Using images without uploading them through the admin panel

should be possible.

depending on your existing theme, you might need to create the /images folder first;

example:

/wp-content/themes/yourthemename/images

Thanks for the reply
I’m actually using twentytwelve, but when I’m trying to link images from the /images/ directory, they always appear as a broken link

Inspecting the element shows the image link, but when I click on that, there’s a big red circle with a 1 in it next to the name, and no image

I then try linking an image that exists, but it creates a new instance of the image and comes up with the same ‘1’

https://screencast.com/t/Rtib34Cmwd

EDIT: Forgot to add this in:
The way I’m calling this image is:

<img src="/images/green_smiley.png">

Is this the correct syntax, or is there something I’m missing?

I don’t know how I never managed to find this before, but I just stumbled upon some kind of ninja page through Google that explains my situation

So, basically, the trick is to use the following:

<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/imagename.ext">

Here’s the page, in case anyone else has this issue and finds this post:
https://www.brightcherry.co.uk/scribbles/wordpress-get-image-path-relevant-to-theme/

Thanks again for the reply, alchymyth