Organizing notes on process

demotlj

I'm curious about how people keep track of notes they make on their process/work so that they can find them later when they need to repeat that process or do a similar style.

For example:

the color mixes that I used in a traditional watercolor painting
the exact digital brushes I used for a particular texture
the process for creating the final upload for a book for printing

Sometimes it will be weeks (months) before I need to do that same thing again and I have to dig out my notes on how I did it. (It's particularly hard to organize those notes because sometimes I'm working traditionally and sometimes digitally.) I have tried various methods which all have pros and cons so I'm just curious about how others go about it (or maybe other people have better memories than I do and don't need a system!)

Larue

I’m interested in the responses as well as I have the same issue sometimes:(

Jason Crowley

If I'm trying a new technique or doing a master copy then I'll label each layer in Photoshop with the name of the brush that was used. Then I can refer back to that Photoshop file if I need to use that style.

I'll also group brushes into categories in Photoshop (e.g. Drawing Draft, Shaders, Water colour), with the most used brushes placed towards the top of each category. I'll often prune and adjust brushes within these categories. If I purchase a brush pack I'll duplicate favourite brushes from the pack and put them into a different category with fewer brushes in it so it's easier to keep track of things that work.

If I'm happy with a new illustration process and it's using new techniques, then I'll document it in Pages with step by step screenshots and instructions, so I can follow it like a tutorial in the future.

I'll definitely need the help of these processes as I haven't illustrated in weeks

@demotlj Here are some images of pages from my reference notebook from around 1988 on color mixing.

demotlj

@TY-Graphics-LLC Wow. You are definitely more organized than I am! I have made swatch charts before but then I can't remember where I put them, especially if too much time goes by after making them. I obviously need a binder.