Hey, I was wondering if anyone knew where to find online, or had on their computer, or would like to help compile, a compilation of reference photos for sculpting.

I know using google to do it for clothes you do not have is a real pain in the butt and it would be nice to beable to just open up a file and search for a few key words, like for example what I needed tonight 'jeans tucked into work boots' and beable to find photos quickly to help with your sculpting.

Fascinating idea smeagolthevile (BTW, it would be easier to address your first name )

I'll check into various options for just such an online database, it would be very useful.

Since this is a general question and topic I'm going to move it to the general forum —

You can call me Steve, Gordy.

Even just starting out in sculpting im finding it hard to find useful reference pictures, often having to sort through hundreds of photos for... completely un-related stuff. I searched for Jeans tucked into work boots, and was getting image results for chairs and motorcycles and such, and god forbid you search for that your looking for with safe search off.

Create your own! This is way easier than when I had to do it the old-fashioned way - culling old magazines for photos. I'm not kidding, I must have worked my way through a pile of magazines 15-20 feet high over the years, just to get 10" of reference pics.

These days, all you have to do is set up a directory on your HD and start filling it with photos you find online; it'll grow soon enough. Not including the reference photos I've taken myself, I have around 5 gigs of references now, which just built up naturally over the years as I took copies of whatever I found that interested me. And because you create your own archives, there's no dross in it like there is in some of the commercial references.

In addition to just keeping an eye out anywhere you happen to be, Flickr, Picasa, Webshots, Photobucket, are all good places to do specific searches.

Einion

Steve and Einion, as a matter of fact, I've got a new system under way for creating a photo-archive for reference images – taggable and searchable, it is under way and I think it will make a great addition.

That is great to hear.
I am trying to make my own, but what I mean is, like what Gordy is doing, pool them all together into a big database that everyone can use.

I'm finding that the boxes for 1/35th Dragon figures have some very nice references on them. If you dont know them they are illustrated very beautifully and they look amazing. Im using one now as a reference.

One can always resort to the ancient method and consult a book. The keywords are in a section called "the index". They still make these ancient devices. Of course this does require finding the book and turning pages, not much to liking of those accustomed to the internet providing the answers to life's questions, but it is there.--

Wow, what an asshole answer.

So I take it you have massive collections of sears catalogs and the like so you have a bunch of different photos of people in different poses in different clothing?

I dont know about you, but the majority of my books have words in them and I'm sorry if you haven't graduated past picture books.

While Google does make searching easier, it can generate a lot of the same images, just flagged from other sites.....

The other limitation I have found, particularly with clothes/ drapery, is that shots of the back half of a subject are rare...... sometimes to the point of frustration.

Classic example is how a ammo bandoleer would be attached to the back of webbing, for example.

A photo of that is usually only of interest to our niche interests.

A example of this would be Robert Jan Der Wits example of a Dutch infantry man, 1874. Robert says he's trying to determine if the shirt had a back vent....
A old manual, colour plate illustration, or a visit to a museum may generate some images, but we normally have to go in, cameras in hand.

Likewise, historical re-enactors will do the common uniforms.....

I had some books, with Osprey type illustrations (years ago) that would have been hand. alas, sold many house moves ago...

A collection of images, trawled from the net is good, however, for specific areas of interest, investing in a good reference book is advisable.

Steve, (Smeagolville) let the comments from Steve be. I believe this is a case where how the message is read may not be the tone it was intended in.

Gordy, the idea of a database is good, I would happily donate images under some sort of creative commons (where applicable) or attributed (war museums,etc) that I may trawl from the net/ database.

(humour mode) it help end the confusion on what colours to paint nipples on the occasional pin up model figure we see (humor mode off) the preceding idea may devalue the database though.....

regards


PS - Books are handy, I come from an era when "the computer crashed" was still a disaster.....if a book crashes, well, just pick it up off the floor.

I agree.

@Steve (Smeagolthevile), please, let's not overreact, to each their own.

While books are indeed great resources and so is the internet, the idea of this database is to provide a focused result for a specific search.

Google image searching is not without it's hazards, there have been occasions while searching to run across images that require bleaching of the eyes.

Personally, I can count on one hand how many books I have, most of my research comes from other folks or internet searches. One, I have little desire to invest in books for the one or two pictures I will need. Second, I have not the space to house all the references, I'd rather print out what I need, keeping the desk free of clutter. I'm in no way diminishing the need for books that's just how I roll. A web based database would be very convenient, in this regard.

@Jamie, same thing with me, over the years my collection has diminished, and I'm copacetic with a minimalist workspace. LOL, and yes.. there is plenty of pin-up reference out 'there' so no need for it in a reference database!

No reason at all why there can't be both – analog and digital references

Talking like that will alienate other posters and it is not the tone desired to be established here. If you have a problem with any specific poster take it offline.

That is actually a great place to get people (male, female, children) in various types of clothing. JC Penny catalogs are another good one. Sunday papers usually also have sections on clothing that are helpful. When I was an illustrator I created what is called "morgue" files of these types of pictures. The internet of course is also a great resource. I also use pics of other sculptors works as resources and I even collect some figure models not that I will ever paint them but to use as sculpting references.

Again, please refrain from this type of sarcasm. It is not helpful.

Good advice, always good to ask if someone is humoring or not in private before going off flailing about...

Great point!

Thanks for the back Gordy, but do not leave me be. I get so tired of helpless wannabes asking for the exact thing that will make them good where honest effort and hard work is too tough. Gotta have it all handed to them in a neat little package and use other folks to get them where they wanna go rather than get there themselves. You must admit that a book IS a compilation of reference, and anyone who thinks books are just words or pictures are for kids (exactly WHAT sort of reference do you want, Precious, if not photos and plates?) cannot be helped by any sort of assistance. Osprey pubs for one have a huge selection of PICTURE BOOKS ya boob. Yeah I get tired of you johnny come lately snivelling shitheads. My bad. Now go chase your ring, Lad.

Whoooah, ease up guys, this is going way off track.

Way to confirm the characterisation there Mr. Scott! Sheesh, you could have made the same basic points constructively instead of coming across as superior, arrogant or elitist. There's no call for that kind of post no matter how ticked off you are.

Einion

That's not helping much Einion.

Hey Guys

This is a friendly helpful forum and we should all have one big man hug and get back to the title of the thread

As previously stated it's very difficult to obtain exactly what you want via a search engine but I do compile images for my preferred period which is WW2.

I tend to find great books with excellent reference material which can be easily accessed for sculpting/painting etc

A database full of images tagged with specific keywords would be invaluable, here's an example:



Tags: kilt, tartan, bonnie, claymore

I'm looking for "tartan" go to the database and search and any photo's tagged with tartan would show as results.

The tags can be added by anyone thus gain finer control

The difference from this and google search is the ability to set many different tags to a single image and have more precise control over the returned results.