I became involved with making free line art available on the Internet in 2005. My clipart and web graphics site Demented-Pixie Clip art, had generated some requests for line art that could be colored, or that would be suitable for various uses in print and design. As I am the actual scribbler who does all the artwork available there, I encourage requests. There are so many beautiful sights in the world - how would I ever decide by myself what to draw? I need you to tell me what you want!
Color-Your-Own.com was the result. I began with an idea and a few line arts I had already on the computer. I wasn’t sure, at the time, if anyone would be interested in them at all.
So I was already mulling the idea in my head when I joined a new sim game online - Virtual Horse Ranch. I was pleased to discover that artists were encouraged to use their own art for images of their sim horses, and there is a lively little play money industry creating art for other players. I began doing line drawings of horses, adding them to Color Your Own and making them freely available to other players. And, of course, taking requests. (I later joined Virtual Pups and Sandbox Farms and create art for those players as well.)
Not long after I joined VHR, I became involved in a discussion on Gather.com about adults who enjoy sitting down on a lazy day with a big box of crayons and coloring books. (Yes, I do) One of the major complaints was the lack of coloring books that offered subject matter and artwork that would challenge and please adults. I began adding more drawings to Color Your Own in response to their requests.
Since I started Color Your Own, I’ve gotten requests to use the art for more things than I could have imagined. They have been used in a college project on visual recognition, one greyhound rescue group prints out the greyhound pages and hands them out to children at their meet and greets, and most of all, other players have used them and enjoyed them - as well as children whose parents have written me and thanked me for the pages!
I started this blog in 2008 mainly to provide an RSS feed for fans with the latest additions as I added them. As I run onto other sites with great coloring pages, I will share them as well.
Free line art is often used to create various needlework and craft patterns. Be sure if you are going to sell the product that you
email me and request permission. Artists who create designs for sewing and craft patterns, or for t-shirts and so on, are usually very highly paid designers. No artist particularly appreciates it when you use his or her art to make a product that you then sell for a profit. When asked I have given permission to use my line art to create various craft items to be sold to benefit charities and fundraisers for non-profits. You are welcome use the art to make a pattern for one or a few shirts or items for yourself, your family, or a gift.
Several players of the online sim games have written me to request permission to use my line art, color it themselves, and sell it for game money or enter the art contests held on game. I always say yes, and in fact, I say on the front page of Color Your Own that you may use my art that way. It’s for play money, after all.
A good colorist can really make a difference in how a line art looks. I am a comic book fan from way back. If you look at a comic book - a new one or one from years ago - you will probably find inside the cover a list of names. They will include the cover artist, the line drawing artist(s), the colorist (or inker), and the author of the story. A good colorist can do good things for your line art!
Please do not steal my bandwidth, do not direct link to my artwork.
I now use the Common Creatives license below for the work at Color-Your-Own.com:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
The conditions are:
- The wording “Line art by Color-Your-Own.com” should be left on the drawing if possible (I realize some sim games require you to remove it, and this is acceptable).
- My permission is required if your project or product made with these drawings is going to be sold for real money. (You are free to sell them for play money on the sim games)
Other than that - have a great time with the drawings and feel free to request anything you want that is not here!
Summer Fey Foovay
