What the Public Domain Is and How to Make Your Work Available to Everyone, Plus 10 of My Own Images You Can Use Without Paying Royalties

I have contributed ten images to WikiMedia that are now in the public domain. They are available to be used by anyone at no cost. This blog post contains the 10 paintings and drawings that you are looking for.

If you are looking to get your hands on some free artwork, scroll down or skip to the next section, which is titled "My Images in the Public Domain."

What exactly does "Public Domain" mean?

When an artistic work is in the public domain, anyone is free to use it for whatever reason they choose. Because copyrights do not last forever, eventually all artwork will be in the public domain.

Why You Should Make Your Art Available to the Public

That doesn't seem like a wise course of action to me for any reason.

When an artistic work enters the public domain, it is no longer owned by its creator. If someone else becomes filthy rich by selling t-shirts with your art on them, you will not receive a portion of the profits from the sale of those t-shirts. Trolls are capable of creating offensive derivatives; it's possible that your furry OC will end up as the mascot of the next Nazi rally, and you won't have any luck stopping them.

So why did I go through with it? Since I frequently make use of images that are in the public domain, this act of generosity is simply my way of paying it forward. It's a reason that will make you happy. The drawbacks that I mentioned are also the reasons why you might want to contribute: you will give resources to other people and not receive anything in return.

What are the Steps to Getting Your Art Into the Public Domain?

You can release your artwork into the public domain by consulting with a lawyer and signing a deed, if you want to act all prim and proper about it. That's going a little too far. How exactly did I go about doing it? I just finished uploading the artworks to WikiMedia Commons and giving them a CC0 1 license. a license of "zero," also known as "release into the public domain." Suppose I have a change of heart and decide to file a lawsuit against someone. The defendant need only produce the WikiMedia article labeled with the CC0 1 license. zero points to the judge Or you could show them this blog post...

How likely is it that I will be able to persuade the judge that the user "IrisHopp" on WikiMedia was not me?

It is not a signed deed that was drafted by an attorney and sanctioned by the courts, but it serves the same purpose as a signed deed. Both strategies will guarantee that you will be unsuccessful in court if you attempt to assert copyright infringement. Why not choose the path that is the least difficult?

Iris Hopp's contributions to Wikimedia can be viewed by clicking on the following link: Iris Hopp's contributions on Wikimedia Some of the images in this blog post have been reduced in size; however, if you would like to view a larger version, you can do so on the corresponding WikiMedia page.

These are the images that I currently have available to me that are in the public domain:

1. To start, Here Are Two Flowers

Because of how forgettable it is, I can't even tell you why or when I made this one.

If I had to guess, I'd say it was just a quick study to get us warmed up. Ironically, it's so forgettable, so not special, and so boring, but it's at the top of the list anyway. This is because, out of all the images I've uploaded to the public domain, this one might be the only one that's actually useful. I'll elaborate on that topic some more when I get to the end of this post.

2. A Hopeful Orca

Orca: A Beacon Of Hope In Troubled Times

This Orca is also unique in its own right. If you've read any of the posts on my blog, you already know that the past few years have been difficult for me as a result of traumatic experiences in my life. Even more seriously, I've been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

I am not yet back on my feet, but I am continuing to work toward that goal.

My drawing abilities have become quite rusty over the course of the past few years as a result of my lack of consistency in drawing, so this orca represented a glimmer of hope during these trying times.

I am aware, I am aware that "life happens." Keep drawing ”

Well I didn't

The persistent sensation of having failed is one of the aspects of returning to drawing that is among the most challenging. Every single minute of the drawing process is an argument. It is rubbed in your face that you have lost a significant amount of skill, that you have fallen behind your peers, and that you need to rebuild all of that before you can even begin again.

It blows my mind when I see someone post their work that they've completed for a triple-A game while I'm contemplating taking on $150 DND commissions.

Okay, let's get back on the Orca. When I was on a call with my drawing instructor, we doodled this one together while we were on the call. The final product was identical to what you see on your screen right now.

It was encouraging to see that I am capable of just improvising something that doesn't turn out looking like shite.

This might be the second picture, after the ones of the flowers, that actually has some value for other people in addition to me. I could see it being successful on a t-shirt, in a store, or someone refining the design so that they could use it as a sticker or a logo.

3. Paintings and Drawings of Horses

These three studies are collectively referred to as "The Horses." The large horse face portrait took an hour to complete, while each of the two smaller ones only took half an hour.

As of right now, I am unable to access the reference images, which means I am unable to give credit to the original photographers. Because the paintings have been altered on purpose to a sufficient degree, there is no risk of infringing on the owner's copyright by sharing this. For instance, the original painting of the horse portrait on the left depicts an Akhal Teke horse, but the horse does not appear to have a mane.

The horse on the right is a screenshot taken from a video about mustangs; however, I altered the horse's appearance in general. In addition to that, I reposed the horse slightly for the image in the bottom right corner.

When I organize the files on my hard drive, I will eventually come across some reference images, and when that time comes, I will add them to this blog post.

4. A Postcard of a Lion

My goal was to finish the first picture, but the next day I went back and added some additional details to make the painting more interesting.

In light of the fact that I lack experience with traditional painting techniques, I think it turned out pretty well. I learned how to paint digitally at FZD, and now I do everything for work digitally as well.

I had the idea to make a cool postcard, but I wasn't sure what to paint on it. Since I enjoy painting lions, this is what I came up with.

5. A Flower Garden of Kitsch Painted While LARPing

This painting of flowers is the only one on the list because I didn't feel like getting my hard drive out and looking through the thousands upon thousands of drawings and paintings I've created over the course of my career. The few images that have been uploaded to the public domain are actually limited to what I happened to have on my laptop at the time of uploading them.

In the year 2020, when there was a pandemic lockdown, this flower was a lot of fun to draw. I participated in some online LARP sessions, and during one of those sessions, we pretended to be agents trying to infiltrate a painters' guild. Within the context of the role-playing scenario, our characters were tasked with completing a five-minute art exercise. As part of the art challenge, I was given this picture of some flowers:

According to Google, the artist is Myroslava Voloschuk from Ukraine, but the name doesn't match the signature on the right bottom corner of the painting.

Although I had the timer set for four minutes, I was not present when it rang. Therefore, I can't say for certain that I completed that task in exactly 5 minutes and 30 seconds. It's possible that I cheated by mistake. Anyway, here is my attempt at recreating the reference image using speed paint over the course of five minutes:

During the subsequent session that we had, I continued to paint it in stages while simultaneously participating in the chat and carrying on with the LARP scenario. Yes, I altered it so that it no longer depicted magnolia flowers but rather some other species of flower. I wanted it to have a more luxurious appearance...

This is the video with the speed increased:

I was never able to complete it. It's been well over a year at this point. From the simple image that I used as a reference, I had hoped to create a version that was both extremely bling bling and kitsch, but that is not going to happen. Let's call it good and add it to the list.

A fun fact is that I was able to track down the original reference photograph that was taken by SpadeCaller (Matthew Schwartz) for the painting that was created originally. All of the work is presented below in the form of a brief slide show:

6. A World Map with an Artsy-Fartsy Flavor

I don't know the first thing about "graphic design," OK? This is my best effort at making a pretty map... The only people I can think of who might find this useful are those who would print it out and hang it on their wall so they can color in the countries they've visited.

On Reddit's /r/MapPorn, the user /u/asdasasdass321 cautioned others against using it because of all the errors I had previously made:

So, there you have it. It's probably as useless as bringing trash to Goodwill, but you can still upload it to WikiMedia anyway...

7. A Sketch of a Lion

A lion sketch That's all there is to it.

8-9-10 The Volkswagen Cabin

This is a trio of pictures that I created in FZD for a project that we had to do for school back then. It is, to this day, my most preferred design out of everything else that I have created.

Since I enjoy being a nerd, I had a lot of fun figuring out the various minute details, such as:

If they have a tough exoskeleton, would a whip be effective against them?" ”

Answer: I was under the impression at the time that it was not, so I added bells. In this day and age, I believe that the giant horse beetles would sense it.

or…

"If a beetle grew to be as tall as a horse, how would that affect the shape of its head?" ”

The answer is yes; their faces would stretch out in order for their eyes to remain visible even when they were grazing in the grass. You have to identify those dangerous animals.

I had a lot of fun while doing a lot of research (on biology, historical vehicles, and other topics, etc.). The amusement is in the little things, like when you get up close and personal with the newspaper excerpt:

Beetle-Cab is in fact serving as an illustration for a blog post that I am writing about having fun. Coming "soon" (so mid 2025 maybe )

Because I feel such a strong connection to it, releasing it into the public domain actually causes me some discomfort. These are illogical and childish emotions. I can't imagine anyone ever making use of Beetle-Cab given how specialized and arcane it is. The first two flowers on the list aren't particularly creative, but they have the best chance of being of some use to somebody. Boring can often serve a purpose. There are fewer situations in which crazy is useful.

As a part of the series "Beetle Cab," I painted a family sitting in their living room.