Where to Find Copyright Free Images

Okay my lovely patient viewer, I hope you learned a lot from last week’s ‘Copying vs Stealing and Being Inspired’ video, and now as promised I have five sources where you can get copyright free photos for your artwork. Yay!

Finding free good quality reference photos is not as hard as you would think if you know where to look and sometimes who to ask. It can be easy to fall in the habit of just finding images through google searches and using those for your paintings, but taking from other artists without permission will not get you or your artwork very far in this life so better to go ahead and source ethically.

Let me know in the comments if you can think of any other great reference photo sources!

Here are the ones I've found:

https://onairvideo.com/

https://vimeo.com/croquiscafe

https://www.nma.art/

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

https://www.pexels.com/

https://www.pixabay.com/

https://www.imagesource.com/

https://freephotos.cc/

7.12.2020

'Hand Workshop' Progress

I’m excited to share a little progress on probably the most detailed workshop I’ve created to date! This is an super thorough examinations of how the hand is structured, how tendons affect movement, how to draw details like wrinkles and fingernails, and then finally how to shade and render it.

I’ll have around a dozen step-by-step drawing examples of the entire process as well as lots of copyright free photographs that anyone can use for any project.

So make sure you stick around and stay tuned because I’m not sure when exactly this will be published, but I’m hoping in three weeks or less! I’ll have the first part on my YouTube channel and the rest will be available for download on my website or to experience on Skillshare.

Can’t wait to drop some real knowledge on you!

7.9.2020

Copying vs. Stealing vs. Being Inspired

Are you familiar with the difference between copying vs stealing vs being inspired? The lines can get a little blurry sometimes, especially when needing to use reference photographs that you may not be able to create yourself. While it's fine to copy (with credit given) while we're just practicing, when it comes time to make real work that represents us as individual artists, it's absolutely essential that we do not take nor take credit for other people's work.

Hopefully this video will answer all your questions about how to get inspiration from artists we admire, without stealing their ideas. Make sure you tune in next week too because I'll be bringing you 5 different ways to find copyright free images for you to use in your art that don't cost a thing!

Both the master copies above are mine from years past. The first one is by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec called “Corner of Moulin de la Galette’, which I painted in 2015 after visiting his works at the National Museum in Washington DC. The second one I painted in Florence, Italy at my first atelier program back in 2010 after ‘The Annunciation’ by Antonello da Messina.

7.5.2020

Visit to Circle B Bar Nature Preserve, FL

When I read ‘lots of wildlife' in the reviews, I honestly did not think much of it… but WOW was I wrong! I got so much closer to huge dinosaurs in the form of herons, cranes, and gators than I could have ever imagined!!

What an awesome up-close animal crossing experience! These cranes were not concerned about our presence at all!

Do you see that camo gator hiding out in plain sight in the pic above? We also got to see a heron tousling with his “sushi” dinner before getting spooked by a really big alligator splash just behind him.

And how about this Florescent Swamp Chicken (possibly not the scientific name) pecking here and there?! I wish the brightness of her face would have come through the photo more - it was like traffic cone orange!

There were literally huge wetland birds in every direction, mostly oblivious to our passing by. Circle B Bar is over 1,200 acres of nature preserve with about 10 miles of trails throughout with both hikers and families enjoying all this pristine coastline, so the animals at this point feel very safe and carry on their normal activities as if we weren’t even there. So fascinating!

I was literally speechless with just how many HUUGE gators there were just a foot or so below the grassy pathway. We even saw and heard them leaping out of the water at prey, sometimes within fifteen feet of us! Yikes!!

All in all, a fabulous day with my adventure buddy Baila!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering… I do believe I’ve made a personal breakthrough and will be carrying a parasol with me from now on on flatland hikes because this Bird is officially over getting sunburned, ya dig??? ;)

6.17.2020

Creating a Care Package for a Friend in Quarantine

You’ve probably heard me talk about my love of snail mail (which is pretty intense, let me tell you!) that I’m sure I got from my father who, whether living in the same town or across the country, always sent special handmade cards and collages.

I’m just going to say it, surprise care packages are literally EVERYTHING.

So join me tday for some real hand-made from the heart artsy good vibes I’m creating and sending to one of my favorite people in the whole world, Jimi, who is a nurse having to quarantine when he’s not on shift. He hasn’t been able to see his kids, family or bandmates in well over a month, not to mention working the most stressful job possible during a global pandemic.

Want a step-by-step of how I make my sketchbooks with any kind of art paper? Find the video here or the blog post here,

OR if you’d like to know the next time I’m making sketchbooks (they’re larger than the one in this vid), follow this link to stay in the loop. You even get to choose your own toned or white paper!

4.25.2020

Quarantine Couch Collaboration

Aloha friends I've been working on a big collab for you! I've asked five of my super hardworking and inspiring sister artists to talk about how this global pandemic and social distancing has affected their art business and what they are doing to push through and stay positive.

These women are seriously skilled artists who make part to all of their income through their art-making so they have real world experiences to share and super valid (and luckily bright!) points that can really help keep the rest of us afloat as well. Enjoy!

Definitely find my sisters on social media and give them a lil Hooray, great job! shoutout :)

Find them all here (in order of appearance):

Alithia Gomez @artbyaligo Art By Ali Go YouTube

Sarah Sweeney @sarahannsweeney Sarah Sweeney Designs Etsy

Dané @jetheadedgypsy JetHeadedGypsy.com Jet Headed Gypsy YouTube

Seana McCarthy @theillustratr The Illustratr Etsy

Vee Stein @stephaniesteinphoto Vee Stein Photography Patreon StephanieSteinPhotography.net

Gold Leafing River Rocks

Strolling along the Buffalo River on crisp sunny days has been one of my favorite pastimes while at my artist residency in southern Tennessee. The water is inexplicably a bright icy blue green color that reminds me of crystal hot springs I’ve visited in Yellowstone and California and the banks and shallow bottom are completely composed of a variety of sedimentary rocks.

I’ve become especially drawn to this super smooth rich earth toned type. I can’t figure out what kind of stone it is specifically, but they are very smooth and dense and almost remind me of a cross between slate and obsidian.

I’ve spent a few walks collecting my favorite stones and have decided to celebrate this sparse yet pristine landscape by recreating some of the best views in gold leaf on these lovely smooth rocks. Each one is hand gilded and is one of a kind and will look fabulous in any crystal or stone collection, or even as a little accent in your fave planter!

$10 includes US shipping or grab 2 for $16 with the code TNGOLD

Pop over to my Shop here to snag a few gold leaf accents for your precious stone collection

Golden Glow Inspo

That feeling when you blend in fully with your environment…

Even though it’s been a little bit gray here in TN, I’m still making sure to spend some time outside every day and on one of my recent walks I came upon an entire forest of these golden glowing leaves. The way they were lightly fluttering in the wind I was half expecting a few silent dueling martial artists from ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’ to start sailing above me whipping their cloaks about….

So happy that everywhere I go my fern friends find me:)

2.26.2020

Surprise Art of Me!

Whoa I am so floored! @jetheadedgypsy just surprise painted me doing my favorite thing, painting!

The original photo of me was taken by my girlie Jae @paintinghawaii when we were out doing a lil plein air painting at Makapu’u Beach on O’ahu so the layers upon layers of women painters that made this art possible is truly heartwarming.

Thanks so much to Dané @jetheadedgypsy for making my week by surprising me like this! I’m so very honored.

Can’t wait to go back out for some more artsy adventures on da ‘aina one day!

2.5.2020

Finding Beauty Everywhere

As an artist, you have an inherent eye for finding the beautiful, unusual, or remarkable in everyday life. It is a very special gift we visual artists possess and we should never let location or materials hinder our creative spirit.

Today I'm going to talk to you about finding beauty everywhere while just using a simple tiny sketchbook and regular pencil to do some graphic drawings from life in order to illustrate that you can make art anywhere with anything if you just open yourself up to being inspired.

If you'd like to see my sketches up close, check out my blog post from earlier this week.

12.6.2019