Starting a Artist’s Texture Library with CGtextures.com
CGtextures.com is a great resource to find photo textures for your images. None of these photos will win any photography competitions. The images are, for the most part, flat and evenly lit and have straight on camera angles. And that’s the point. You add the interest when adding them to your illustrations, 3D models, logos or graphic design projects. I’ve started to build up my own personal texture library from stock photo sites and other free textures I’ve found around the web. It’s been a long expensive process and now that I found this site I feel like a sucker for paying for textures. Trying to find nice high-quality images on the internets has been the most challenging part. But CGtextures.com has a large selection of high-quality images organized well for you to download for free.
Create an account and you’re off and running. Be sure to read their license agreements, which seemed pretty generous when I read over it. Even if you’re not interested in signing up for an account, I would use it just as a reference library. Free accounts are limited to 15 MB daily and if you exceed the quota you won’t be permitted to make any more downloads within that 24 hours, so come back tomorrow and you’re ready to go again. They do have premium accounts if you are a large downloader. But for me the free version works just fine. The 15 MB gets me around 5 to 7 images a day. Give this site a try and see if you find it as helpful as I have.
Norm
Growing up on the shores of Maui, Hawaii, Norm has always loved drawing. Since leaving the islands’ beautiful beaches and landing in Oregon, he went to college and received a degree in graphic design as well as an additional degree in digital prepress technology. After graduating, he worked for an interactive media firm in Corvallis, Oregon. While there, he was the company’s lead illustrator/designer and was responsible for creating illustrations, animations, and interactive products like video games. Now living in Beaverton, Oregon, Norm worked as an in-house illustrator for 10 years at a large education company in downtown Portland, Oregon. While at this position, he was the creative mind behind nationally marketed campaigns, numerous brand identities, toy and product designs, children’s books, as well as Web and interactive designs for the company’s design team. After leaving this position to raise his son, he now spends countless hours perfecting his craft as a freelance illustrator. He has worked with companies like Highlights Magazine, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Reading A to Z, Kaiser Permanente, KinderCare, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). He has created projects such as marketing illustrations, children’s books, coloring and activity books, video games, and educational products for these companies and others. Norm’s ability to draw has given him the chance to do the thing he truly loves: Create.
