Why I love Morguefile.com!

I love the web! There are so many great resources for artists! I could spend all day being inspired by the graphic designers and illustrators on behance.net, or looking at wonderful watercolors and creative doodles on pinterest. One of my favorite places to visit is morguefile.com where photographers post pictures that anyone can use for inspiration.

As an example, a few weeks ago I was building some new brushes in Photoshop and testing out some others. I made this playful graphic. I had placed a little tiny bird brush in it and it was obvious the design needed something more substantial.

I searched morguefile.com for beautiful little birds and found this truly precious one by "rezdora70."

Notice in the capture above that when you find an image you like, you can see the photographer's information, file size, how often the file has been downloaded and what if any restrictions there are on the photo - usually none - other than you can't use it standalone. If you decide you want it, you just have to click the very obvious button that reads "Download Image."

After downloading, I opened the image in Photoshop, flipped it horizontally, desaturated and applied a few favorite filters. He fit right in and completed the image. Thank you, rezdora70!

Sometimes I download beautiful birds I find on the site with plans to work them into something later. This little black capped chickadee by a photographer called "AcrylicArtist" was one of them.

My original thumbnail sketch was just some random designs on a large square under this cute bird's feet. After downloading, I just viewed this image on my monitor and started sketching with a micron pen on watercolor paper. When I doodled a worm as one of the designs in the square beneath him, I felt I needed something else that lived underground. I searched morguefile.com again for a little field mouse and found this adorable one by "xandert."

Here's the pen and ink so far, thanks to both AcrylicArtist and Xandert! .

I am so thankful that there is such a wonderful and free resource for artists. Keep morguefile.com in mind when you're looking for photo resources that you don't have of your own. It's very inspiring, easy to use, and a great place for sharing. The photographers ask nothing, except maybe to be notified if you are so inclined. Click here to check it out: http://www.morguefile.com/.