finding assets for collage?

[rigel]

something i've always wanted to dabble in with is (digital) collage - i love the maximalist/mixed media feel they can give, plus i just think it would be a fun medium to experiment with! i actually have done something like this before for an assignment in one of my previous uni classes, however i remember being a little intimidated when it came to finding images/assets. i do not want to unintentionally steal something off from someone's original work for my own pieces, especially if they disapprove of any usage of it

i usually go to tumblr blogs that are solely dedicated to uploading pngs, but i'm curious if there's any other approaches more experienced collage artists go through with (sources for where they get their stuff, if they make their own, etc.) i would love to know!

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I don't do collages, but for one of the projects that I did solo (without my gfx-friend), I used pictures from Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
They are legal to use, as long as you release your work under a compatible license.

[TheFrugalGamer]

I'm going to self-promote and plug one of my own sites here, but I'll also link some others.

• I've got a collection of public domain images I periodically add to here: https://www.thefrugalgamer.net/freeimages/. It's searchable and tagged.
• Public Domain Review is a newsletter that grabs stuff from all over the web, and it's one of my favorite places to read and get cool images.
• Old Book Illustrations is similar, but is limited to books
• The Fat Strawberry is an old-style website that has a lot of brushes and tiled backgrounds with an old-web aesthetic
• Melooon also has Texture Town, which I use frequently
• And lastly, if you can conceive of it, there is a github list for it. Here's an Awesome Stock Resources list that's got all sorts of stuff that might help

I also frequently go through Archive.org for fun, and I'll grab any old book images that I like while I'm there (that's where I got most of the images for my database). Once you've built up a collection it gets a bit easier to sift through and find what you need. Hope that helps!

[Scootarooni]

I don't have any cool resources on hand, but ages ago I would make watercolor washes to overlay on my digital art to give it texture. I don't know how helpful that would be for you, but you're welcome to use them nonetheless! Here's the google drive link

[victoriana]

When I was starting out, I referenced Zine Crisis' resources for zines a lot.

For public domain artwork (especially old paintings and illustrations), I use the British Library's Flickr page and artvee. Here's a helpful reddit thread on the subject with more links.

I also browse blogs on Tumblr that curate old art , or create pngs of art and odd objects (my favorite for this is snailspng, I also had a now inactive blog of my own clips ready for collage use.

The Internet Archive is also handy. I sometimes look at old textile catalogs or designs, like the ones by William Morris or Maurice Pillard.

I think Halftone Hospital is also a good resource for any artist, they have textures, brushes, and other stuff for personal and commercial use.

[rigel]

im ngl i lowkey forgot i made this thread until now, but i'm really happy to see the amount of resources given already, thank you all so much!!!    currently compiling a bookmarks folder with all links as we speak hhehe

I don't have any cool resources on hand, but ages ago I would make watercolor washes to overlay on my digital art to give it texture. I don't know how helpful that would be for you, but you're welcome to use them nonetheless! Here's the google drive link

i think it's really cool that you did these traditionally! sometimes i like to overlay watercolor textures downloaded from the csp assets store but i think it'd be neat to try using washes that have been scanned sometime, thank you for sharing! i'll definitely be saving these

I also browse blogs on Tumblr that curate old art , or create pngs of art and odd objects (my favorite for this is snailspng, I also had a now inactive blog of my own clips ready for collage use.

ik you said your own blog's inactive but i followed anyways just in case. the clippings you already did post on there look super cool, i'd be interested if you ended up deciding to make some sort of itch.io for your stuff so i'll be on the look out for any updates 

[slimeteefs]

I like to make my own assets bc I really feel similarly about taking somebody else's work. It takes a while but I try to take pictures and have a folder with a bunch of different things I can collage together or repurpose. I like to use them as textures and things in digital art and edits. Irl though, I've been just using magazines and cutting those up and gluing them together with modge podge and drawing or painting overtop of it and not worrying about it so much, because I have a friend who makes a bunch of really interesting collages and I just wanted to try it too. I think people understand you don't own all the images if they're cutouts like that idk. I've thought of scanning them in and adding digital effects overtop or collaging them even more but maybe that's not fun for u, I like mixing traditional and digital for extra multimedia personally though. I've scanned in sticker sheets and lassoed them out before to get a bunch of little collagey effects to add to digital art bc I feel like stickers are kind of sold AS art supplies so it's fine.

[garystu]

yea I know one google images 

collages are derivative art, embrace it and use whatever you want. don't turn yourself into a copyright lawyer, be an artist instead. its awesome to create derivative art. if some bozo artist goes to flame you for using their art as a source work (they always falsely call it stealing), collage is fair use, it's transformative, you're within your rights to flame 'em right back

i mean come on. "I want to make a collage but I dont want to steal" what's even the point. what are you doing here

[bees]

For public domain artwork (especially old paintings and illustrations), I use the British Library's Flickr page

On this note, I'd also recommend the Internet Archive's flickr. They post images from old books all the time and there's lots of variety. Some other institutions also post stuff from their archives on Flickr.

If you're open to using flickr, it lets you filter images by license when searching so you'll find a wide range of things that way. Some users' albums or pools even focus specifically on posting images for collage purposes.

I know some museums and such will also post images on their own sites and sometimes they're in the public domain.

I'd also look at what the laws are in your jurisdiction. In many places, derivative art that makes enough changes to the original etc. may be protected. Then there's image reproductions, in some places stuff like a high-res photo of an old painting is not copyrighted to the photographer.

(I understand if your concern is less about legality and more about just avoiding online drama, though.)

[OnBambisMind]

Hiya!, I am a full time collage artist with a collage art based business so I have some good tips for finding assets and collage in general.

I completely understand not wanting to not accidentally take someone else's work but if it's just for you and your enjoyment then just go wild with whatever you can find that you like online. I think it holds back your creativity if you worry about if someone's gonna make a fuss over something you've used.

If your posting your collage art on social media on a art account (doesn't count if it's on a personal one), the general rule is not to use someone else's digital/traditional illustration or graphic art unless it is vintage, not to use photography from an artist who has an active presence online and to not make any one image the main focus. Collage art is about transforming random bits and bobs of anything and creating art with it so as long as you're doing that, no one will notice what the original image was.

The best resource is honestly Pinterest but if you want to not accidentally use someone else's work or if your like me and are selling your work, here is some links and tips for how to make or own or find free to use images.

- Rubbish (yes rubbish) bits of packaging, napkins, gift wrap, string either used traditionally or scanned in.
- like some other people mentioned, making your own textures (ripping them in interesting ways looks super cool) and taking your own photos.
- If you have a scanner, old family holiday film pictures, polaroids, stationary and stickers are great
- Look up 'royalty free' or 'creative commons' images online, they are great. I like Unsplash because it has
  textures and it's super easy to find out who made the original image if you want to find similar ones or support the artist.
- This website is great, someone scanned in a bunch of old photos from second hand shops
- Another old scanned photos website.
- some people on etsy sell digital kits of collage images and textures.
- Some artists on the collage side of instagram/tumblr give away their own collected textures as a digital kit to their followers. Here's one.
- A collection of kawaii stationery scans.
- making your own wacky patterns by experimenting with brushes and filters in photoshop/ any art program.

The blurry line - This is a list of things that aren't really free to use but no one is gonna care if you use it.

- vintage sewing pattern covers are great and there are tons of scans of them online.
- Vintage/victorian birthday, valentines day or christmas cards. Tons of examples on pinterest (just double check they are actually vintage by doing a quick reverse image search).
- Old advertisements, especially ones from shops that no longer exist. Loads of examples on Pinterest.
- scans of stickers and old stationary

I hope my list helps :)

- Bambi xo

[WraithGlade]

I would echo what others have said about public domain being the safest bet as long as it is sourced properly.

Wikipedia often has good public domain images, especially of historical things.

Another great (more often overlooked) source of images to use for collage is really images within really old books from the 1800s and 1900s such as what you can get on the Internet Archive if you download the PDF versions of books and then screenshot and crop illustrations from them. 

Images of really old paintings are also good options, as long as you crop out surrounding context.

The photographs of things sometimes have different copyright than the things themselves, and so doing a proper cropping matters.

I recently completed a simple manually-vectorized collage piece myself, though I still haven't hosted any images of my work (or any images at all) on my so-far text-only site.

Anyway though, those are my thoughts. I hope it potentially helps somebody.

[Salty]

I'm a little late to the party on this, but my wife and I are avid collage artists and enthusiasts. We harvest ephemera from estate sales, antique malls, thrift stores, and the Facebook marketplace. I make assets from things by scanning them at high DPI and then cutting them out with the pen tool in Photoshop/GIMP. However, our favorite digital source is Craig Conley's blog/archive, One Letter Words. The categories on the left are super esoteric, but once you start looking through each collection, the idea starts to come together. He also scans in ephemera that he collects, so a similar idea. I hope you enjoy!