14 Comments
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Alan J. Edmonds's avatar

This is a useful resource — thanks!

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

Glad to have been of service--and thanks for the correction. I'll fix it.

ZK Hardy's avatar

Hey Maryan. These are so great and I've been using them for some of the pictures in my posts. The link to the Gender Spectrum Collection is wrong, though; it goes to a 404. This is the correct one: https://genderspectrum.vice.com/ :)

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

You're welcome. As a bonus, you get exposure to wonderful works of art--I love the time I spend looking for museum downloads for certain stories.

According to Mimi's avatar

Thank you for this list! I have been using the pictures offered through Substack, but this will help me ramp up my game.

Randy's avatar

Good post - Thank you!

I have also been dabbling in AI-generated illustrations.

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

Great question! Editorial use images should only be used in a journalistic or story-telling way. They typically run alongside written text in publications to help better tell a story and educate readers (it's usually ok if the writing is part of a paid publication.) . They aren't meant to be used for advertising or promoting a product or service or to sell as part of a product. If in doubt, contact the site hosting the images, but this rule of thumb should serve you.

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

You're welcome--looking forward to seeing how you use the idea.

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

I'm guilty, too. I sometimes resort to AI when I am on deadline and have no time. I like to think I choose a higher-quality AI image, but I'm sure I'm fooling myself. I'm liking using classic paintings or cartoon art (when they are free to use). Thanks for the good tips, too!

Charles Bastille's avatar

Ha! I knew when I saw the Art Institute link this was going to be a killer list.

I swore off AI art in a Medium post a ways back. But I still have some on older fiction I repurpose for Substack. Bad me. Lazy me!

Fun tip. When searching for images I sometimes use Google like so: SUBJECT wikicommons

You can replace wikicommons with another source in this article

Or SUBJECT creative commons (this is less effective)

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

I completely agree--I grow tired of seeing the same images in so many stories. Among a few of my writer friends, it has become kind of a hobby to find more striking pictures, and this list is a gold mine. If you're a photog, I gotta think you have many personal images to draw from! I often use a picture that may not really illustrate my article but, with the right caption, can augment it. Thanks for your input.

Maryan Pelland Pen2Profit's avatar

Ah--thank you so much. My goal is to make your life easier and more profitable.

Chinmayan's avatar

Thank you Maryann for this awesome resource! I am very glad to be one of your subscribers and definitely feel enriched by the work you do!