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Free Artist Reference Photos
and How to Use Them
Photos are a great way of capturing ideas and setting up good
compositions before you start to create a drawing, watercolor or painting. Your
camera or smart phone can be your sketchbook if you keep one with you and take
shots whenever you see something that inspires you. Or, you can just click on the
thumbnails below to find your next composition among thousands of beautiful art
reference photos that are offered for free by talented fellow artists and
photographers.
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WetCanvas.com |
Susan Barri, Paint My Photo |
Don
Berg, Today'sArts.net |
Artists Sharing Their
Photos
Free Photo Archives
How to Use Reference
Photos for Your Drawings, Watercolors, Paintings
and Illustrations
Free Art and Craft Lessons
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Wet Canvas Reference Photo Library
The artists at WetCanvas.com offer over 75,000 interesting
free photographs for you to upload and use as references for
your drawings and paintings. You'll have to register, for
free. That will also give you access to the full Wet Canvas
site with helpful and informative articles, how-to videos
and forums. |
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Free Patterns and Photos
Artist Susie Short generously shares line drawings that you
can print and transfer to your watercolor paper or canvas as
the start of your painting. The downloadable drawings are
accompanied by large scale color photos that you can use as
references. You'll find drawings of a variety of flowers,
pine cones and barns at SusieShort.net |
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Paint My Photo
The photographers on this web site encourage you to turn
their photos into paintings and drawings. You'll find an
amazing selection of beautiful shots of just about any
subject you can imagine. Create your account, for free, to enjoy a
constant supply of inspiring photographs. Check out the
paintings made by members, join your
favorite forums and post your own creations for constructive
comments. |
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Free Photos for Artists
Browse through a wonderful selection of free photos of
street scenes, buildings, landscapes and seascapes in
England and France. Check out the still life shots too. If
you find the inspiration for your next painting or drawing,
just click on it to enlarge it. Copy or save the photo to
your computer, print it, or work directly from your computer
screen. |
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Trick Photography And Special
Effects E-book
Become
more creative and artistic by taking
breathtaking photographs that blow people's minds away!
Dozens of rare trick photography ideas are included in
this 295 page e-book, along with nine hours of how-to
photography video tutorials. |
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MorgueFile.com Are you
looking for free artistic photos to use as references for
your drawings, paintings or illustrations? Here's an amazing
web site that you need to visit to find thousands of
stunning shots. Just click to the Free Photos section and
use the search box. Choose any photo and download it. Or,
use the handy crop tool to select just the area of the image
you want to work with. |
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CopyrightFreePhotos.com
Create paintings or drawings from a very nice selection of
free photos. Select from shots of animals, buildings,
nature, places, technology and more. Just find the shots you
want to use and click on the "Download high resolution
version" link. |
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Artist Reference Photos from ThoughtCo
ThoughtCo.offers a selection of photos that you can use, for free, as
inspiration for your artwork. Click through to find
galleries of
Abstract Ideas;
Flowers;
Landscapes; Seascapes;
Still Life
and more. |
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600,000+ Free Photos at Pixabay
This new, easy-to-search archive offers public domain photographs
and vector images that you can use as references for your artwork,
on your web site or blog, or just about anywhere else. Contributors
follow strict quality-control rules, so the images are sharp, bright
and, in most cases, very creative. |
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Artistic Scenes at Unsplash
Subscribe to Unsplash.com and get ten stunning scenic photos in your
mailbox every ten days. Or, visit the site often and scroll through
it to see the latest offerings. Copy or download the high-resolution
images and use them as inspiration or references for your art work. |
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Free,Photos at StockSnap The
community of photographers on StockSnap.io offer their shots for
free, for you to use in any way you like. Choose from hundreds of
crisp photographs. Use the easy search box to find just what you
need. And, check back often. New photos are added all of the time. |
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How to Transfer Any Image Using the Grid
Method Transfer the outlines, composition and
details of any photograph to canvas or watercolor paper. Enlarge or
reduce it as you do.
Here’s a free, step-by-step demonstration on how to
use the classic grid method to create a drawing or underpainting
from a photograph, or anything else,
at Learn-to-Draw-Lessons.com. |
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How to Draw a Picture From a Photo
Learn how
to turn photos into portrait drawings and paintings. Use
your camera to your advantage with the help of this free,
downloadable eBook by artist Sandra Angelo, from Artists
Daily magazine. |
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Learn How to Take
Professional Quality Digital Photos
Subscribe to Focus eMagazine and get two
eBooks: Digital Photography Success and
Advanced Digital Photography. Follow
professional photographer Amy Renfrey's lessons
and learn how to capture light and use it to
create perfect photographs. Click thru to learn
more. |
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More Lessons and Free Art Practice
Sketches: |
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Free Photography Lessons for
Amateurs
and
Pros Learn how to take great shots with
your point and shoot camera or cell phone. Or, take
your skills to the next level. Follow hundreds of free,
online lessons on the basics or on advanced still life,
portrait, landscape and product photography. Get tips from
professionals. Learn new techniques. And find out how to
improve all of your photographs with Photoshop, Lightroom or
free online photo editing apps. |
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Easy Art From Photos Learn how easy it is to turn photographs, snapshots and even
cell phone shots into something like art. Transform your digital photos with
easy effects that will make them look like drawings, watercolors and oil
paintings. Or, add drama by converting digital images from full color to black
and white. |
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Free Art Lessons
Learn from hundreds of free demos, tutorials,
videos and how-to tips from top artists and art publishers. Get started on a
creative new hobby or advance your existing drawing and painting skills. Find
out how to improve your artistry with the best composition, perspective and
colors. Learn how to use mixed media, pastels and underpainting techniques. And, get tips on how to paint and draw outdoors. |
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Free, Printable Art Practice Sketches Here's a quick and easy to get started creating images with
watercolor, oil or acrylic paints, pastels or markers. Print any or all of the
free sketches that you'll find, and then use them as you follow the
free lessons on TodaysArts.net. Or, use the printable sketches to improve your existing skills. Try new techniques, new types of paper or canvas,
and paints or media that you haven't worked with before. With these sketches,
there's no need to worry about setting up a composition or doing a
time-consuming drawing before you start the fun part of art. |
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