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