A Great Resource for Reference Photos...Copyright free!

'Bathtime'      5x7        pastel       ©Karen Margulis  purchase here $45

 So you feel like painting a cat but you don't have any good cat photos to inspire you.  What do you do?  Well, you don't just get a photo from a magazine or calendar. You don't just surf the internet for cute cat photos either.  Why?  Because these images are copyright protected.  Unless you have permission from the photographer, artists aren't supposed to  use the photo to paint from.   Besides it is usually best to paint from your own reference photos because you are more intimate with the subject.

But sometimes you want to paint something and you don't have your own photo to help you.  Or sometimes you just get tired of your own photos but don't want to use copyrighted material.  That's when I visit the Reference Image Library at Wet Canvas.com.

My painting set-up. Reference photo on iPad

If you haven't visited Wet Canvas.com you are in for a treat.  I love the many forums devoted to every art medium you can think of.  When I was new to pastel I learned so much from the generous artists in the Pastel Forum.  But another good reason to join wet canvas is to use their reference image library.  This library consists of images uploaded by the members.  When you upload a photo you are allowing other artists to use the image for their own art. The library is well organized and easily searched. If you want a photo of a bird in the snow, you will find it here.

I have thousands of reference photos but sometimes none of them inspire me! So a quick visit to the reference image library will usually cure the uninspired blahs and get me excited to paint again!