#exotic animal photo reference repository

[animalphotorefs]

New species added: Wolverines

Yet another new mustelids for the repository wesite!

CW: photos at the bottom of this post, and on the repository page, contain images of a carcass feed. The section containing those images on the site is clearly marked.

FYI, two of these wolverines have missing eyes (healed) and/or cataracts. If the animal in these photos looks eye-less, it is!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is permanently open-access and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Pssst... something new is coming...

...this weekend!

Free, non-AI animal art references.

[canon-in-too-deep]

Typesetting Tips 4.5: Graphics/Images

One common question I see popping up for people getting into making books/typesets is 'where do I find graphics/images to decorate my books with?' And of course, that's with the caveat of 'and they're free'.

Thus, this is a continuation of my old post on where to find graphics/images to use for typesetting/book design. Because it's been half a year since then, and while I am very much the same amateur typesetter I was then, I am now a slightly older amateur typesetter---who knows more websites!

(I'm including websites I've listed before so that all the links are in one post)

All these sites have free offerings to varying degrees. Personally, I haven't had to pay anything so far for that I've used. If you see something you like that's locked behind a paywall, try to reverse google search it to see if there's a free version out there! I've seen a lot of these sites upload the same images. Also, be careful of AI!

Graphic/Image Resources:

Archive.org - Internet Archive. Not as easy to download or use images from, but there are a lot of cool resources there if you have the time.

Canva - Easy to use for beginning design work. I recommend taking advantage of their month long free trial (I found it easy to cancel as well when it was over), but do not recommend subscribing.

Creative Fabrica - They send out a lot of free bundle promos in their email subscriptions. I mostly use them for fonts but they do have a lot of free resources for crafting.

Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository - This is an animal photography database by @why-animals-do-the-thing! They have a lovely growing repository that's both education and free! Just be sure to ask permission and credit and link to them if you to use their work!

Freepik - More free stuff! I haven't used it a lot yet, but I've seen this site recced by others.

Heritage Library - Lot of neat pngs/vectors. Especially great if you're looking for vintage/nature images.

Pixabay - Royalty free and under the Content License

Rawpixel - Probably the site I use the most. I sort to exclude all the AI images and just use the free/public domain stuff.

Noun Project - Lots of icons available. Tend to be more minimalistic and simple. I know a lot of bookbinders use this site, though I haven't explored it much.

Smithsonian - The Smithsonian Open Access is free database from the Smithsonian with millions of images available.

Streamlinehq - Another site with a lot of free icons. Most of their really cool assets cost money, but you can sign up for free with an email address to download 10 free assets if you see something you really like.

Wikiart - Great place to look at public domain artwork.

Wikimedia Commons - (Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, Wiki Books, etc.) Tons of stuff to sift through.

Last source: FONTS! You can go a long way with dingbat fonts for decorations! Frames, ornaments, etc. can be done with fonts. Check out dafont and other free font sites; fonts can sometimes be a lot easier to use in texts than images.

[android-turret]

I used this pic as a ref for the pose, I needed to share such a cool site.

Big thanks to @animalphotorefs for making a reliable ref site free from ai! I look forward to seeing this site grow!

Colored cat

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is live!

You can find it at: https://www.animal-photo-references.com!

Here's how this repository works: all photos were taken by me, a human, at zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other facilities with animals in human care. There is no AI involved in the photo editing or creation and there never will be. Right now there's 56 species on the site; my catalog has over 300 and I will be uploading the rest of them as fast as I can.

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these references. Yes, even for work you're going to sell.

All other usage/reproduction requires permission, but assume I'm friendly and please do ask! That's educators, researchers, the media, people who need images for a school presentation, etc. This is just to retain copyright/control in case they're scraped/reused unethically - it doesn't meant I don't want folk to have access! So please do reach out via the contact form on the repository website, I don't bite and I'm most likely going to say yes.

Please don't repost the repository photos to your own blogs: I've created @animalphotorefs as a dedicated blog to share photos from the site, and of course I'll reblog a lot of it here! That again just helps with retaining copyright and sourcing of the images. If you really want to repost some for a specific purpose, please just ask me first!

Also, folks, this project has no funding. It's just me and my camera.

There will never be a paywall on the site - I believe resources like this absolutely must be free for everyone to access. So please, please, please support the repository if you use it. Want sneak peeks at photos, cute videos I take, or to help choose what I photograph and what gets posted first? You can do that through Patreon (and there's a free trial on the most interactive tier!) If you'd like to just drop a tip, I've also set up a Ko-Fi.

I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the repository.

To whet your thirst for cute photos, here's an Indian rhinoceros contemplating a goose.

[animalphotorefs]

Free, non-AI art reference images: Cheetahs!

Yesterday was National Cheetah Day, so I'm a little late to the party, but we can still feast our eyes on (and feed our pens/pencils with) these spotted icons.

Sourced from the Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these photos as references, including works that will/may be sold.

Want more cheetah reference images? Find them here.

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[animalphotorefs]

Free, non-AI art reference images: Komodo Dragons!

Sourced from the Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these photos as references, including works that will/may be sold.

Want more komodo dragon reference images? Find them here.

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[animalphotorefs]

New species added: American Badgers

These fuzzy buddies are the newest mustelids on the site!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is permanently open-access and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[animalphotorefs]

Free, non-AI art reference images: male African lions.

Sourced from the Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these photos as references, including works that will/may be sold. Go forth and make lions!

Want more lion reference images? Find them here.

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[animalphotorefs]

These are all recent images uploaded to the Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository! They're untouched by AI, taken by me, and all completely free-to-use as references for artists.

But! the image repository doesn't have funding - it's entirely supported by donations from supporters.

If you're able to contribute, please do, to help this site exist for everyone! If you'd like lots of behinds the scenes content and updates, there's a Patreon:

Or if you'd just like to send a one-time contribution, there's a Ko-Fi:

You're welcome to use the references for your art regardless of if you contribute financially - this is a free resource for a reason.

But if you do use it, please consider throwing a little bit towards it when you can, or spread the word!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

So many people have offered to contribute their own photography for the anti-AI animal art reference repository, which is awesome. As discussed in previous posts I'm not yet to the point with setting it up where that's viable, but it's a goal!

I've created an option on the contact form - if you're interested in contributing, please ping me using that (it's linked below) and select the "contribute your photos" message category. This way I'll have everyone's contact information and can reach out directly when I can start accepting submissions. If you've already sent a message/DM to either this blog or @animalphotorefs, please use the contact form to re-send your information so I've got it all stored in one place.

I think it's so cool how many people want to contribute their own work to the endeavor. You guys are rockstars.

As a thank you, here's my favorite photo of a howler monkey I've ever taken (not howling here, just doing a hecking big yawn).

[animalphotorefs]

Hippopotamus are up on the site!

We've got Nile hippos...

... and pygmy hippos!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

A sneak peek of the species that will be live on the animal photo reference site when it launches this weekend!

This isn't the whole list, of course, and the site will be updating frequently with new species and additional photos of extant species. But of course I had to start with the cats!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Sorry if anyone else has asked, will there be insects and stuff on the photo ref site or blog at any point? It's surprisingly difficult to find high def images that arent ai its like. Annoying Sobs!!!

Yes, I’m hoping to in the future! Photographing captive insects requires a lens I don’t own and haven’t really rented before, but I know which one I’d like to get when I can save up for it. My phone is old enough that sadly the camera isn’t up to snuff for macro images.

This is one group of animals where I think it’ll be really helpful to have other contributors, once things are set up enough I can take submissions.

I don’t have a timeline for you, sadly, but I can encourage people who post insect photos are and are willing to have them used as art references to identify themselves in the comments!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I'm loving the animal reference repository!! Such a fantastic resource and I can't wait to use some of these photos for studies or painting reference. I was just wondering, is there a way to download the photos from the website? On one hand I can imagine you disabled this purposefully to prevent AI scraping or other unwanted use. But at the same time it can be handy for people to have high res photos to work with, and I personally like to have my reference photos in the photoshop file next to my drawing. (Also I was one of the people who asked about contributing photos. I honestly think the first 3 points you mentioned could be worked around quite easily. However the 4th (workload) is one I can't argue against of course. I'll see if I can make a small donation and if you ever do open up contributions... I'll be happy to share!!)

Yes! I want people to be able to save images, and you can! But Squarespace's image gallery setup makes it a pain to do. I've actually got a page on the site showing how to do that - do I need to make it more prominent?

The important thing to know is that when you click on a single image, it opens in a "lightbox" display, which for complicated web reasons won't let you save files directly from it. Saving has to be done when viewing the larger gallery page (the species page with all the images).

On mobile:

In gallery view, tap and hold on the image again you’re interested in saving. Tap “Save to Photos” to save it to your phone.

This will not work if you are viewing a single image full-screen on mobile. If viewing the image full-screen you can take a screenshot, but the resulting image will be lower resolution than if you saved it from the gallery view.

How this looks will vary on Android devices, but I've had friends confirm the pathing is pretty much the same even if the layout is a little different.

On desktop:

In gallery view, right click on the image you want to save and click on the “Save Image As” option.

This will not work if you are viewing a single shot full-screen in lightbox mode. If viewing a photo full-screen you can take a screenshot, but the resulting file will be lower resolution than if you saved it from the gallery view.

This worked when I set the site up, shoot me a note if it's broken since then.

The gallery pages allow me to mass-upload files so I don't have to do individual photo uploads, and they're more responsive on mobile... but this is the downside to that ease of use on the back-end.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Thank you for the reference repository!! Such a useful thing to have and I can't wait to go through and doodle all the animals. I know you said blanket permission for artists, but I just wanted to check if that includes tracing? I'd really like to practice drawing the scenery and I've got a style in mind but I'd like to trace over the photos and just wanted to check if that's okay? :)

Absolutely!

To clarify for anyone with the same question: every type of non-AI art practice is included in the blanket permission.

The two things there's not permission for:

Feed it into an AI model

Use or re-post an unaltered image somewhere (without permission)

And for the second one, you just need to ask! I've said yes to every request so far. :)

Thanks for asking!