Hi! It has been a while but I certainly have been busy. Lately I'm often in the mood for drawing and I have a resolution to draw daily for at least 30 minutes. But something I often struggle with when I decide to draw is the big question: What on earth should I draw?? I'm not sure if anyone else gets plagued by this question but to me it happens often that I spend more time browsing something to draw than actually drawing. Since I am also fond of programming I decided to create a small tool to generate a random reference image to spark my imagination and finally I have the result!
https://randoref.com/
I called it RandoRef because it literally gives you random references... By using the PixaBay library more than a million random images can be shown and on top of that, all images are free to use. If you are feeling in a certain mood, the tool has also more specific search functions. You can filter for specific images, dominance of a certain color, vectors, landscape or portrait mode and so on.
On top of that, I added the option to display a grid over the image to help keep proportions right. If you have suggestions on features that might be useful or that you would like to use with this tool, let me know and I'll see what I can do! You can also find the code on Github if you want to look at it or help in that way.
I already had fun with it for sure! Below you can see some of my results. They are rather small and there exist more impressive drawings, but they are great practice. i'm not sure if there are still a lot of active #art communities on steem? I would wonder if this actually might help people. I can only think of one person I follow making art, @stef1?
The site is currently hosted on a free platform, but who knows what the future might bring for RandoRef 😃. That's it for the small update, Have a great day!
So that is the best tool I have seen in a very long time. It is so exciting. Thank you @samve. Drawing gives me such pleasure and I'm so bad at it. Something to play with. I'm resteeming and sharing the post wherever I can. And I LOVE your art.
Thank you so much! Drawing is fun, but even doodling is a great way to pass the time :D
Looks very useful. I've been looking for somwthing like this for awhile.
Thanks! Let me know what you think of it if you decide to use it 😊
Came here through @agmoores resteem. What a good idea that is. And you give life to it by simply writing a program. Well done! The grid thing is such a useful add.
Let's see if I am going to use it. I am lately again watching calligraphy - in particular the asian styles - and want to get ready for taking out my ink and grinding stone. Just to practice the letters and holding the brush in a correct way. If you don't know what to draw other than scenes from real life or pictures, try doing letters:)
All the best from Germany
Thank you! I had no idea there was calligraphy where you had to use an ink block and a grind stone! I had to look it up, It looks so relaxing to do. I know what i'll be watching when I'm avoiding deadlines the next weeks :D
Thank you for showing immediate interest. Below you see a little history through Chinese calligraphy. The second half I find the more interesting one. Just for the fun you see a Chinese video (we cannot understand) how they explore the European art culture. I found that somehow hilarious!
Its a beautiful culture and technique actually... Have you been doing it for a long time already?
No, I am just a bloody amateur and tried paintings on rice paper with the asian techniques. They came out okay but nothing I would name as very well done. Calligraphy I still have to try.
There is so much beauty and interesting people on earth. I never would have known if not for the Internet. :) this is what I like the most.
Where are you from?
haha! I definitely followed you so I might spot your work one day 😊. A beautiful thing it is indeed. I'm from Belgium, Antwerp to be precise
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