Copyright

Anything in the public domain or that you have the permission for

If doing it for purely personal use and not putting it anywhere (which is known as publishing work), anything at all

You can work from your own images or ideas, or find a Public Domain images site.

You can't pull work off Google ( or any Internet site ) as those images are copyrighted by Artists like all of us.

" Wet Canvas " has a board of images donated by photographers that you can use to paint from.

Welcome aboard, & best wishes.

Some of us are touchy on the subject. I routinely grant permission to many artists to use my hummingbird photos, for example, but I want them to:
1. Get permission based on the intended use, sometimes pay a fee for license, sometimes free. Any form of resale other than original art work requires a paid license or barter.
2. Maybe barter something in return, depending on the project. The hummingbird photo was used as a poster and a t-shirt at a Yescapade festival, for example. Also used by museums and textbooks.
3. Give a credit, if possible, and a link, if possible.
4. Send me a jpg of how they used it, that I can post on my website, with a link back to the artist's website.

All of this is negotiable.

Gregory, I may just ask permission from you because your photos are stellar!

Feel free to ask on any particular one, and we'll discuss terms. Mainly, I don't want a "copy", you need to make your own substantial changes as you make your own interpretations.
here's what one good artist did with one of my photos WITH my permission (Actually my dad's, but he's gone and the copyright is mine now.)


This particular photo has thousands of unauthorized copies, because it was posted on GregScott.com quite long ago, perhaps before 2003, and was at one time probably the highest resolution hummingbird photos on the internet. (I paid relatively big bucks to get it scanned on a drum scanner.)

Thank you everyone so far! I can really appreciate why this is a touchy subject. I am also a professional face painter and this topic comes up over and over again.In general in that case most face and body painters are happy for you to use their designs as long as you give credit to who made the original design and never post their photos as your own. You would not believe that some people post others photos as their own complete with the watermark!

I did not realize there are places I can go to use photos with permission. Great! I am always happy to give credit to anyone!

So far I am loving FAA! I had no idea there was such a great community and opportunity to display my art. I am still figuring my way around so all advice is great!

Some people will get annoyed if you ask. Others will want money. If they get annoyed, that's their problem. At least you're asking.

One thing that comes to mind is: what, exactly IS a reference photo.
If you look at 50 photos, and choose elements from each from memory, could you say that you are using general knowledge found on Google, and not copying any one work?
If you choose a wing here, a head there, general pose over there, a color palate from over there would any copyright be enforceable?

That said, I can recognize copies of most of my photos with very high reliability, in spite of hundreds of other hummingbird photographers out there, many with similar poses. Some of my poses are fairly unique.

But I have a shot at antelope canyon that looks like it was shot from exactly where a more famous photographer shot the exact same keyhole at the exact same angle. I should sue! Not really. We both went to an iconic location and found "the" iconic feature. I've stood very close to Ansel Adams, too. Many thousands of photos have been shot at tunnel view in Yosemite, for example.

Thanks Gregory,

I think I am best to ask permission or use my own photography as I am not talented in drawing from memory and using parts of different photographs and combining them.

Janine also suggested the 'Wet Canvas" site. I will check that out also!

:)

hi tracy welcome to faa dropped you a private e-mail am sure i could come up with some workable file images for you ,based on whatever creative direction you would like to go.