Every artist, that loves to draw or paint sooner or later needs maybe some reference photos, and a lot of those artists make one major mistake. They go to Google they type for example “Rose” and Bamm, Roses are blooming on Google.
Of course they pick one or more from the big Google garden and they believe they didn’t do anything wrong.
Actually, after they create replica of that image with painting or drawing they claim ownership over that artwork, and you got an email. Copyright problem.
Photographers of those images, mostly sets some kind of license terms, and probably that Rose from the garden have license term. If photographer sets that this is not creative common license in which you are allowed to use for your own work, then you are in trouble.
So I advise you to check before you do any kind of download from Google or other search engines, because you probably will break a law.
But I will not write about licenses and which kind exists, if you wish to know more about each license you can go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en and learn everything about each one and you will get all information from first hand.
But I will tell you about what I will write, I will write about sources of images and where you can find free reference images for download, and use them without a fear that you will you’ll get a lawsuit. This is a list of websites that I find surfing around art community and sometimes I have just stumbled on them by accident.
Reference Photos List Of Websites
I have mentioned that downloading from Google is not allowed, but there is a correct way of searching photos that are listed as free to use even if you wish commercially. If you follow these steps you can find reference images on Google easily without fear that you will break any license, so check the steps and be safe. Its only few clicks on Google Images, and you can find many images that people around the world shares for free.
First thing you should go to Google Images and type your keyword for instance “Rose” and press Enter, results will pop out.
Next you have to go “Search tools” and click on it, after clicking on it you will have more options to choose.
And this is final step to filter out photos that are free to use even commercial, just follow this final step. You must click on “Usage rights” and from drop-down menu “Labeled for reuse with modification”. And that’s it, you are ready to download all images that you find with this filter activated.
Another great way for searching reference photos for your artworks is with CC Search, great search machine that use many services for searching free photos. And with only two clicks on filters you can filter out all photos that you can use for commercial use if you like, and you can even modify them or adapt to your needs. But you should be aware that you must check license before use, because CC Search can’t garantue that those photos are under creative commons license. So better do double check then have problems with law.
Pixabay is a stock photo service where you can download photos for free, and use them as you wish. You will have the option to choose among 390, 000 of photos,vectors and many art illustrations. I’m sure that every artist can find some great photos for art projects, and if you wish, you can share that with others on this free service.
Pexels is another great source of photos for artist, and like I said before here you will find high quality photos to download. So all I recommend is that you bookmark this site because here you find some great materials. You can find photos of sunsets, mountains, people or whatever you imagine that you need for your artwork, just hit the search bar and you will be amazed how amazing photos people share with us.
So now when you have a great reference photos, and you can use them without a fear it’s time to create some art. I hope you find this post useful, and if you wish more of this kind of post in your inbox then subscribe to our e-mail list.
