couple of USPS Priority Mail envelopes stuffed with drawings. The envelopes are in the bottom drawer of the desk where I sit writing this post. Most of the artwork is in protective sheets of one type or another.
Most of the pieces are blog post or article illustrations, test swatches and things like that. Not what I consider finished work, though there are some of those.
Other work from this period hangs on walls in the living room and office, as shown below.
Some of the artwork is framed, but is still protected by an archival envelope from ClearBags. It’s not the best, but it’s less expensive than glass and it won’t break if it falls.
Other pieces, like the second one in the photo above, are tucked into an archival envelope and put on the wall without embellishment. I like this little piece because it also includes a color palette below the artwork. I can reference that very easily if need be.
It also looks artistic. At least I think so.
A Note on Works-in-Progress
The photo below shows another wall in the same room. I finished three of them (the cat on top, and the two horses.) The landscape on the bottom has been “finished” several times, but it’s sort of an experimental piece. I test techniques on it. It has changed quite a bit from the way it looked the first time I finished it. Read about that here.
The white cat is a work-in-progress.
You’ll notice that all of them are in those archival envelopes, but that two of them are not sealed. That’s because I’m not finished with them yet. I usually store my works-in-progress this way. That keeps them clean and flat. it also keeps them out of the way of the cats.
By the way, the train in the upper left corner is a watercolor my mother-in-law did many, many years ago. The cactus photo is really a photo of my father-in-law, whom I never met. He’s barely visible in the midst of the cactus. He was braver than I’ve ever been!
Now and Colored Pencils
Since most of my work now is small (8 x 10 or smaller (mostly smaller)), I’ve started slipping finished pieces into an 14 x 11 inch unsealed ClearBag resealable envelope. I did that with the ACEOs and other works from 2025, and it worked so well, that I’m doing it again this year. The artwork isn’t organized in any way, though the new works generally end up behind the earlier works.
This is the collection from 2025.
Large Works and Colored Pencils
I do have a few larger works, mostly between 11 x 14 and 16 x 20. I could put them into clear bags if I wanted to and store them separately. Instead, they’re all together in a box in which an order of full sheet Clairefontaine Pastelmat arrived. The box is large enough for artwork that’s full sheet in size, though I don’t have anything that large. It’s also very sturdy, so I’m comfortable storing artwork in that.
I also have a large portfolio that I purchased to transport artwork back when I was setting up at horse shows. It’s full of older pieces, too. It contains a mix of oils and colored pencil pieces.
How I Store My Finished Drawings
Those are the main methods I’ve used over the years. This list doesn’t include the box of old, old, OLD drawings in an upstairs closet or the three-ring binder filled with page after page of ACEO paintings and drawings from 2017 and 2018.
But it does give you an idea of the semi-organized chaos in which I store my finished pieces. I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t recommend such semi-organized chaos if you can help it. But it is easier to be more organized if you haven’t moved two or three times and also haven’t sorted through all those artworks and culled some of them upon occasion.
(Not that I recommend that, either. There is value in keeping some of those old works if only to prove to yourself what you were once drawing and how much you’ve improved since then.)
So how do you store your finished pieces? I’m interested in hearing your solutions to this problem. Other readers probably are, too!
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