Hi.
Sadly, today there are lots and lots of people who try to make their money by taking people to court for breaching one law or another. Art and craft creators are not immune from this - breach of copyright. My first day at Art School all students were strongly encouraged to start their own visual aid library and make it a life long habit. I have always done this - collecting images, pressing flowers, collecting colours and textures and (with mobile phone cameras) photographic imagery is easy to collect. I would like to start a Folksy Visual Aid Library for all Folksy people to use freely and without fear of prosecution. I start with a photo of a yellow Iris I snapped in my garden last summer. Only post what you are happy to share.
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What a great idea, Michael
Here is a collage of photos of masks that I took at the national museum in Edinburgh.
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Fantastic. As you will see from my jewellery designs I have a liking for native art and masks.
For those who may be confused about how to use these images - ‘right click’ on the image (option-click on a Mac) then save as a download. Thank you for this first addition to the Folksy Visual Aid Library.
I’m sorry I don’t understand what you are saying with this thread. Copyright belongs to the creator or photographer.
Are you suggesting we put our photo’s on this thread for other’s to use so we loose our copyright to our own photo’s???
Sorry but this is not a good idea. Not only are you saying we can all use the images on this thread but so would anyone else who has access to the internet.
Please everyone don’t give away your copyright to your photo’s by posting them on this thread.
I am not advocating sharing copyright. A piece of cloth with unusual texture, a found strip of wallpaper with unusual patterns, a frozen puddle, a discarded boot, fallen petals, a butterfly, a battered can, a piece of driftwood. These are not copyrighted yet can be of interest as visual aids. I have boxes and boxes of visual aids I have collected over the years. I have got another website where I sell my photographs as wall art - these do have copyright and these I do not share. I hope this answers your concerns. Nobody is forced to do anything.
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but if you take a photo of such item that photo is them copyright to the person who took it.
Those boxes are private to you in your store not on this thread saying share them to use.
The central library in Birmingham has a huge collection of collected imagery for public use. Www.pixabay.com is a website of photos free for anyone and everyone to use, they say on their site: "All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty-free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. " If someone chooses to copyright their picture then they should not post it. All I am saying is that as a creative group we could share imagery on a visual aid thread. You don’t HAVE to. I will let it run for a while to see if there are like minded folk at Folksy.
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I think you’ll find a lot of folksy sellers have had problems with people using their photo’s/artwork etc and so will not want to give away their rights.
I am one of them.
Having worked most of my life in the graphic design/advertising industry I have had many occasions where my work has been used without my position and without payment. If no-one wants to share visual aids then this will be a short thread. Unless I CHOOSE to carry on posting by myself.
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Michael, thank you for pointing me to pixabay.com - amazing quality photos. I’m passing the link on to my daughter who is studying Illustration and Graphic Design at uni at the mo - I know this site will come in handy for her.
Elaine
Thank you Michael for starting this. Sadly I have no photos to share as I am a rubbish photographer. But if I find e.g. a nice background I would like to use, I always contact the person who took the photo and ask permission. I have found that people are so happy to be asked that all they want in return is to be credited or a link to their website.
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I am pleased that you find it useful. When I first started art school in 19?!, graphic design was called commercial art - the art of using words and pictures for commercial effect. You can’t be a successful graphic designer without good quality pics. I wish her every success.
Similarly, I have no pictures to share as I’m pretty hopeless (even with my IPhone!), but the images you’ve already posted are beautiful.
Ali x
Hi. It is not about quality photographs or quality cameras. It is not about lighting, framing or composition. Sometimes I have passed a load of fishing nets dumped on the beach and I have just snapped it for future use - maybe for texture or colours. A visual aid library is about collecting images and not a photographic portfolio. Have fun.
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As an illustration of what a visual aid can be I have attached a photo (taken with my old Nokia phone) of some Forget-Me-Nots that I pressed last summer. They are a very attractive little flower and, together with their romantic name, make beautiful images for jewellery. Their colour is unique too, especially combined with their bright yellow centre. A combination of colours which could be used on many applications.
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Thank you.
I love all the painted things at fair grounds and often snap them. This photo is from Margate Dreamland dodgems:
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This is amazing. As a boy I used to holiday in Margate with my parents and sisters. Wow does this bring back memories. Many thanks.
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