Tuesday, May 26, 2009

25 Free Online Resources for Art Students

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for the online schools search section of OnlineColleges.net.

Looking for free design tools, images, or art education? Maybe you'd like to sell and promote your artwork. Whatever your needs are, there are plenty of free resources to be found online. Here are 25 worth exploring:
Free Design Tools
ArtRage - The starter edition of this digital painting software can be downloaded and used for free. The free version includes eight painting tools and the ability to create, save, and print as many images as you'd like.
Gimp - This free image manipulation program, which works with multiple systems, can be used for image authoring, image composition, and photo retouching. editor's note: Limited to what you can do with them, though, since they can not be saved as jpgs.
Artweaver - Artweaver is free Windows-based software that can be used to sketch, manipulate, and enhance images.
Project Dogwaffle - This painting and animation program offers a unique toolset that can be used to draw, sketch, animate, and paint. There is a full version that can be purchased, but the free starter version works almost as well.
Picasa - Google's photo editing software is easy to use and free for all.
Royalty Free Images
Stock.XCHNG - This free stock photo site offers 350,000 stock photos created by thousands of different photographers.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net - You can find thousands of royalty free images for commercial and personal use on this site. Every image is free unless you are looking for an extremely high res version.
Public Domain Pictures - This repository for public domain images is a great place to find free images for personal and commercial use.
iStock Photo - iStock isn't exactly free, but you can get royalty free files for as little as $1 each.
Stockxpert - Like iStock, Stockxpert is a place to buy royalty free photos and illustrations. Image pricing ranges from $1 to $10.
Free Art Education
The Art of Color - This free online course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explores the use of color through studio projects and readings.
Intro to Photography - This free online course, also from MIT, provides practical photography instruction in multiple languages.
Media Art - Capilano College of Canada offers four free media art courses online. Coursework is delivered through lectures and assignments.
Creating Interactive Multimedia - Offered free through the University of Southern Queensland, this online course teaches students some of the technologies, tools, and techniques used to create interactive multimedia.
Planet Photoshop - Planet Photoshop hosts thousands of free tutorials that cover every aspect of Photoshop design.
Exploring, Promoting, Selling, and Sharing Artwork
Artition - This social networking site for artists is a good place to meet other people, promote your work, and sell art.
Artbreak - Artbreak is a global community for artists who want to explore, share, and sell artwork online.
ArtId - With ArtId's free membership, art students can create a free gallery, blog, bio, contact form, and guest book. Artists who want to sell art and generate income can upgrade to a paid membership.
MyArtSpace.com - A popular social network for artists, MyArtSpace.com is a place to create galleries and upload artwork. The site also creates opportunities for art students to win scholarships and exhibit art at physical locations.
Miscellaneous Resources
The Pauper - This site is an all around great place for artists. Site visitors can network with other people, sell and promote their work, participate in contests, and read informative articles.
Empty Easel - Empty Easel is a free online art magazine that publishes helpful information for new and advanced artists.
Open Font Library - The Open Font Library hosts free software fonts that can be used, manipulated, and shared for free.
The Digital Art Museum - The Digital Art Museum exhibits artwork and articles from leading digital artists. The online museum also offers an introduction to digital art history.
Digital Art Source - This site is a source for links, articles, interviews, and other helpful resources. The site also hosts a free forum and a selection of books related to digital art.

10 comments:

Jeff Cobb said...

A great list. I have included a link to this page in the most recent edition of the Free Learning Monitor from Mission to Learn.

http://www.missiontolearn.com/newsletter/

Jeff

art ed blog said...

Great list of resources! Thank you for maintaining such a fabulous, informative blog!

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I must appreciate the hard work you have put in developing this blog. Your blog is very nice and informative. Many thanks for great resources.

Ryan said...

Hi,
Thanks for a great list of resources and a very useful blog.
I'm a young artist and I've found a new website that's pretty exciting. The company is called ARTMOLE and it offers an online forum for artists, academics and art-lovers to come together and share ideas, artwork and conduct business. This art portal features several art forms, including photography, digital art, drawings, batik and mixed media. I think its a great idea, and you should definitely have a look! Available at www.artmole.com

Regards

Alex said...

You can also try http://4freephotos.com for some free images to use in artworks.

Anonymous said...
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Design Foundation said...

Fabulous list!! I want to add funny.pho.to for funny photos, wallpapers and screen savers making.

Erica Lindsey said...

Mosaic Globe is no longer running.

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