If you are a working illustrator or graphic designer, you have probably figured out that finding high-quality stock images and assets requires a lot of time, patience, and hard work. To save you a little time, we have gathered a handful of FREE resources that we often use and recommend to our students.

Please note that these are FREE stock sites for personal and commercial use, but some may require attribution if using the free plan; for best practice, always read terms and conditions and provide credit when due.

Vector Illustrations

One of our favourite stock sites that we had to do a feature on it! Watch the full tutorial on using Blush illustrations like a pro and create fantastic artwork for your next design project! Discover thousands of illustrations from outstanding artists from around the world on Blush. The best feature is that you can easily tweak and adjust the illustrations directly on Blush Desktop.
Also a personal favourite where you can find cool Illustrations, icons, animations, and all free to use!
Another cool free sketchy style illustrations that you can copy, edit, remix, share, or redraw these images for any purpose . It is also compatible with Blush.
Another cool free illustrations site if you are looking for people and scenes illustrations! Also compatible with Blush. 
An amazing place to find quality illustrations, background, photos and graphic mock-ups! A great site for both illustrators and graphic designers!
Crowdsourced royalty-free Illustrations for commercial use, free illustrations for website design, and free illustration vectors available at Iconscout. Download free Illustrations in PNG, SVG, EPS, AI, and others. You can also find a large collection of free 3D illustrations, which can be downloaded both as PNGs or BLEND format.

Vector Icons

Our go-to place for all things icons related, you can find pretty much anything you need. You can use these icons for free if it falls under the Free Creative Commons license. However, we highly advise you to pay for the annual subscription, especially if you are often using icons for design projects!

You can find some pretty top quality icons, illustrations and background from leading artists from Dribbble! Please note attribution is required if you are using the free plan.

A great site for Beautiful, customizable animated GIF icons that you can use for digital projects!

Stock Photography 

Below we listed 3 of our favourite high quality stock image sites that you can use for personal and commercial projects! 

Fonts

Most of these fonts are free for personal projects, however you can also find some really great fonts you can use for free for commercial projects! Have fun Browsing! 

Google Fonts

Dafont

Font Squirrel

Adobe Fonts (free with Adobe subscription)

Mock Up 

Presentation is key to standing out from the crowd, especially bringing a dull, boring portfolio to life. Present your artwork like a pro using top quality mocks ups, below we listed a few of the go-to mockup sites that we often use to present our design work! Learn more about Presentation skills and Design Portfolio!


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Bonus Tutorials:  Watch our tutorials below to learn how to make money through selling your own Artwork on Stock Sites!

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5 ways to make extra money from your design skills!

In this post we introduce you to 5 amazing Pattern Designers. Discover their work and exactly why we love it!

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About the author 

Shumi Perhiniak

Shumi is a self-taught graphic designer and illustrator who has worked for Toni&Guy, Renaissance Learning, Baker Ross, and many others.

Additionally, she owned a brick-and-mortar stationery shop selling her art prints and now sells wholesale to retailers and online shops under the brand name www.herdesignworld.com.

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