From the desk of Monocle
"The Art PEZ Dispenser"
I found that I will sometimes get nostalgic and look at some of my old art I drew before I switched to digital. Like most artists, I feel like my old stuff is utter crap, but I still love looking at it from time-to-time just to see how I've improved and changed in my style. So I had an idea of printing out some books of my old archived digital art as a permanent reminder of how things looked when I first started!!!
A little note: The years overlap because I initially printed out the smaller book first and did not account for some art I had saved elsewhere. When I began printing the second, much larger book, my organizing was more refined and I had more pages to expand on.
I'm not saying this is the best way to archive your art, but this definitely something that I was excited to do since I love to flip through the pages to see how things have progressed! This also gives me a chance to delete a lot of old and undesirable work that I no longer think is relevant to my account as a whole without having to worry about never seeing it again or storing it away on a dusty old external hard drive.
Price
I'm sure someone will be interested in doing something similar, so go ahead! For both of these books I used two different companies.
Small book
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Company - Vistaprint
Package - 5.5'' x 7.5'' Photo Flip Book
Cost - $13.37 after savings applied and shipping and tax included (originaly costs $15.88) Vistaprint is always running some sort of promo, so it's likely you'll get yours around for the same amount.
Notes - The Flip Book is good in some ways, mainly that it's likely your pictures probably won't be the correct resolution they need to be and the smaller the dimension the less noticeable this be. If you just want a simple way to archive your digital art, this would probably be for you. Again, quality of the picture will greatly depend on what the dpi and resolution of your pictures currently are. Some of the pictures were foggy while others were crisp and clean looking.
Either way, printing is actually very nice. The paper is thick stock and probably won't tear as long as you store them properly.
Large book
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Company - Shutterfly
Package - 12 x 12 Book (hard cover)
Cost - $37.03 (originally costs $64.99) I received a first discount on this order because I was given a gift card at the company I bought my wedding dress from, then I received another amount off for another promo they were running on their website totaling a $42.50 discount.
Notes - Don't let the price of this book alone deter you. This was one of their largest selections so of course it was much more money. They have other books that are smaller and a fraction of the cost that will work just as well! (We're talking $15.99 for a softcover 7x9).
I really liked the hard cover concept with this book. It makes it seem more like the type of book you'd have lying out on the table to flip through at your leisure. There are some better customizable options with Shutterfly that you get that you just don't with Vistaprint.
I will probably return to Shutterfly for more purchases in the future since I prefer the hardbound book more than the flip book.
I am completely in LOVE with these books! I will have them stored alongside my pen and pencil archives and absolutely can't wait to add to it in the future!
Both of these companies seem to run regular promos, so it is worth keeping a watchful eye for their sales. In the long run there are plenty of ways to store old works!