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.)