This list with the best free resources for artists will be updated whenever I discover a new one.
As an artist you never stop learning. There is always something new to draw, something you can improve on or a new medium to try.
But you can’t learn and improve without drawing and practicing over and over again. Sometimes you will feel stuck and then it’s great to lean on resources to give you new inspiration and get you out of your comfort zone.
Whether you need to practice your figure drawing or need to spark your imagination here are the best free resources for artists.
Figure Drawing
Here you can find female and male models (nude or covered) ranging from all ages. You can also select animals, faces & expressions, hands & feet and even scenes & environments. The cool thing is that you can do class modes and chose the time interval. This way new pictures will be shown without you having to look for new poses. It’s a super helpful tool to really practice drawing quick gestures. But you can also select longer sessions.
This site also offers class modes and again you can chose between gender, covered or nude, action pose or stationary. There’s also the option to select animals, human body parts like hands or feet and vegetation like flowers or plants.
On Quickposes you can find a lot of different poses ranging from warrior poses to sitting poses to hanging poses and more. You are also able to chose the interval time.
Scott Eaton’s Bodies in Motion provides sequences of high resolution images captured at 14-16 frames per second. This is perfect for animating poses or studying the body. For full access to all resources you need to pay but there are also quite a few free ones which are super helpful.
ArtModelTips.com is another great free resource for artists. They provide pictures of nude poses by females and males. You can browse between different kinds of poses like seated, crouching or standing. Some poses are even in mid-air. There are a lot of different models with different body types.
Environments And Portraits
If you want to draw environments but are bored of your neighborhood try out Mapcrunch. This site shows you random street views provided by Google Maps. If you don’t like the view just generate a new one. You can also choose which countries you’d like to see under options.
On Pexels you can find free stock photos and videos which you can use for your drawings or paintings. You can search for whatever and you’ll likely find beautiful material. Stock photo references are great because it allows you to sell your artwork without you having to worry about copyrights.
Pixabay is another free stock website which provides pictures, illustrations, videos and even music. The pictures are very helpful to use as references for your art.
Design Resources
On Free Design Resources there are lots of free high quality fonts, mockups, graphics, templates and more. A lot of them you can also use for commercial use, just make sure to check out the license type for each resource.
If you need a bit of inspiration Dribble is a great place to get your creative juices flowing. You’ll find amazing design, illustration or animation projects from talented people all around the world on this site. You can even search and apply for freelance design projects.
Ideas and Inspiration
If you want to draw something but don’t know what you should check out ArtPrompts. On this website you have to select a category like character, creature or environment and a random generator will generate a prompt for this category. If you don’t like the prompt just generate a new one. This free tool is a great resource for artists because it will stimulate your creativity and inspiration.
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