Find Avatar Art and Character Portraits

Where can you find images for your characters? Start looking on Obsidian Portal! Our users have been collecting the best gaming art for many years. Here’s an easy method, using Google.

To search for portraits:

1. Go to https://www.google.com/
2. Type this into the search field:
   site:obsidianportal.com knight
3. Hit “ENTER.”
4. Click the “Images” tab to reveal collections of images.
5. Replace the word knight with whatever search terms you need to find (for example: elf ranger or mech pilot).
6. When you find an image you like, right click on the image.
7. Click “Save Image As…” from the dropdown menu and save the image to your computer. Remember where you saved it for later.
8. Now that you have your image, you can Upload It to Obsidian Portal.

Note: If you’re still having trouble finding exactly what you need, search again and include more specific terms or exclude certain terms by typing a minus sign (-) before the word. Google will often suggest related terms just below the search field.

Character Portraits from Obsidian Portal on Vimeo.

Additional sources for artwork and images:

Advanced Google Search – extra tools and settings to narrow your search
Pixabay – a large collection of photographs, drawings, and graphics
Unsplash – a collection of high-quality photographs
Wikimedia Commons – an encyclopedic assemblage of historical and educational imagery

Support an artist:

Sketchmob – upload a photo for an artist to draw custom portraits for you in many styles
Heromachine – free flash-based app that lets you mix-and-match character components
DeviantArt – giant forum and showcase for artists, many of whom take commissions
Avatar Art – custom commissions for roleplaying game characters
Etsy – Custom Character Art – custom art in many styles
RPG.net – Freelancing Forum – fantasy illustrations for hire
CharacterDrawing on Reddit – custom art requests and links to artist pages
Pinterest – galleries of searchable art, some of which lead to commission artists

Crop and resize your art:

If you find artwork that’s too large, you’ll need to size it correctly for use on Obsidian Portal. Your computer, tablet, or phone probably already has built-in software to crop and edit images. But just in case, here are some other options: Paint.net, GIMP, Darktable, or Pixlr.com.

Center your portrait image and crop (remove) portions that you don’t want to appear. We recommend a roughly square image, although the system will adjust rectangular images for display.

Your character portrait image will need to be 1 MB or less. You can decrease the memory-size of your image by reducing it’s dimensions within your image manipulation program or app. Images that are 500 pixels in width by 500 pixels in height (or smaller) tend to work best. The image will appear at about 230 pixels on a side, depending on the browser that is displaying it. Many imaging programs will also allow you to lower the quality of the image, making it appear more pixelated – this will also lower the memory footprint and save storage space.