Artists Photo Reference Websites

A Picture is a poem without words
Every artist will use reference materials, either directly from nature or through a collection of photo materials.  

Apart from the various free stock photo sites listed in our FREE STOCKPHOTOS section, we have provided here another interesting and useful list of Websites that sell professionally created painting references for artists from props to costumes and nude poses. They are in particular useful as many of them have perfect lighting favourable for artists.

My Personal Favourites

Here a handpicked selection of my absolute favourite photo reference bundles. You will find a direct link to its source from which you can buy them. Hope you enjoy them. 

REALIST ACADEMY

One of the most aesthetic portrait photos reference libraries especially created from and for an artist studio environment. You can buy smaller packs of 5-10 images of a particular model.  

REFERENCE.PICTURES

And another site that offers a range of photo references for artists that can be used for drawing or painting. Some packs are overlapping with other Photobash and ArtStation. 

ART STATION

Around 60,000 digital products for artists and developers, created by artists from around the world. Download ready-made to put your unique ideas into practice. 

NEW MASTERS ACADEMY

This site is based on a monthly or yearly subscription basis that offers portraits and other reference materials that are academy based.

SKETCH DAILY REFERENCE

This site is a FREE resource for artists. Not only do they provide access to photos, but you will be able to set a specific drawing time for each image from 30 seconds to a couple of hours.  The quality of images ranges from brilliant to rather average in quality and resolution. 

PHOTOBASH

Photobash is an online resource for Royalty-Free Photography, Masked Images and 3D Models with flexible licensing. Every image is carefully processed removing noise, sensor spots, chromatic abberation and unwanted elements, then tonemapped to capture a high dynamic range information.

FIGUROSITY

This is another amazing quick pose tool. You can limit the poses by gender, camera angle, dressed, nude, muscle and smooth views and which way the model is facing and has a 360 degree viewer. There are free and paid plans. 

MAGIC POSER

Magic Poser is an app with easy 3D character posing as an art reference and easy 3D creations for creators. It offers a free online light version. This program is rather fascinating, so worth to check it out.  

JUST SKETCH ME

Just Sketch Me offers a free and a paid version. They provide several simple pose figures and characters that adjust the rotation of each joint for a natural pose of each character. You can also control the position, direction and intensity of the lights in your scene. Or remove them entirely and create extreme perspectives as well as add simple props and shapes.