Many artists ask: what is the best way to number my artwork? The following is a strategy that Kathryn Townsend, the original developer of WorkingArtist, has developed for numbering her own artwork. It allows her to quickly and consistantly number her artwork, easily track the artwork when using WorkingArtist 3.0 and allows her to identify at a glance when the artwork was created. This article also describes how to organize storage of images on the computer taking into account the way files are sorted on the computer.

The Work Number.

Work Numbers in WorkingArtist, can be either numeric (all numbers) or alphanumeric (numbers and letters).

To select numeric or alphanumeric numbering in WorkingArtist 3.0:
--At the Main Switchboard, click on Artist Info/Options.
--Click on the Artwork Tab.
--Select either Numeric or Alphanumeric from the Select Numeric or Alphanumeric WorkNum combo-box.

Using Numeric Numbers.

The key to the numbering system is to use a “date” number formatted like this: 2050825. This would stand for 2005 (Year), August (Month), 25 (Day artwork completed or a simple sequential number).

I use 205 rather than 2005 because the extra "0" is unnecessary for sorting and I want to keep the number as short as possible. For 1987, use 187. The “year” should go first in the number, because sorting in Windows Explorer is in alphanumeric sequence. This also means you need the 1 (for 1900’s) and the 2 (for 2000’s). Windows Explorer will sort first on the first character, then the second character, etc. Using a straight numeric sequence, the computer will sort the years as follows: 197, 198, 199, 200, 201 etc.

The next two numbers in the Work Number are for the Month of the year that the painting is completed. Use two characters for each month because of the alphanumeric sorting.

The last two numbers can either represent the Day of the Month that the painting was completed or they can simply be a sequential number.
--If you paint less then 10 paintings a month, you can use 1 character, such as 205081.
--If you paint between 10 and 99 paintings a month, use 2 characters, such as 2050801.
--If you paint more than 99 paintings a month, use 3 characters, such as 20508001.

It is not a good an idea to switch conventions. If you decide to use one character as a sequential number, you should stick to that system. Work numbers using one character (for example, 205121) and two characters (for example, 2051201) will be sorted differently in Windows Explorer.

Using Alpha Numeric Numbers.

Some artists prefer to use alphanumeric numbering. They might use alpha characters to designate the type of artwork, such as “P” for pastel, “W” for watercolor, etc. If using alphanumeric characters, where you place the alpha characters will depend on how you want to see the work sorted.
--If you want to sort by date, put the alpha characters at the end of the number: 2051205P.
--If you want to sort by the alpha characters, put them at the beginning: W2051205.

The Image File Name.

When I photograph my paintings and load the image files from my digital camera onto my hard drive, I put the image files taken in a particular month into a specific subfolder in the MyDocuments folder on my hard drive I name the subfolder under My Documents, OriginalDigitalImages. In this subfolder, I have sub-subfolders named, 050830 (for Aug 2005), 050731 (for Jul 2005), etc. When I put the images into monthly subfolders, it is easier to find them.

After I load the image files, I rename the image files to correspond to the numbers I have given the paintings. So my images would be 2050801.jpg, 2050802.jpg, etc.

When I take the photos of my paintings, I used the highest resolution possible on my digital camera. In this case (Panasonic Lumix), the highest resolution are tif images that are about 14,000 kb (that’s about 14 MB). I keep these originals in the OriginalDigialImages folder because I may need them to create slides or photographs from these high resolution images.

Resizing the Image file for Your Website and/or WorkingArtist 3.0.

Since a 14 MB image file would be unwieldy in either WorkingArtist 3.0 or on a website (it would take forever to load), the next step is to resize the image. For this I use Photoshop, but there are any number of other applications for image editing such as Microsoft Photo Editor, Paint Shop Pro, etc. I like Photoshop because it has a Save for the Web feature that maximizes the display of the image on my website.

Here is what I do to resize the image:

1. Open Photoshop by clicking on the Photoshop icon on my desktop.
2. Click on File/Open and locate the image file, click Open to display the image.
3. Use the Crop tool to crop anything extraneous from the images (background, frame, etc).
4. Click on File/SAVE to save the cropped image file. This will save the image file in the OriginalDigitalImages folder in a cropped state.
5. Click on Image/Image Size.
6. Enter 700 in the largest dimension, making sure that the Constrain Proportions checkbox is checked.
7. Close Size dialog.
8. Click on FILE/SAVE FOR THE WEB. You'll get some additional prompts to save the image. Select jpg.
9. Select a DIFFERENT folder or subfolder to save the web image to. Do NOT save in the original folder.
10. Back on the screen for the original image, close the image file. When prompted if you want to SAVE changes, say "NO". This will leave the cropped, original image with its original size in its own folder for your photographs or slides.
11. Check the folder for the Save For the Web images and make sure the image file size is not more than 100 kb. Make adjustments to image quality in SAVE FOR THE WEB function if they are too large. Use these images for upload to your website and for WorkingArtist 3.0.

Using the WorkNum in the Database.

The next step is to enter the new artwork into WorkingArtist 3.0 Use the number you created above for the WorkNum in the New Artwork form.

Since the WorkNum is the same as the image file name, it is easy to locate the correct image file on your hard drive to display in the database.

Since in WorkingArtist 3.0 you can either sort by WorkNum or Title and you can filter your artwork, it is easy to print out a report that lists the new artwork by WorkNum. With this report in hand, you can now easily find images for uploading to your website along with the relevant information about the artwork. You can burn a CD with the images and send it with the report to your web developer, who uploads the data for you, or you can add the html to you own web pages, or you can enter the data into your website directly if you use an artist website service. If you want to create a website using an artist website service, I recommend http://www.fineartstudioonline.com.

Using a numbering/organizational strategy such as this one can save you a lot of time because:
--You will know exactly where you images are on your computer.
--You will have the original high resolution images that have the same number (maybe a different file type) as the smaller jpg image files.
--You can use the number efficiently in WorkingArtist 3.0 to sort by WorkNum and Browse for the image by by WorkNum.
--The images will sort by date in the subfolder on your computer.

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