Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Free Images

Where to find them and what to do with them when you get them

I am a collector of images. Not a great user of images, just a collector of them. Professional organizers may say "Pack Rat" but I feel much more like a librarian of sorts. Finding and cataloging images into folders on my computer for use in the future. I file them according to their subject matter, people, animals, letter/numbers and each image has a code that identifies where I got it so that if I use it I can give credit. Kind of like a footnote on an academic paper.

Some of my favorite places for images are:

DOVER PUBLICATIONS
Sign up for their email and get images for free. They also have GREAT books of images you can buy online or in brick and mortar stores (remember those?).

WEB GALLERY OF ART
The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism and Romanticism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 20.300 reproductions. Picture commentaries, artist biographies are available. Guided tours, period music, downloadable catalogue, free postcard and other services are provided.

Your tax dollars at work, U.S. GOVERNMENT PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS
Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license. We strongly recommend you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use. For information about obtaining seals of Federal Agencies and the United States, please see the Government Printing Office website.

OLD UK PHOTOS
Old Photos of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland (which of course is not in the United Kingdom). Launched in July of 2006, this website seeks to preserve old pictures in perpetuity and display as many old photographs as they can of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This is a free to view website, that doesn't sell images, purely displays them for your pleasure.

KAREN'S WHIMSY PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES
What started out as as small gift to people viewing Karen Hatzigeorgiou's artwork has become a huge labor of love. These pages are filled with hundreds of beautiful images gleaned from her collection of old books, magazines, and postcards. They are all from material printed prior to 1923 and are in the public domain.

SAY IT
Says-It.com allows you to make your own funny photos and graphics - simply type in some text and choose from a few simple options. You can create your own church sign, make an official seal, have your own fire or police badge, and more. Once you've picked your options and generated your graphic, you can use it for whatever you like - save it on your computer, upload it to ImageShack image hosting for use in blog or forum posting, or have it applied to a variety of high-quality merchandise from Zazzle.com, including stickers, mugs, keychains, and magnets.

THE BOOK SCANS DATABASE
Scanned Images of Vintage Paperback Books. The images in the Database Index Page are arranged by book number within Publisher Folders, which can be accessed in the left column. Each image (anywhere in the web site) should be identified by its publishing house and number.

But my absolutely favorite place for images is THE GRAPHICS FAIRY.
Karen does all the leg work of finding and scanning vintage images for use in my art. I have used her images to test techniques and a couple of them are in works in progress (WIP) in my studioffice. When they are done I will share them here.

This image was an experiment. I had the photograph printed at Costco and when I got it home I really went to town. The girl's skin and hair are colored using Stampin' Up! markers. The background is sanded with a sanding block, I love the golden colors that are revealed with this process. I masked the girl with a thin transparent film with a weak adhesive on the back — the film was meant to be a book cover but the adhesive is so weak that it's best used as a mask for things like this. Then I got out the Tim Holtz acrylic stamps and Distress Inks and added the wings. The swirls at the top are stamped with Stampin' Up! Classic Inks.

To see the original click here: 1girlsitting004.jpg



I have begun to offer free vintage images at my Flickr site. Look for the FYAO (for your art only) collection.

Hope you enjoyed it.

*edited to remove non-active link



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