Art Supplies Organization! Tips to Declutter Your Art Studio

is your workspace a mess are you constantly in search of an art supply that you want at hand but you don't have it at hand or do you have art supplies that are like tucked away but you wish you used them more often or perhaps you're someone who's just trying to organize your art space and you want some ideas on how to actually organize your art supplies well in this video i'm going to share some extremely helpful solutions to help you organize your art space and increase a great workflow in your art studio hey everyone welcome back it's jess thank you so much for joining if you're new here i'm a full-time artist on a mission to spread positivity through creativity and ask someone who creates all day my number one thing in the studio is functionality so i found myself the need to have everything organized so that everything is at hand you may be wondering why organize why take that extra step to make everything nice and put together well from past experience i learned that once you really spend that time and just get everything set up get your system going it will save you tons of time in the long run which is what i want to help you with today imagine yourself being in the kitchen and you're ready to cook yourself some breakfast right and you need the proper utensils and ingredients to cook your meal but when you reach for the spatula or when you reach for the pan it's nowhere to be found it's actually on the other side of the room completely far away in the closet tucked away or somewhere in the corner where it's a nuisance to go and grab it same with art now imagine you sit down to create a piece and you are ready to begin painting or drawing or whatever you want to do in your art studio and all you find is that your art supplies are all over the place you can't really find anything and you're just frustrated with the fact that you have to sit and set it up i learned that having things at hand whether you have a big or small space can be super helpful when it comes to your creative flow odds are that if your space is more tidy and just simply functional you're more inclined to create and you would most likely be less frustrated than spending half an hour searching for things getting everything set up and by that time of setting everything up you're most likely going to give up and just not create so to avoid that let's discuss some ideas that you can do to implement a more functional and organized workspace first i'd like to mention something super super important everyone's face is different everyone's workflow is different everyone's needs are different so based on how you work based on the supplies that you use based on just the amount of space you have you may need to do little adjustments to see what will work best for you i'm going to repeat that many times throughout the video but it really is so important because you should always take into account what is best for you and how you'd like to structure it but hopefully my ideas today will give you some sort of inspiration to implement your own with those important little details in mind to organize you're gonna have to take three things into account number one is how many supplies you have number two is how much space you have and number three is your budget although i do like to keep things on a relatively low budget now based on those things you can think about functionality i'm passionate about this subject because it truly saved me time and i'm all about functionality now and just setting up my workspace so i can sit down and create and not worry about anything else if you've been watching my channel you know that i use an array of different mediums all the way from pencils to oil paint to colored pencils and graphite the list goes on and on and with each art supply there comes a different need of organization for example the way that you store your paint can't really be the same with the way you store pencils and other supplies like big sketchbooks so each supply has a different need but i'll do my best to run through as many supplies as possible so you can choose which one applies to you [Music] you must think about what it is that you use on a daily basis what is it that you use the most i highly recommend making a list of things that you use and that way that can be a little structure for you when you begin to form out your workspace i started off in a really small space with just a corner desk and a drawer unit some lights and a little little shelf and at the time that was enough and that could be enough for you and as things slowly grew i began to expand a little bit more space but i did my best not to purchase too many supplies so then it would be way too cluttered all of my essential supplies sit physically on my desk now i used to have everything in drawers because i wanted everything to be tucked away but now i realize that i never use the supplies that sit in my drawers and the things that stay in my drawers are like refills and other supplies that i still use that i don't need at hand so even if i keep things in drawers i make sure that the drawer is right beside me so that i can just take my stuff out of the drawer and that's it now my main painting area where i paint by the easel i have a little drawer unit from ikea where i store all of my paints i store all of my pallets and i store any little panels or canvases that i plan to paint on my biggest tip is to keep as much furniture as you can on wheels because odds are you're going to need to move something around to get a little bit better light from the window or you're going to need to just move things around because sometimes when you move things around things start to work out a little better so number one is really think about what it is that you use and what it is that you need at hand and then you can easily structure your area whether it's big or small and that way your creativity can just flow i also asked you guys on instagram what it is that you struggle with the most in your art supply organization and i got some really interesting responses and it really helped me form out some of the tips that i will be mentioning in this video before i begin touching up on each art supply i want to take a quick moment to talk about today's sponsors pila pila is a phone case company and this is my new phone case from pila i love this phone case because it's actually super functional and it's really really soft their phone cases are made from plants so they're 100 compostable and they're also b corp certified and one percent for the planet which is amazing you can actually take your case and send it to pila and they'll recycle it for you or you can compost it in the convenience of your home i actually collect phone cases and ever since i got this one i have not taken it off i love it it's super soft my phone has dropped and it's still safe if you like to get a case or try it out peela has kindly provided us a discount code and that is jeff the first 50 subscribers will get 40 off your purchase at pila and after that goes away you can still get 25 off which is an awesome deal thank you so much pila for supporting the channel let's get back to your submissions and continue talking about art supplies so one of the most common things that i read was people not knowing how to organize all of their supplies after they have used them once you're done creating we all have a tendency of leaving our workspace messy which is totally fine it's really great to get messy and creative and just keep the creativity flowing however i noticed what really helps me is just to take time and just designate the five minutes or ten minutes to quickly clean up my space and that's where organizing your supplies comes in because once you have a system going and everything is basically organized your clean up process is that much faster all you need to do is just put things in its place and you're clean so as we go on i'm gonna touch on some of these that you guys have submitted and i think that after this video you'll have a better understanding on how to organize your space here are a few places where i found some of my little organizers and things for my art supplies based on low budget to a little bit of a higher budget but honestly i was able to find everything for under four or five dollars for these small containers and other things like drawers and furniture i always loved to go to ikea and i found that it still works great for me first things first let's talk about pencils i've learned that when it comes to pencils it really helps having them in cups on the desk i really love glass containers and a good hack for this they're actually sugar dispenser containers that you could see at the diners or something so i got these at the dollar store and i got a bunch they were one dollar which is how much better can you get and i organize them by shades of color so for example i have the reds then i have the orange tones i have yellows greens blues and grays so i have all of that laid out right in front of me because when i do my sketchbook work i like to start with watercolor or gouache and i always find myself finishing off with a little bit of color pencil and i used to keep my colored pencils tucked away in this pencil case and the pencil cases would always be in a drawer or somewhere on a shelf at the time it worked for me because i had such a small space so whenever i'd work i would just open up that case i would take out all the colors that i need to use and then i would spend an extra hour putting everything away if you have the space to maybe put up a shelf or you can put up a little extra box that you can put on your desk where you can have all of your little pencils laid out in the glass cups can really help you stay organized when it comes to pencils i also have a cup on my desk of all of my essential drawing tools this is actually the one that i take with me when i go urban sketching and it sits on my desk because it has all my favorite pencils it has my favorite sharpeners it has a kneadable eraser and everything is right at hand [Music] i also draw with graphite and i love drawing with black wing pencils so they're my essential graphite drawing pencil so that's always sitting on my desk and all i need is really one or two depending on the style of it so the rest actually sit in a drawer right beside me as mentioned before and this drawer is now on wheels so i can move it around wherever i need to whenever i'm drawing and this pencil drawer is the very first drawer so if i ever need a pencil it's the very first drawer that's right next to my desk so my biggest tip for pencils is to try to keep it in little containers everybody can have a different preference i suggest taking a few pencils and maybe putting it in containers on your desk so that you have it at hand and that will help you reach for it a little bit more often otherwise if you have the option to get a small little drawer right next to your desk and keep it tucked away that's really not so bad either and this pretty much can apply to any of the supplies that i'll mention today for brushes it's really important to think about which brushes you use i love testing out different brushes because i've noticed that brushes help my workflow and i have different brushes for different mediums it was a little bit hard to narrow it down but i've narrowed it down to two cups where i have my watercolor brushes and i have my gouache brushes also by my easel i have a cup for all of my long bristle brushes which are great for when i'm doing oil painting so as you can see everything is grouped in sections so the best thing you can do is really really think about the categories that you have and then group everything into those sections and that way you'll be able to organize it in your space so once again i really love mason jars for brushes and things and they're super cheap i love going to the dollar store and grabbing any crystal glass jar you can even use old cups from your kitchen that you don't use it's really great to have a handle on any of the brushes that you have that way when you reach it you can just place it beside you and you're good to go super functional and you can reuse any old cups that you have i also purchase brand new brushes ahead of time so if any of my detail brushes don't come to a point anymore i actually have it tucked away in a box where i keep all of my refills so this doesn't have to be necessarily on my desk i keep it tucked away in my calyx unit which have these cubes where i can just tuck a box away and it's there and i know that whenever i need a refill i can just refer to that box grab it and replace it with the old brush that can go into my old brush cup i also really like drawing with fine liners and markers and things i have clear containers for that i received some questions on how to keep everything looking neat and tidy and what of the tips that i have for that is to pick for example if you're choosing a cup that is clear and glass i would take other organizers that you get for your space and keep that unified but it just depends on your preference and how you choose to organize your space but i've learned that if everything is unified in color and sort of in type that really helps with keeping things visually tidy which i find super important [Music] for markers and liners i like to keep my alcohol markers actually in the bag itself i found that it's worked perfectly for me and i actually like the organizing bags it comes with maybe one day i'll build myself a marker storage i saw some artists building it with the foam boards and you kind of just make a grid and that could work great for markers whenever i'm using markers or if i'm taking them on the go i kind of just take them in the pouch that they come in so for me that works well [Music] now let's talk about paint paint is super crucial because if you keep it in an open space like gouache or watercolor they can tend to dry out so i really recommend keeping your paint in a jar you can find a glass jar or i really love the little container bins from ikea they come in all different sizes and i found them to be perfect for me because they're stackable which is always a plus and the small containers fit my watercolors gouache and crayons perfectly which i label to make sure that they're nice and neat and i have some bigger containers that i took away into the calyx unit and they're also stackable and fit right in there so it's perfectly organized and visually pleasing let's talk about oil paint and acrylic before with my oil paints i used to keep them in ziploc bags tucked away so that the smell doesn't get into my room since i was painting in the room i was sleeping in but now that i have a separate space for painting i decided to get all my paints laid out in one of the bigger alex drawers and i have my oil paints then i have my acrylic paints and then i have my acrylic paints in the bottles i saw many artists doing these really cool pegboards and hanging up the paints on the pegboards which i think is awesome but since my painting corner is mainly glass i can't really hang anything on there but if you want to make a cool aesthetic paintboard and you have the space for that go for it i think it looks great but what makes that look great is when all the paint tubes are the same size so think about that when you're buying your paint wherever you're going to store your paint you're going to come into an issue of size i like to keep things relatively the same size so it's easier for you when you're organizing let's talk about paper and canvases and surfaces that you paint on or draw on when it comes to paper i love the large storage units that you can pull out and you have a giant drawer but we all don't really have space for that so what i found works really well are two things portfolio cases that have clear sleeves which look like a big book that you can flip through which i store all of my old art school charcoal drawings and pastel drawings i have an 18 by 24 which is pretty large size and i have some smaller ones that i hold all my baby drawings in and things like that so i found that once you finish a drawing that's really great for storage or these ikea drawers are also great but i measured the drawer before i purchased it so i noticed that the bigger 18 by 24 papers do not fit in there so for now they're kind of standing on a rack beside a cabinet but it really helps to just keep them in the sketchbooks that they're in i also recommend spraying them with fixative workable fixative preferably and that way it seals your drawing if especially if it's charcoal or pastel you can just tuck it in the portfolio case which i find works really well and you're good to go the main paper pads that i used to work on were bristol paper and strathmore drawing paper and those fit perfectly stacked into the alex drawers the fact that they're wider and thinner make them great for paper i actually use them for my larger prints as part of my inventory and i also use them for some clear packing slips as well [Music] when it comes to organizing finished paintings and finished canvas pieces for example it's really important the way you store those because if you lay them against each other flat vertically or vertically or horizontally you might run into issues of the pain sticking to each other so it's really important that you first seal your painting properly and also store your painting properly whenever finishing a piece i like to hang it up right away so that it's not on the floor or anywhere in a drawer but if it's paper i do use the portfolio cases which i love i think they're great for storage but if you have the ability to hang up your painting right away then go for it or even sell it that's a great way to not have to store your painting but i also found that just keeping it vertically is great since in art school we actually stored our canvases in these little cubbies and they were vertically positioned that does require a lot of space and storage so if you maybe have a little cubby you can place if you're someone who paints really large pieces on canvas especially storing them vertically in little cubbies can work great and you can actually build these with wood from your hardware store for now when i finished a big piece i actually just hang it up or i have a commission so that is being shipped off to the client [Music] another little hack is the shoe rack from ikea they actually open outward and in there you can store paper pads i actually store some bubble wrap and packaging equipment and i also have one little drawer for all of my urban sketching that has my portable easel some tripods and any of the equipment that i need with me on the go so yeah shoe rack don't be deceived can be an art supply organizer [Music] now speaking of my shop and packaging equipment i have officially moved it onto a three-tier rolling cart which you have probably seen before i highly recommend them they're great for small spaces they're great when you need to just roll your cart next to you the fact that it's on wheels just makes it that much more convenient when i had a smaller space i had all of my art supplies on that cart but now that i've have it on my desk i switched it over onto my desk to have everything at hand i actually moved all of my packaging equipment and all of my little stationary things that i use when i package my orders onto the cart and that allows me to have my business cards on there my thank you cards and everything is lined up so that when i'm packing my orders it's right there beside me so i definitely recommend this rolling card because you can structure it any way you'd like and into the card i actually like to place little organizers you can get these absolutely anywhere and those little tray organizers you can put your paint in and any supplies that you wish it's super customizable and i think that it can help anyone no matter their requirements [Music] up next let's talk about sketchbooks so i've filled over about 15 sketchbooks and of course you have to find a way to store everything that you finish and all the sketchbooks you finish and art books that you may have i love collecting art books and i wish i can have a huge wall of books which hopefully one day i will but it's really important the way you store those things so when it comes to my sketchbooks i have a few sketchbooks watercolor and regular paper that i like to use for pencils right on my desk and i store that in a paper file i found this one in home goods and it worked perfect for me and whenever i need to grab my sketchbook it's right there and that is where i store my current sketchbook when it comes to the sketchbooks that i finished i purchased the big bin from ikea and i organized all of my sketchbooks into that bin i am running out of space in there so i'm gonna need to designate another bin for that but it's been working so far so once i come into the next issue i'll find a solution for it i got many requests on how to store larger sketchbooks and i think the best way to store larger sketchbooks are either flat on a shelf or vertically on a shelf a lot of the ikea shelves have shelves where you can adjust the height of it so if you can find a shelf that is adjustable that way you can just pick up the shelf itself and then you can fit the sketchbooks into the shelf i found that works the best and also the bins that i spoke about earlier that can work great too for sketchbooks [Music] now let's talk about clean up and things that you can do to keep things clean currently the desk that i have is also from ikea but i like to create my own wooden board so that when i'm working on the desk itself it doesn't get dirty and also i have a larger big desk where i like to do some of my work and on that desk i have a large glass table top now everybody always asks me about this table top and to reveal the secret it's actually a glass door that was from a previous apartment it was about to be thrown out but it was a perfect piece of glass so surprisingly it fit right to size on the desk i didn't have to do any cutting to it so i think i just got lucky there but if you can find a nice piece of glass to put on top of your desk that's a huge plus the beauty about glass surfaces is that they're super easy to clean you can just spray it or even just use some water and just wipe down the surface and it's sparkling clean the only thing that doesn't work for me is when i'm filming there is a glare against the glass sometimes the reflection looks nice but it's just something to think about but you can easily fix that by putting a large sheet of paper or even poster paper and just covering the glass and working on top of that so many of you guys also said having too many art supplies but not enough storage okay so i actually really have to refrain myself from purchasing art supplies it's very difficult i know and everybody can probably relate to really really being addicted to purchase art supplies it's pretty much addicting but i do have my brands that i love that i try to stick to it's almost really really hard for me to change a brand i kind of just like to stick to my brands and if i just need to add a color or replace the color i always can do that if you are someone who feels that they have too much art supplies which i don't think there's such a thing i would just find ways that you can put them into sections and then store them in either a drawer or unit that you're going to have to balance out since you may think you have too much so yeah before i purchase art supplies i always think about where i'm going to store them if i have enough space and do i really need it but then you end up still buying it because you really don't know about an art supply until you try so that's really kind of like the dilemma there all right let's see what else we have so i got a question actually about where i organize and how i store my photos and videos which is a really really important point because i'm someone who deals with a lot of footage a lot of photos a lot of editing so the way i store that is on a hard drive and also on a bigger bigger server unit so my dad is actually a computer engineer and he was able to set me up a place where i can store all of that extra footage and space so that's really really important to keep all your files organized as well because if you are not organized with all your files as a youtuber it could get really really crazy there are many many requests on how to make everything look clean without making a mess so what i can recommend with that is just limiting the amount of things that you put on your desk because you can technically lay everything out but it can get very cluttered very quickly this comes down to what is essential to you think about if you were to leave on an island and you need to take some things with you which one of those things would you take obviously that's a bit extreme but it will help you think a little bit more concisely [Music] let's have a recap shall we number one think about your needs make your list on your essentials and what you need right beside you this will only be true to you so be honest with yourself and make sure that things that you put on your list are your absolute must to have and if there's also that one supply that you always want to grab or is just tucked away keep it somewhere in a drawer beside you and that way you can easily have it at reach as well so remember the main objective is easy access the easier you can get to things the easier it is going to be for you to create number two keep a unified theme this is super important to keep things visually pleasing and also decluttered for example i love whites and light wood and glass so everything that i purchase little containers little organizers are all fit within that theme and having a unified allows me to stick to that one brand for example the ikea bins which i love since they just hold everything and i bought them in different sizes and they work great number three is to keep things in sections organized by kind or type so what i mean by that is brushes with brushes gouache with gouache watercolor with watercolor you get the picture everything should be overall in one area so you're not scouting around for different art supplies and everything is in one bin so if you can get that in that one area and in one section by kinder type it's a great plus number four this works really well especially in smaller spaces if you can purchase a smaller drawer unit to have at least four or five drawers that you can keep some art supplies tucked away that will really help you stay organized since i found that shelves can get cluttered very very quickly so having a drawer can really help you stay tidy and tuck everything away and in those drawers you can actually get little organizers and that way you can stay organized in your drawers as well number five and it's probably the most important part is to test out your space so once you've gone and you did your little changes to your space sit down and create in it start a painting start a drawing and see how it works for you once you begin creating in your space you'll see what works and what doesn't work and that way you can make your little adjustments to then make further improvements from past experience i learned that i made these changes when i began creating in the space because i noticed what i was missing in that moment or what i needed at hand and i quickly wrote it down made a mental note of it or even a physical note that way i can change it in the future and make my workspace that much better so be patient with yourself take your time see what really works best for you but know that once you put in this time to really get organized and just do a little bit of thinking and brainstorming on how you can make your organization better it will save you tons of time in the end and will make your creativity so much better remember to find elements that work personally best for you once again and i wish you the best of luck to organizing and decluttering your space i hope you enjoyed this video i really hope that you find it helpful give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it really really helps support the channel subscribe if you have not already and join the art community shout out to my patreons you guys are the best thank you all so much for your support thank you so much for watching thank you everyone for submitting your responses over on instagram so i hope that the tips that i provided today helped you i'll see you guys in the next one bye [Music] you

Channel: Jess Karp

Views: 142,968

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Id: ljz_dTsm-VE

Length: 29min 0sec (1740 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2022