Launching a website for royalty-free artist reference images

I’ve been working on a new project behind the scenes for a few months and now, we’re ready to officially launch! I am very happy to introduce you to my new website… www.artistreferencephotos.com

One of the biggest frustrations I’ve experienced as a growing artist is finding reference pictures for things I want to draw that I may not see on a daily basis. My readers and Instagram followers generously shared images with me when I extended the invitation, but not every artist has a generous audience as a resource to draw upon when specific images are needed. Yes, artists can search for images online, but there are restrictions even on “free” image sharing sites and things can get tricky if you want to license your work to reproduce and sell. In all my online searches I have found that there is no website that is truly a royalty-free reference image library for artists without any strings attached.

So, it occurred to me…someone should make a website to share references for artists.

Then I asked the same question I had asked over a decade ago when I thought someone should introduce milk paint in a new way in a new color palette and unique packaging…why not me?

I talked to my assistant and graphic designer, Heidi, about building this website and she was on board with me, so we got started. She built the website, and I wrote the content and collected the images, drawing on years of reference images from my own digital library. While Heidi was working her magic, I also had to think about my vision for the site. Here are some things I thought about and what makes artist reference photos unique…

Artist Reference Photos is a reference sharing site, not a photo sharing site

The first distinction I wanted to make is that this site will be a reference post, not an image post. There are a bunch of photo sharing sites and photo stores online, but their goal is to provide a library of good photos. If you search through these stock photo sites, you will find a lot of heavily edited images that have already been artistically interpreted through this editing process. If you want an image for your website, brochure, graphic, or presentation, an image sharing site is what you need.

As I’ve worked with images over the years, I’ve learned that what makes a great photo doesn’t make it a great reference photo for a painting. For photography, I like even light and avoid shots with harsh lighting or high-contrast shadows. The contrast between light and shadows is where the magic happens in the paintings. Shadows are what give an object shape and light is what gives atmosphere to a place. If you don’t have a range of values ​​to delve into, the panel may look flat or the direction the light is coming from can be confusing.

I’ve also learned that I don’t need a nice, sharp, clear photo to use as a reference. It’s good to have a lot of detail, but it’s easy to get lost in it. It’s honestly better if the image isn’t perfect so I can’t focus on details and have to focus on larger shapes and value blocks and simplify the scene to get a stronger composition. I also just need shapes for reference like tree shapes, cloud shapes, lines in the landscape, etc. I take a lot of photos out of the car window, keeping the shots wide so I can find the best composition when I crop them.

For these reasons, my reference photos look very different from the photos I take for my blog, social media, or magazines. The images on the site won’t always be the best images, but they will be a great starting point for artists to create from. The artist does not want to have a beautiful picture taken of him. It always works. They want to interpret something that inspires them and tell a new story.

Artist reference images are truly royalty-free

Since this wasn’t explicitly available anywhere online (that I could find), it was very important to me that this site clearly and truly offered royalty-free images. You can use these images to create your business for sale. This includes original artwork, licensed prints, murals, and/or products. There are no restrictions on your work as an artist and you don’t have to worry about fine print or gray areas. There are no restrictions or conditions.

The only caveat we have is that this is not a photo sharing site. We do not provide images for you to use on your website or to make prints or graphics. Honestly, there are plenty of better sources for this.

Do artists want to use images available to other artists?

For me, that was the biggest question. I know many, many professional and amateur artists who create from photos they take, photos taken by clients, or photos found online. I know that a large percentage of artists draw from photos, so I knew there would be interest in this resource. But, what if multiple artists create a work from the same image? Well, if it’s good enough for the Impressionists, I’d say it’s good enough for artists in the Internet age.

In my research on the artists of the Impressionist movement, I learned that they often painted together and painted each other. They shared studio space, shared resources, shared models, shared still life tools, traveled together and painted the same places. One of my favorite examples is the Still Life of Heron by Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille. If you haven’t heard of Basil before, you should read about it! He was one of the early forces behind the Impressionist movement, but was killed in the Franco-Prussian War at the age of only 28. After his death, some of his works were included in the First Impressionist Exhibition, but he was not as well known as his early studio colleagues Monet, Renoir and Sisley.

Although these works were painted from the same still life, each artist interpreted them in their own way. You can see that Sicily painted in a warmer white, omitted the bird to the right of the heron’s head, and let the background dissolve into shadow. They are both great works and are not underrated or belittled because they use the same subject matter. Examples of this abound among contemporary artists.

I love the trust this shows as well as the generosity. Even more than 100 years later, he tells me, these artists were not threatened by each other. They saw the value and uniqueness of their work as well as the gift of learning alongside others.

I hope this site will not only be a resource for artists, but will be a generous community where we can showcase artists’ work created from our library and host challenges with prizes.

Can I contribute images to artist reference images?

Yes! Please do! I’ve learned through advocacy on this blog and social media that people have photos they want to share. They take great pictures of their pets, on vacation, from the car window, in their garden, in their city, of the sky, of boats, of water, of snow… and these pictures live on their smartphone. If you have images that you want to share with artists, without any conditions, please contribute to our site. You can contribute here.

How often will you add new images to your artist reference photo library?

We plan to add an average of 10 to 20 new photos each week, and I’ve already been reaching out to locals to ask about taking photos of their land, buildings and animals to get more variety. I hope we will build a rich catalog of thousands of images representing a wide range of tastes and themes. I also like to hire models to bring together a variety of faces for portraits and costumed figure studies. But we have to take baby steps and see how it goes.

If you’d like to know when we add new reference images to the site, sign up to our email list here or by filling out the box below…

How can I help with this launch?

Please share this site! Share it on social media. Share it with friends who are makers and artists. Share it with people who love taking photos but don’t have an outlet to share them. Share it with the person who takes a picture and always says, “This would make a great painting.”

I’m so excited about this site and can’t wait to see what artists create with oils, graphite, watercolor, charcoal, acrylic, spinning, mixed media, clay, fabric, and filling your favorite medium with these images. I hope this will be a great resource for any artist who needs it.

www.artistreferencephotos.com

Here is a video showing a small tour of the site…