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There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without plagiarizing! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more resources for free images <3

recently found out about openverse which i think aggregates a bunch of creative commons images from flickr, wikimedia, nasa etc… pretty handy

I’m shocked so many people don’t know about my go to – Morgue File.

It’s full of searchable, rights free images uploaded by photographers.

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

Homie gonna share this

have you told all the truths?

instagram / twitter / inprnt

also we fucked up as a society the moment we started telling teens and aspiring artists to conflate being an artist with building a brand as if the two things are inextricable. the name of the game if you want to share your art is to work a job and sell yourself as aesthetizied content. back in my day we could just POST SHIT. to deviantart! what the fuck!

pro-tip if ur a teen or aspiring artist: stay the fuck away from tiktok. tiktok is not the place for your art. your art is not content to be sold. don’t listen to art youtubers advice if they dilute being an artist to stats and algorithms. trying to make a business or career out of art is actually something that takes a lot of experience and consideration to go into it is Not an inherent facet to getting started/expressing yourself as an artist. conflating art = selling something/working a job is the fastest fucking way to ruin it for yourself i am so serious. find communities that share your artistic interests make friends and share your art there. be indulgent and creative and experimental. you deserve a period in your artistic journey that is purely selfish and fostering of your growth. don’t let capitalism take that from you yet

instagram / twitter

tumblr radar y'all?!?!!?!??! thank you for all the love on this piece

what they don’t tell you about making art is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!