Finding Free Fantasy Art

[Blakey]

All,

I'm building a web site for my Homebrew world. I'm using Campaign Cartographer 3+ for the maps. Now, as well as some (hopefully!) quality maps for the site I also want some evocative fantasy art work - illustrations for people and places mostly. I can of course do a google search and get gazillions of superb images, but downloading them and sticking them up on my web site would be a Copyright issue most of the time.

What I'm wondering is: How can I best (read: most easily) seek out and source fantasy art which is free and which I do not have to contact the artist to use?

For full disclosure, I'm not planning to sell anything on my web site, it's purely a home creation. I'd only be hosting the pictures to illustrate places and people in the Homebrew world. If it matters, I have published a couple of novels set in this Homebrew world.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses!

Blakey

[Azélor]

Google work perfectly. There is an option where you can ask him to shown only image with specific rights.
When searching for images: tools, usage rights

Example : https://www.google.com/search?q=tree...&bih=966&dpr=1

[Blakey]

Wow - that is awesome! Thanks heaps, that will save me hours and hours.

[Xanth de Orlig]

Over at Wizards of the Coast, on their D&D site, they have a fan site kit available for use. I found it a few weeks ago as I am doing the same, as far as putting together a homebrew website. Along with images they have the D&D logo and clear instruction on the use and protocol for the free images, giving you everything you need to stay well within the legal boundaries of the copyright issues :

Use Trademark and Copyright Notices. All Fan Sites must include the correct copyright and trademark information on each page that contains content related to Wizards' property. When referencing specific game names, game terms, or characters, the appropriate TM or ® should be used as provided in the relevant Tool Kit. For example,"Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 2015 Wizards. All Rights Reserved."Further, on every page of a Fan Site where Wizards Materials appear, you must include the following notice in a font legible to end users of the Fan Site: "This [Web site] is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This [Web site] may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards' Fan Site Policy [link]. For example, Dungeons & Dragons® is a trademark[s] of Wizards of the Coast. For more information about Wizards of the Coast or any of Wizards' trademarks or other intellectual property, please visit their website at (www.wizards.com)."

Here is a link to the page, where they break down the usage rights and other info pertaining to the kit. A lot of good stuff. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/fan-site-kit

Another good place to peruse is the DungeonMasters Guild http://www.dmsguild.com/

Great place to find fan made products ranging from art to new game mechanics (new races, classes etc) and adventures. The site is set up for people to be able to sell their D&D related creations, and everything there is reasonably priced (aka cheap), pay what you want, or a decent amount of stuff is free. I've found a lot of great material there as well.

[LordEntrails]

Google work perfectly. There is an option where you can ask him to shown only image with specific rights.
When searching for images: tools, usage rights

Example : https://www.google.com/search?q=tree...&bih=966&dpr=1

This is a great start, but you still have to check the licensing on the work. Often enough it is mislabeled (or more accurately, stolen and mislabeled by a secondary user). So, make sure to check the site linked (pintrest is almost always wrong)

What I do, is once I find an image using the search, is to do a reverse image lookup on it and verify the source is the same one Google said was usable. https://support.google.com/websearch.../1325808?hl=en

[Azélor]

This is a great start, but you still have to check the licensing on the work. Often enough it is mislabeled (or more accurately, stolen and mislabeled by a secondary user). So, make sure to check the site linked (pintrest is almost always wrong)

Yea, you still need to be careful but if the site is small, it won't be a problem much.
It's still actually wrong on the ethical side of things if you disregard the copyrights but unlikely to have any meaningful impact.

[Xanth de Orlig]

(pintrest is almost always wrong)

I block pintrest results from my searches ... they clog up results, and when I would go there the site is annoying persistent that you sign up ... blocking the screen and being a general nuisance.

*shakes fist at pintrest*

I have no interest in signing up, so I just avoid them.

And you're right, is mostly a mislabeled collection, rarely attributed to the correct source.

[Blakey]

Ah. So all the art work I've just downloaded as I assumed it was safe to use might actually not be? This is quite the minefield.

It's a shame as I think adding artwork to my homebrew world really brings it to life - some of it is amazing. And I'm not selling anything on my web site, it's really only ever visited by me and my D&D gaming group. Still, I'd not want to annoy people by using their art without permission.

I'm wondering if I'm just best dropping all the art completely. At least I know the maps are all kosher as I made them myself!

If only I could draw...