I am thinking about joining a site called Zazzle where I can take any of my photographs of my artwork and have them reproduced onto any number of products such as cards, calendars, posters, t-shirts, mugs, etc... The company does all the work for you, you just give them your designs, set up a gallery space and sell your work online. This led me to wanting to get photographs to work from that I don't have to attribute to a particular photographer because that would be complicated if I were trying to sell multiple products with the same image on them. So I did a google search last night which led me back to a site called Morguefile that I had heard of from About.com It's the only place online that I've found so far where you can get good photographs to base paintings on for free with no attribution. The other site, Flickr, requires that you attribute your artwork to a particular photographer, which I have been doing lately. The thing is, when I do that I feel as if I am cheating or stealing or something and yet I really feel that making a painting of a photograph transforms the image into something new and genuine. A drawing and painting requires that you start from scratch with a blank page which in turn requires that you make certain creative decisions. Yes, there is painting that is photo-realism, but even that seems to heighten the image and make it super-charged. My paintings are not exact reproductions and I like to think that my spirit is infused into them. In any case, I lay claim to my own work. So I am relieved to find a site where I can get good photographs to work from free and clear and I'm looking forward to joining the Zazzle site and trying my hand at selling products with my images on them.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Smile
I am thinking about joining a site called Zazzle where I can take any of my photographs of my artwork and have them reproduced onto any number of products such as cards, calendars, posters, t-shirts, mugs, etc... The company does all the work for you, you just give them your designs, set up a gallery space and sell your work online. This led me to wanting to get photographs to work from that I don't have to attribute to a particular photographer because that would be complicated if I were trying to sell multiple products with the same image on them. So I did a google search last night which led me back to a site called Morguefile that I had heard of from About.com It's the only place online that I've found so far where you can get good photographs to base paintings on for free with no attribution. The other site, Flickr, requires that you attribute your artwork to a particular photographer, which I have been doing lately. The thing is, when I do that I feel as if I am cheating or stealing or something and yet I really feel that making a painting of a photograph transforms the image into something new and genuine. A drawing and painting requires that you start from scratch with a blank page which in turn requires that you make certain creative decisions. Yes, there is painting that is photo-realism, but even that seems to heighten the image and make it super-charged. My paintings are not exact reproductions and I like to think that my spirit is infused into them. In any case, I lay claim to my own work. So I am relieved to find a site where I can get good photographs to work from free and clear and I'm looking forward to joining the Zazzle site and trying my hand at selling products with my images on them.
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