A collection of free downloadable public domain images for crafters and web designers that have been rescued from old books, magazines, and other print materials. All of the images in this collection are copyright free in the United States and any country that extends copyrights up to 70 years after the death of the original artist making them in the public domain and free to use in your next scrapbook page, notecard or other craft projects.

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This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.

Overlay to Change Line Colors

This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to colorize any of the copyright free black and white images that can found on ReusableArt.com. This technique will only work on black and white images.

Open the image in Photoshop
Change the Image Mode to RGB Color. Use the menu path: Image > Mode > RGB Color
Pick a color darker than what you really want as this process does tend to wash the colors out a bit.
Select the brush tool and change the options to Mode: Overlay, Opacity: 100%, and Flow: 100%.
Swipe the brush over the existing lines of the picture. Only the lines will be painted.

This picture of a mama duck and her ducklings originally was just a black and white line drawing. By using an overlay brush and some color, we have what you see below.

Artist: unknown

Image Appears In: The Nursery, A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers Vol XVIII - October 1875

Date Image Published: 1875

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Learn how to use photoshop overlay brush to change line colors

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