If you aren’t creating art using a still life set up, drawing en plein air, or having someone sit for a portrait, then you probably want to use a good reference photo for your artwork. There are basically three options: find free images to use, purchase rights to photos, or take your own picture. In this article, I’ll show you website examples for for the first two options.

But first, it’s important to be cognizant of copywrite laws. Scroll down to the website links if you already know about this topic. If you want a brief education on the topic, then read on…

The Bare Bones on Copyright Laws

If you are going to sell your artwork, it is important to understand the copyright laws that could be protecting the reference photo you used. Photographers are artists in their own right. If you are going to use their work as a reference, it only makes sense that you abide by the same considerations that you want people to give you in terms of honoring creative property. Additionally, you could get into legal trouble if the photographer finds out you used his or her work to make money without their consent.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that has developed a system where creators and users can understand how works can be shared. The reason why Creative Commons was initiated was to encourage sharing of works and to help people easily understand legalese regarding copyright laws. This can still get rather complicated, so I am going to provide a link where you can read as much as you want regarding this subject. Otherwise, I’ll fill you in on the barebones information that you need to know.

First, you need to know what types of licenses you can use if you want to sell your work. Be on the lookout for these licenses. You can typically find the type of license underneath an image:

Creative Commons- No Copyright Reserved. CC0

If you see “Creative Commons- No Copyright Reserved” or “CC0” next to a photograph you want to use, this is the best-case scenario. It means the photographer has relinquished all rights to the photograph. You are free to use it to create your works, adapt them, share them, distribute them, and sell them commercially. All without even attributing the photographer.

Creative Commons- Attribution. CCBY

If you see either “Creative Commons- Attribution” or “CCBY” by a photograph you are interested in, this is the next best type of license. It means that you are free to copy and share the work in any media you choose. You can adapt the image however you want and use it commercially, which means you can sell your work. The BY means you must attribute your work to the photographer’s name. So if you post your work on social media, for example, make sure you credit the photograph’s creator.

There are several other Creative Commons licenses, but I wouldn’t recommend any of them if you want to sell your work. The other licenses will limit what you can do so much that it wouldn’t be worth it, in my opinion. For example, the Creative Commons- Attribution, Share Alike license would force you to list your artwork under the same license. This means people could use your art as they see fit.

Website Links to Find Free Pictures

Wikimedia Commons- This is a great site to find photos. Sometimes you have to search on the page for a bit to find what license covers the work, but it’s not too difficult to locate the information.

Pixabay- I use Pixabay frequently. This is a great one because all of the images on this site are CC0.

Pexels- All images on this site are free to use under a license by Pexels. You can use the images for free, including altering them and using them commercially. You don’t even have to provide attribution!

Stock Snap- This is another CC0 source with lots of images to choose from.

Unsplash- Unsplash has all CC0 images as well, under its license. They do appreciate it when you attribute the photographer, though, which is no big deal and a nice thing to do.

United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)- Government materials are in the public domain, which means that they are free to use for any reason. Under copyright law, any photographs taken by the United States government are free to use without copyright concerns. You may have to do some searching on this site to find good photographs, but it might be worth the effort.

Why You May Want Something Other Than A Free Reference Photograph

You might wonder, if there are all of these websites that offer images that are free to use under some sort of license, why would you need to write more on this blog? This is because you may not find the image that you want on these websites. Also, something to keep in mind is that other artists will be using these free images for their work as well. I have seen several artists’ work on Instagram using the same wolf picture from Pixabay, for example.

This consideration takes us to the next option, which may help you to find better pictures, albeit for a price.

Website Links to Buy Rights for Pictures

RT Reference Photos- These are pictures from a husband and wife team, Remco and Tazi. They are both photographers who have taken all of the pictures on the website. They are only seeking money to be able to continue taking pictures and to donate money to conservation organizations. The pictures are beautiful and reasonably priced at around $15- $45 per picture (I’m converting Euros from their website to US dollars for this blog). They specify that they favor big cats on their website, but they do have a lot of other animal pictures to select from- anything from sea life to elephants to wolves.

The Standard license fee gives you the right to use the photograph to create your art and to sell it if you so choose. You cannot create digital art with these reference photos. You are permitted to create as many pieces of art as you want from each photo, but you may not sell the artwork for more than approximately $1100 unless you buy the Royalty-Free license. The Royalty-Free license will let you price your work higher and it will also ensure that you are the only person using that photograph as a reference photo. The fee for this license will depend on how much you sell your artwork for and will range from $85 to $567 on top of the Standard license fee.

Wildlife Reference Photos for Artists- This website is family-run, and it was created for the sole purpose of providing a place for artists to find reference photos. The owners are wildlife artists themselves. This is a great resource. They sell photographs starting at $5. Once you purchase the photo you can reuse it as much as you want, make prints from your artwork, and sell the original artwork and prints.

Jason Morgan Artist’s Reference Photos- Jason Morgan is a professional wildlife artist. He also takes his pictures of animals and sells them in very reasonably priced bundles of 75 to 136 photographs.  The images are completely copyright and royalty-free. You can purchase the bundles on CDs ($25 including shipping) or digital downloads ($15). The CDs are in bundles such as African wildlife, birds of prey, landscape, flowers, and photo mixes of animals. You can’t see all of the photos before you buy them, but at the low price, I think it’s worth the gamble.

African Reference Photos for Wildlife Artists- This website is run by Scotch Macaskill, a photojournalist living in South Africa. The site is not currently functional, but I am hopeful that it will be up and running again soon. I’m putting it on this list because the photos are great if you are looking for reference pictures of animals living in the savanna biome in Africa. Scotch says on the site that you can email him if you are interested in a photo, but I’m not sure how much they cost, etc., The website isn’t currently functioning because Scotch states that he’s trying to work out a glitch with Pay Pal. Fingers crossed he will straighten that out soon.

Ask the Photographer for Permission to Use Their Work

One additional suggestion for finding photograph references- if you find a photograph online or in a magazine that you want to draw, see if you can track down the photographer. I was able to do this with my “Ross Castle” reference photograph, and the photographer gave me permission to use his photo as long as I give him credit. I wasn’t planning to sell the drawing, but if I was I would have asked him if I could sell it and/or make prints from it. If you make prints from a photographer’s picture, you could offer to give them one for using their work to compensate him or her. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

I hope this blog was helpful for you. Let me know in the comments if you know of any additional websites to find pictures. Cheers and happy drawing!