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 so excited to introduce you to my new site… www.artistreferencephotos.com

One of the greatest frustrations I’ve experienced as a growing artist is finding reference photos for the things I want to paint that I might not see daily.  My readers and Instagram followers have generously shared photos with me when I put the call out, but not every artist has a generous audience as a resource to tap into when specific photos are needed.  Yes, artists can search for images online, but there are restrictions even on “free” photo-sharing websites and things can get sticky if you want to license your work for reproduction and sale.  I found in all of my online searches that there isn’t a website that is truly a royalty-free reference photo library for artists without any strings attached.

So, I had the thought…  Someone should make a reference-sharing website for artists.  

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

I talked to my assistant and graphics designer, Heidi, about building this site and she was on board, so we got started.  She built the website and I wrote the content and gathered the photos, tapping in years of reference photos from my own digital library.  While Heidi worked her magic, I also had to think about my vision for the site.  Here are some of the things I thought through 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 was this site would be a reference-sharing, not a photo-sharing.  There are a bunch of photo-sharing and stock-photo sites on the internet, but their goal is to offer a library of good photos.  If you search those stock image sites, you’ll find a lot of heavily edited photos that have already been artistically interpreted through that editing process. If you want a photo for your website, brochure, graphic, or presentation, a photo-sharing site is what you need.

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

I have also learned that I don’t need a great, sharp, clear photo to use as a reference.  It’s nice to have a lot of detail, but it’s easy to get lost in it.  It’s honestly better if the photo isn’t perfect so I can’t focus on the details and have to focus on the large shapes, the blocks of values, and simplify the scene for 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 broad so I can find the best composition when I crop it.

For those reasons, my reference photos look very different from the photos I shoot for my blog, social media, or magazines.  The photos on the site won’t always be the best photos, but they’ll be a great jumping-off point for artists to create from.  An artist doesn’t want to be spoonfed a beautiful photo.  The work is always done.  They want to interpret something that inspires them and tell a new story.

Artist Reference Photos is truly royalty-free

Since this was not explicitly available anywhere on the internet (that I could find), it was very important to me that this site truly and clearly offers royalty-free photos.  You can use these photos to create your work for sale.  That includes original, prints, and/or licensed wall art and/or products  There are no restrictions on your business as an artist and you don’t have to worry about fine print or gray areas.  There are no strings attached.

The only caveat we do have is this is not a photo-sharing site.  We’re not providing photos for you to use on your website or to make prints or graphics.  Honestly, there are better sources for that in abundance.

Would artists want to use photos available to other artists?

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

In my research on artists of the Impressionism movement, I learned that they often painted together and painted each other.  They shared studio space, they shared resources, they shared models, and they shared still-life props, they traveled together and painted the same places.  One of my favorite examples of this is the heron still life by Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille.  If you’ve never heard of Bazille, you should read up on him!  He was an early force behind the Impressionism movement but he was killed in the Franco-Prussian war at just 28 years old.  Posthumously, some of his works were included in the first Impressionist exhibit, but he is not as well known as his early studio mates Monet, Renoir, and Sisley.

Even though these works were painted from the same still-life scene, each artist interpreted it in their own way.  You can see that Sisley painted with warmer whites, omitted the bird to the right of the heron’s head, and let the background dissolve in shadow.  Both are great works and neither is devalued or diminished because they used the same subject.  There are numerous examples of this among contemporary artists.

I love the confidence this displays as well as the generosity.  Even over 100 years later, it tells me these artists weren’t threatened by one another.  They saw the value and uniqueness of their own work as well as the gift of learning alongside others.

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

Can I contribute photos to Artist Reference Photos?

YES!  Please do!  I learned from putting the call out on this blog and social media that people have photos they want to share.  They take great photos of their pets, on vacation, out the car window, in their garden, in their city, of the sky, of boats, of water, of snow…  and those photos just languish on a smartphone.  If you have photos you want to share with artists, without any strings attached, please contribute to our site.  You can contribute HERE.

How often will you add new photos to the Artist Reference Photos library?

We plan to add an average of 10 -20 new photos each week and I’ve already been reaching out to local people to ask about taking photographs of their land, buildings, and animals to get even more variety.  I’m hoping we’ll build a rich catalog of thousands of photos that represent a wide array of tastes and subjects.  I’d even love to hire models to gather a diverse range of faces for portraits and clothed figure studies.  But, we need to take baby steps and see how it goes.

If you’d like to know when we add new reference photos to the site, subscribe to our e-mail 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 pictures but don’t have an outlet to share them.  Share it with the person who snaps a picture and always says, “This would make a great painting.”

I am so excited about this website and I can’t wait to see what artists create in oils, graphite, watercolor, charcoal, acrylics, yarn, mixed media, clay, fabric, fill-in-your-favorite-medium with these photos. I hope this will be a great resource for any artist who needs it.

www.artistreferencephotos.com

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