curate your internet spaces from regurgitated garbage
24/01/2025
this is a short overview of how to make your internet experience a bit better by conditioning your internet spaces to be partially cleaned from the growth of generative ai, i also provide a list of public/free references and some other things
filtering google images
since the enshittification of the internet has became worse and worse, i find the need to write a bit about ways of circumventing this, from someone who looks for references on a daily basis, for artists who are not wired all day to a computer and might not hear about these solutions
one solution i value a lot is using an extension called uBlacklist , which blocks sites and images from search engine results, it supports pretty much every search engine
chrome install - firefox install
once the extension is installed you can suscribe to lists that get updated from (much appreciated) contributors, to add a list, go to Extensions > uBlacklist > Options > Suscription > Add a subscription, which will ask you for an URL to add
you can watch the next video for an example of how to add lists
i personally recommend the next few lists (right click then Copy Link):
laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist
read more here
laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist-nuclear*
NotaInutilis/Super-SEO-Spam-Suppressor
read more here
i don't really know how many websites i will add but as far as i see garbage in google images i will add it to my list
extra: avoiding ai google overviews
when google launched the horrible "AI overviews" they also happened to add (quietly) the "Web" tab, for "text-based links", which personally im fine with, or far better than plain google, for what it's worth this can be enabled for every regular search by adding a parameter on the url which is &udm=14
i recommend you to visit tenbluelinks.org which has short and easy steps of how make this "Web" search the default google search on your browser
trying to fix the twitter experience
i use twitter on a daily basis because many artists i like are still active there, and i don't think that's going to change anytime soon for most of them, in an attempt to soothe the pain; muting every slop term related to bigtech, crypto, ai, muting every meme account, in addition to the good OldTwitter extension by dimden make the whole twitter experience good enough i'd say, at least for me since i follow mostly artist (1000+ follows lol)
the highly customizable OldTwitter extension is honestly very good, timeline updating on real time, no ads, zoomable and draggable images menu, the ability to pick your type of timeline (algorithms) and how everything feels snappy make the website enjoyable even if it is literal hell.
if you want check how to get it or read more about it, go to dimden's repo or the chrome web store page for the extension
for firefox, check the repository, i'd not advice to use it if you don't use a firefox fork or nightly/dev version for the reasons mentioned in the repository itself (vanilla firefox just adds the extension temporary)
collection of public refs
these are mainly photo references you can use instead of going directly to pinterest/google searches. it's worth checking that pinterest HAS human accurate sources for reference, and a lot, it's just that it's mixed with garbage. it's worth noticing too that all of these sources have different usage guidelines so i kindly endorse you to read them
digital stuff
it gets hard to recommend stuff that is drawn because it can be not the best reference, there's many paid books to learn anatomy, perspective, color, etc. and you should check them (me too..) but when it comes to free content i really like the next website
character design referencesextensive hub of resources of different types: original character ref sheets, portfolios, pinterest curated collection of references, and much more, i personally value the "art of animation" a lot for inspiration
posemaniacs 3d poses library
large amount of 3d poses, which you can edit viewing angle, lighting, camera position, etc
kingcholera free references
big free collection of 3d body references
photo references
jookpubstockjennifer günthel's collection of personal body references, great quality
nullentitystock
huge gallery of stock photo references with several thousand deviations, you can find videos, group poses, and even a bit of 3d modeling
the pose archive
another big gallery of human pose references with a few thousand deviations, excels at close ups and group poses
free adorkastock poses
free poses by adorkastock, includes +300 images
ges draw party
youtube channel dedicated to the creation of video references for gesture drawing, one upload every week, post the drawings using hashtag #gesdrawparty (and see others too!)
trueref pose library
includes a good amount of free content, personally find it good for close ups or full body drawings
makosan/まこさん
youtube channel (not as active as the two above) uploading photo references in video format (similar to ges draw party)
daestock
inactive account, added because of how good the action poses are in here
more than human bodies
artist reference photosmixed source of animals, landscapes, still objects, etc
manrevo
youtube channel full of different references, this include still objects, animals, hands, etc
line of action
website for practicing figures, hands, animals, enviroment, shapes, expressions
sketchdaily references
another website for practicing figures, animals, vegetation, structures
noah bradley's free photo reference megapack
great source of enviromental photos, almost 10k pictures from different countries
isostock
inactive account with great sources of buildings, textures, still life and more. be cautious because account got hacked it seems and promotes a memecoin lmao, at least the content of the account didn't get deleted
exotic animal photo reference repository
collection of personal pictures of animals with corresponding identification by facilities
inaturalist
website with the purpose of registering observation of species by location, not with the purpose of references but immensely useful for that nonetheless
nicky bay's flickr
more than 50k photos of micro biodiversity (tw: spiders, insects and more that could make you uncomfy), really impressive work from this person
other stuff
magazine rack archive
digital archive of magazines, falls under the inspiration-side more than reference one, but i find it worth mentioning in this list
twitch emote searcher
one of the tools of commanderroot for twitch , i find this site very useful if you make emotes, i tend to search for certain keywords to find a bunch of emotes related to said keyword which helps me with the creative process
public domain image archive
useful if you want something different
if you have information about valuable content i could add or broken links, etc, i'd much appreciate it, you can contact me through these
Cara as a platform alternative from artists to artists
you might have heard about Cara before, image sharing platform made for creators, it claims to be able to identify if people upload generative ai content, which is strictly prohibited in the platform
the vibe i get when i open Cara is fresh, it doesn't feel like any other platform yet decent amount of artists are active in the platform, maybe there's not as many artists and art consumers as other places but i see the platform as a place for artists to find other artists and interact more than anything else and that's actually great for many people, same vibe as newgrounds in that specific and particular feeling at least
the website gave Glaze access to its user (not active right now) which allows to protect your art from ai (claim by them, highly arguable)
on a personal note i feel the appeal more and more lately to be active on this platform or newgrounds just for the sake of following interations with people who care rather than posting art/interacting in a sea of bots, fascists and ads