As usual I'm going to start by saying I love sharing stock with the community that's helped me grow so much as an artist and provided quality stock throughout the years for me to use as an artist. It is why I started creating stock of all kinds both for my personal use needs and because I wanted to share my creations with you, other artists on this platform! Later, after becoming a professional myself I understood the importance of unrestricted stock to be used on off-site, commercial projects, so I started sharing a huge portion of my stock as UNRESTRICTED in the hopes it helps you with your paid projects. 

Anyways this is turning longer than intended. Just wanted to say that for a seasoned deviant (I've had this stock account alone for a decade now), I'm still in awe to see all the wonderful artwork you guys  created with my stock and I'm showing a small sample of the hundreds of amazing art pieces done in 2019 with my stock below.

       
         
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I know it's been long overdue, but I'm still catching up on both this stock account and my art account FrozenStarART I have posted a handful of new backgrounds, PNGs and textures that will hopefully tide you over until I sort and edit the rest of the stocks I've been stashing away on my external drive for the past 2 years?!!

In the meantime, here's some of my latest art



And some beautiful artworks created with my stock



 :thumb660546074:

Mature Content

Big thanks to all who stop by to favorite or watch this account, I'm sorry I can't thank you all personally but please know your support is always greatly appreciated!

For anyone who hasn't found about Pixabay it's a free stock photography database that's been garnering attention lately. I wasn't aware of its existence as for my art I either create it all from scratch myself or use paid stock from Fotolia or Shutterstock to avoid restrictions. I was introduced to Pixabay by a friend who praised it for the quality, variety and ease of access, actually called it 'best stock website' since the late sxc.hu. I loved and used sxc stocks frequently in my art in the early days, so Pixabay seemed like a blessing when I heard of it.

So I looked around, was impressed with the quality of some of their stocks and signed up. Once you download a few images you will be met with a message that says ads will be removed once you contributed 10 photos to the database. I had just turned a majority of my stock here to Unrestricted so I uploaded a few of the files in my gallery here, there. It was pretty successful, good acceptance ratio, even received an accolade in the form of an Editor's Choice front page showcase on one of my 3D rendered backgrounds. There's a 'Buy Coffee' donation button for every contributor profile which could be linked to a Paypal account, but I had no intention to monetize my unrestricted stock there, just like I am not here either.

A few days later I went back to upload some of my textures, around 15 at once, and had all rejected within a matter of minutes, with a mail asking if the stock was mine. I replied politely that it was, explained that I had this account, provided a link and told them this was the sole place I shared the same stock, if they found it somewhere else, it wasn't me,  nor done of my accord. I've had my stock distributed without my permission before so it didn't seem all that far-fetched that they could've found it somewhere else on the internet. It was only 2 days ago I saw my Tears Brushes stolen and distributed on a Photoshop resources website, file and preview picture with my actual name on it included. Went back, reuploaded my textures and was told they don't meet their quality standards and was also notified my account had been blocked from submitting any more files as a result.

That didn't sit well with me. I am sharing free stock on a free website, some of my well-received stock here, including a DD texture, and my stock is not good enough for them, so yesterday I wanted to simply close the gallery and continue sharing my stock within the Deviantart community. I went into my control panel and had no option to erase ANY of the 25 files I had submitted and got approved. I asked on the forums what the proceedings were for someone to remove their gallery and was told there's the option to deactivate the account. Here's where it gets shady. I went to erase my profile information, subsequently deactivating my account, and I'm met with a message that says doing so I lose any photo I submitted to Public Domain, because they remain in the database whether I like it or not! Nowhere during the upload process does it say you lose any and all rights to your photos by submitting them, nor that you can't choose to erase them at any given time if you so chose! 

And it doesn't end there. This is the remnant of the account I had pixabay.com/en/users/3209107-3… if you look in the top right corner you'll see the 'Coffee' button. If anyone were to click on it and make a donation because they like my stock currently on that page, it goes straight to them instead, it even says 'Pixabay' on the checkout to Paypal. They are currently monetizing off my stock and that's just wrong.

I've been a stock artist for about as long as I've been an artist. My 10th dA anniversary at FrozenStarART is rounding up next month, I've had this stock account for over 7 years, and the 3 years before that I ran the collective stock account ro-stock with 2 of my photographer friends. I've always strived to provide the best stock I could, as others have in turn done before me with the stocks I used in my art. But never in these 10 years have I felt this hurt, humiliated and helpless all at the same time.

This was posted as a cautionary tale, whether you're an artist using Pixabay stock or a prospective contributor. I can't stop artists from using the stock there but perhaps this can raise some awareness regarding the origin of some of the stock you may be using. For all you know the original author could be someone like me, who was denied the option to erase it. For anyone contributing, your stock is worth more and you shouldn't have to cease all rights to that stock when you upload it.

It's late now. Sorry for the wall of text on this subject but I consider it an important matter that could affect a lot more people than just me and shouldn't be kept quiet. I'm sitting here at 3:49am because the situation is bad enough I can't sleep. It'll pass with time, and my stock remains here for you guys to use. I will add some new stock soon but I need to get a fresh perpective and let go of this first. 


UPDATE 19.09
With my account now deactivated for several days, they have gone back and published 3 more of my previously rejected files, making that 28 files they are currently holding and monetizing. This is freaking unbelievable!

Here are the revised stock rules. All stocks in the gallery will be edited to reflect in the title what is Unrestricted or Restricted. 

Premium resources remain unchanged, they will continue to be accompanied by a .txt file Release Form that covers the terms and limitations. I hope this will help make things easier for everyone. 



UNRESTRICTED STOCK - Terms of Use

     Unrestricted Stock can be used for personal projects, including but not limited to, photomanipulations, mixed media, reference for digital or traditional paintings, social media tags or banners, webdesign etc.
     Unrestricted Stock can be used to create artwork for commercial projects, including but not limited to, art prints, calendars, book covers, CD covers, T-Shirt designs, etc.
     You may freely showcase or sell any artwork created with my stock, on and outside DeviantArt. Outside dA use includes sites like Redbubble, Society6, Etsy.

      I HEREBY GRANT ALL DEVIANT ARTISTS PERMISSION TO USE MY STOCK IN ANY AND ALL DEVIANTART PRINTS WITHOUT RESTRICTION.

     Unrestricted Stock may NOT be redistributed, in whole or in part, as part of derivative stock such as premade backgrounds or tubes for scrap kits, without my permission. Please contact me privately with your inquiries as I do allow some items to be used to make other stock, like brushes in backgrounds for example. 
     Credit and notification OPTIONAL. While I'm not enforcing it, I still consider it a common courtesy for sharing my stock with you, the artist. I always love seeing what artists can come up with from my stock, so if you can, please let me know. 
      You may not share this stock or claim as your own. If anyone needs to use it feel free to link them to this page!

RESTRICTED STOCK - Terms of Use

     Restricted Stock can be used for personal artwork, including but not limited to, photomanipulations, mixed media, reference for digital or traditional paintings etc.
     Restricted Stock CANNOT be used to create artwork for commercial projects, including but not limited to book covers, CD covers, T-Shirt designs, etc. without my written permission. Contact me privately with your inquiries.
     You may freely showcase any artwork created with my stock, on and outside DeviantArt.
     You may sell art prints of artwork created with my stock on and outside Deviantart. Outside dA use includes sites like Redbubble, Society6, Etsy.

      I HEREBY GRANT ALL DEVIANT ARTISTS PERMISSION TO USE MY STOCK IN ANY AND ALL DEVIANTART PRINTS WITHOUT RESTRICTION.

     Restricted Stock may NOT be redistributed, in whole or in part, as part of derivative stock such as premade backgrounds or tubes for scrap kits. 
      You must credit me with a link in the description and notify me of use. This goes for both Deviantart and any outside uses.
      You may not share this stock or claim as your own. If anyone needs to use it feel free to link them to this page!


My art account: