I became involved with making free line art available on the Internet in 2005. My clipart and web graphics site, Demented Pixie's Graphics, had generated some requests for line art that could be colored, or that would be suitable for various uses in print and design. As I am the actual scribbler who does all the artwork available there, I encourage requests. There are so many beautiful sights in the world - how would I ever decide by myself what to draw? I need you to tell me what you want!

The website Color Your Own was the result. I began with an idea and a few line arts I had already on the computer. I wasn't sure, at the time, if anyone would be interested in them at all.

So I was already mulling the idea in my head when I joined a new sim game online - Virtual Horse Ranch. I was pleased to discover that artists were encouraged to use their own art for images of their sim horses, and there is a lively little play money industry creating art for other players. I began doing line drawings of horses, adding them to Color Your Own and making them freely available to other players. And, of course, taking requests. (I later joined Virtual Pups and Sandbox Farms and create art for those players as well.)

There are a few other small websites with free line art set up for those players as well. Sadly, most of them come and go or don't offer a large selection of drawings. Many of the artists are young adults who love the work, but also have other commitments such as school, sports, and so on that limit the effort they can put into the site. Often they are on free hosting, which can be a problem, too.

Not long after I joined VHR, I became involved in a discussion on Gather.com about adults who enjoy sitting down on a lazy day with a big box of crayons and coloring books. (Yes, I do) One of the major complaints was the lack of coloring books that offered subject matter and artwork that would challenge and please adults. I began adding more drawings to Color Your Own in response to their requests.

Since I started Color Your Own, I've gotten requests to use the art for more things than I could have imagined. They have been used in a college project on visual recognition, one greyhound rescue group prints out the greyhound pages and hands them out to children at their meet and greets, and most of all, other players have used them and enjoyed them - as well as children whose parents have written me and thanked me for the pages!

One project that especially touched my heart was a request for a rottweiler head study to be used to make a needlework pattern so a handicapped person could create it and place it on the back of her wheelchair to honor her assistance dog who had recently passed on.

Free line art is often used to create various needlework and craft patterns. Be sure if you are going to sell the product that you have the artist's permission. Artists who create designs for sewing and craft patterns, or for t-shirts and so on, are usually very highly paid designers. No artist particularly appreciates it when you use his or her art to make a product that you then sell for a profit. When asked I have given permission to use my line art to create various craft items to be sold to benefit charities, but I did refuse permission to a person who wished to make patterns of my free line art, and then sell those patterns on the Internet for profit. I offered to license the patterns to them - for an appropriate fee - and never heard from them again.

Now this doesn't mean you can't use free line art to make a pattern to make one or a few shirts for yourself, your family, or a gift. But be sure and read the artists or websites terms of use, or be polite and write for permission. I really enjoy hearing from people who want to use my art. Other folk's creativity always delights me.

Several sim game players have written me to request permission to use my line art, color it themselves, and sell it for game money or enter the art contests held on game. I always say yes, and in fact, I say on the front page of Color Your Own that you may use my art that way. It's for play money, after all.

A good colorist can really make a difference in how a line art looks. I am a comic book fan from way back. If you look at a comic book - a new one or one from years ago - you will probably find inside the cover a list of names. They will include the cover artist, the line drawing artist(s), the colorist (or inker), and the author of the story. A good colorist can do good things for your line art!

Always make sure if you are looking for free line art, that you check the Terms of Use posted by the artist or website and do not violate them.

I hate to mention it in such a positive article about something I enjoy so much - but there is also a problem with people who direct link to art and steal bandwidth. My website is set up so that cannot be done, and it happens less with line art than with the clipart and web graphics, but please do not steal bandwidth. It is a crime, and it does hurt people - in fact, all of us who use the Internet as a source of art of whatever kind.

Netiquette is a good thing for all of us to use. Polite and correct usage of art will make sure that it is available to us all now and in the future.

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