Pet Portrait reference photographs

When I am drawing my own artwork and not commissions I have to be very careful where I get my reference photographs from, due to copyright. I have found a few sites that are really useful, so I thought I would share them

Mourguefile I have only just come across this one and haven't actually used any images yet, but I know they are royalty free and available to use by artists and there are some beautiful photos on there of all different subjects, not just pets.

Pet Portrait Forum The forum has a reference photograph section, covering dogs, cats, horses, other animals and backgrounds. These are images members of the forum have posted and are all copyright free.

Flickr Flickr is a brilliant site - purely for the enormous numbers of photographs available. There are different levels of copyright protection available for photos hosted on flickr, so you need to ensure the photograph you are using has a creative commons license and the photographer is happy for it to be used for commercial purposes and to have derivative works produced from it. This does narrow down the selection available but still provides a lot of fantastic photos.

Artist Reference Photo This website is still new so doesn't have a massive number of photos available yet, but the ones there are very good and all available as copyright free. There is a small subscription charge.

I also think it is worth approaching photographers whose work you admire and asking if they are happy for you to use their work as a reference. I think in most cases, they will be flattered and as long as they are credited will be happy for their photographs to be used.