graphics & clipart & art in general

[Alicia]

Hi all!
I was looking at my zine in progress last night, my first real decent zine actually, and noticed a very obvious lack of cool stuff to look at. I have a few doodles on the pages, but want more art. Maybe graphics behind pasted writing and such.

So my question is what is YOUR favorite source for reproducible clipart/graphics/whatever-you-want-to-call-them??

I have photos and stuff, but most of them probably wouldn't photocopy in b/w very well.

How do you add some visual pizazz to your zine?

I realized I have to redo my entire zine, my handwritten pages get FAR to close to the edge of the paper, and I know it'll get cut off in the copier. So I figured if I have to re-do it all I might as well add the stuff! :)

Thanks!!

[Pete Willis]

there's a really great book in my library called Yesterday's Shopping. It's huge and basically a collection of old shopping catalogues from 1919, you can get a 1907 one as well I think. But it's full of really beautiful black and white hand illustrated drawings of stuff you could get at the time, so typewriters and stuff. If you saw the programme for the london zine symposium this year that book is almost entirely what I got the images from. Worth finding something like that.

Also if you're handwritten pages are too close to the edge, just reduce them on the photocopier, saves writing it all out again.

[James N. Dawson]

Lately, I've been using very little graphics, but not because I'm indifferent to them, but just out of laziness and lack of time. My earlier zines tended to be much more visual and I'd like to do another more image-heavy zine soon. I find images in old encyclopedias, magazines, etc., xerox them, and then cut them out with scissors and, generally, fill in the spaces left by the text. Sometimes I go through considerable time and care in trying to select JUST THE RIGHT image. I also put in a lot of mini-flyers zinesters/bandsters have sent me.

(excerpted from an early discussion, key word: cut-n-paste)

[Lisa W / Sometimes I'm Dreaming]

I have generally been using pictures from magazines (either as they are or put together to make collages), stock photography (I sometimes increase the contrast to make them show up better in copies), pictures from greeting cards, decorative stationary and gift wrap, images scanned from books as well as my own photography and drawings. Little things like pretty stamps, ribbons or stickers can also be good for adding decorative touches to pages of text if you can't find an appropriate image.

[Alicia]

What about copyright? As an artsy craftsy type I try to respect the artistic work of others. Some think of copyright as a damn-the-man sort of thing, but really it's the artists that it hurts.

Lisa W said:

I have generally been using pictures from magazines (either as they are or put together to make collages), stock photography (I sometimes increase the contrast to make them show up better in copies), pictures from greeting cards, decorative stationary and gift wrap, images scanned from books as well as my own photography and drawings. Little things like pretty stamps, ribbons or stickers can also be good for adding decorative touches to pages of text if you can't find an appropriate image.

[James N. Dawson]

The encyclopedias, books & magazines I use are mostly very old, 40 to 60 years, sometimes more. I'm sure almost all the artists & photographers are long dead. I can't imagine that anybody would care at all, or that they'd ever know. Much of it may be in the public domain by now. There's a huge stockpile of photos, imagines and text that's destined to just moulder away. It might even honor and please their creators to revive their work in a zine.

[Lisa W / Sometimes I'm Dreaming]

In my first issue I did not use any copyrighted images, to my knowledge. I have used one in my (not-yet-completed) second issue, which I will reconsider the use of now. (It was an image by a favourite artist of mine, in a article about my thoughts on art. I didn't really stop to consider copyright as I don't stand to profit in any way from using the image in my zine, and if anything it might help to promote his work... but I suppose it might be better to avoid using it anyway.)

I do prefer to use my own art wherever possible though.

Alicia said:

What about copyright? As an artsy craftsy type I try to respect the artistic work of others. Some think of copyright as a damn-the-man sort of thing, but really it's the artists that it hurts.

Lisa W said:

I have generally been using pictures from magazines (either as they are or put together to make collages), stock photography (I sometimes increase the contrast to make them show up better in copies), pictures from greeting cards, decorative stationary and gift wrap, images scanned from books as well as my own photography and drawings. Little things like pretty stamps, ribbons or stickers can also be good for adding decorative touches to pages of text if you can't find an appropriate image.

[kit feral]

I think in that context it's okay, as long as you credit the artist. I'm completely against using copyright images (for myself, that is, I don't care what anyone else chooses to do) but I'd be comfortable with that. I think using it as an example, so to speak, makes it a bit different.

As for the original topic: my favorite place online to get awesome public domain images is here: http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/ Lots of beautiful stuff. There are a few other great public domain image sites out there, but that's the best one in my opinion.

Lisa W said:

In my first issue I did not use any copyrighted images, to my knowledge. I have used one in my (not-yet-completed) second issue, which I will reconsider the use of now. (It was an image by a favourite artist of mine, in a article about my thoughts on art. I didn't really stop to consider copyright as I don't stand to profit in any way from using the image in my zine, and if anything it might help to promote his work... but I suppose it might be better to avoid using it anyway.)

I do prefer to use my own art wherever possible though.

Alicia said:

What about copyright? As an artsy craftsy type I try to respect the artistic work of others. Some think of copyright as a damn-the-man sort of thing, but really it's the artists that it hurts.

Lisa W said:

I have generally been using pictures from magazines (either as they are or put together to make collages), stock photography (I sometimes increase the contrast to make them show up better in copies), pictures from greeting cards, decorative stationary and gift wrap, images scanned from books as well as my own photography and drawings. Little things like pretty stamps, ribbons or stickers can also be good for adding decorative touches to pages of text if you can't find an appropriate image.

[Alicia]

Thanks for everyone's ideas! So far I've carved a stamp to use, and painted a two-page spread using a toilet paper tube. I'm brainstorming more tactics. :)

I'll check out that graphics page soon too! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Isabel Xochitl]

it sounds like you've got your question answered, but i just wanted to recommend one more source. i have been using a lot of flyers for shows in my collages lately. punk posters are usually already in b&w which is handy, and have wonderfully gory and violent images, and often the band names are in tricked out fonts.
good luck!