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Are you allowed to use pictures off Google Images for characters? Or do you have to draw them or use a dress up game?
Pomkeki

Edit: Forget it
Tamara_123 Topic Starter

Okay, thank you!
I would also state that you not do what some people do, and trace others' work and then claim it as your own. If you really cannot get permission, I'd say - at the very least - claim the artwork is not your own and ask that if anyone does know who the art belongs to to contact you so you can properly credit. If nothing else, better to be safe than sorry and not use the art at all. As Pomkeki said, sometimes its hard. If it's an anime image, perhaprs credit the anime creator or company or google who all do art for theshow and credit them.

All in all, yes, try to reach out and get perm or credit to the best of your ability or knowledge.

Apologies for typos or garble, I'm on my phone.
Hi there!

I'd like to make a small correction one of you just mentioned:
Quote:
If you really cannot get permission, I'd say - at the very least - claim the artwork is not your own and ask that if anyone does know who the art belongs to to contact you so you can properly credit.

This does not excuse using artwork that is clearly not yours/you don't have credit for at all, and is one of the ways you can get our attention as moderators. Please avoid doing this!

The tricky thing about the subject is there is so much artwork uploaded to the site, we can't really do anything until somebody up right claims it's not their work or an artist comes to us. The workload into researching every artist source would burn out the entire moderator team.

But here is what you can do if you need references:

1. Stock images and free resources. A good Google search should actually show up several free to use sources for whatever kind a reference you need for your character. I believe we even have a topic or two dedicated to this, so give me a bit and I'll try to find them and edit this post.

2. Doll makers! Yes, you can absolutely use dollmakers, most of them are free to reference unless the doll maker specifies otherwise(each one seems to vary from maker to maker--keep an eye out for rules!)

3. Keep an eye out in the art board here on the RPR! Once in a while an artist will have free doodles/sketches open to the public. If you have some money to spare when you're usually tight on cash, occasionally there will be name-your-own-price/low priced ones too. :)
Kim Site Admin

Copper is absolutely right, stating you don't own an image does not give you any more right to use it.

To use Google to find images that are (probably) free for use and give consent for you to use them...
  • Go to http://www.google.com
  • Type in your search term and hit enter
  • Switch to the "Images" tab on the search results
  • Click "Tools" (it'll be on the same line with the different types of search tabs)
  • Click "Usage rights" and select "labeled for reuse"

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