13 Free/Open Fantasy Art Sources
For one of my upcoming projects I’ll likely be using some public domain art. So I thought I’d share the list of sites I’ve found through my research. Of course, you need to double check the licenses/terms of use on the linked sites as well as any license info on the page with the specific graphic you’d like to use.
- Open Clip Art: Specializes in SVG graphics, particularly clip art and line art from old books, but it is always growing. (Note: The Open Clip Art site has been down for a while. Clip Safari is attempting to restore it.)
- Fantasy Art Workshop: Well categorized with scans from old books. Also has some textures, wallpapers and tutorials.
- Wikimedia Commons: Huge well categorized library of art. However, check the license as some pieces may require attribution or may not be for commercial use.
- From Old Books: 800+dpi images from over 100 old books. Includes a world travel book, scenes from Oxford, typography, much more.
- Old Book Illustrations: Well categorized images from old books, royalty-free.
- Old Book Art: Another website of art from old books in the public domain.
60108 Character Portraits for Creative Commons Release: This was one of the first Kickstarter projects I followed. It grew from 60 portraits to 108, mostly fantasy but some sci-fi or other genres.- Deviant Art: Some art on Deviant Art is marked as Creative Commons. However, you need to double check the exact nature of the creative commons license. You may also wish to drop the artist a note to confirm.
- Karen’s Whimsy: Lots of categorized art from old books. The site owner states the art is free to use, but she asks that you not post/sell it yourself as stock art due to the time to scan/collect it.
- WPClipart: “Is here to maintain and grow an online collection of artwork … free of copyright concerns… I personally collect, photograph, create and/or edit every single image… No direct user-uploaded images are allowed. –Paul Sherman”
- Project Gutenberg: Scans in many old books and of course the images would be public domain.
- Zorger.com: Includes some 1950’s Sci-Fi art where the copyrights were not renewed. (At one point the law forced copyrights to be renewed to be extended.)
- morguefile: Photos you can freely reuse. You may not claim ownership of the images or use/post them unaltered.
I’d love to add to the list. If you have any sites to recommend, please post a comment or send a message to support@inkwellideas.com.
There is also http://freedndart.blogspot.com.br/ who made an album out of cleaned up images from old scanned books here: https://picasaweb.google.com/FreeDnDART
Thanks for the link!
Another reader suggested this link:
http://search.creativecommons.org/
FurAffinity, (www.furaffinity.net), (with “view mature” turned off[1]), is another source. It is especially good for some types of monsters, (such as gnolls). As with dA, licensing rules will vary by artist and you will have to dig through much dross to find the good stuff.
It also has many skilled artists with ridiculously low commission rates, (things like $50 for full colour with background).
[1] The site does have a significant amount of adult content but you both need an account and to have changed a setting to see it.
There’s a new book called “Fantasy Art Characters To Copy.” It features original “conditional” copyright free fantasy characters. The conditions of use are very liberal. The images are high quality, they are not stock pics. They are on blank backgrounds and you can copy them for RPG or use them in your own artwork or as-is.
At this link- http://www.lulu.com/shop/gerard-paradisi/fantasy-art-characters-to-copy/paperback/product-21543974.html