Free illustrations

Nowadays you can find plenty of free illustrations on the web if you know where to look. Luckily for you, we already did the looking, so that you don’t have to. In the remainder of this post, we will share over ten resources where you can get free illustrations online.

The providers of these illustrations range from individual artists who have decided to generously share their work in an open-source manner, to design studios who have offered up a portion of their illustrations for free. We also included two aggregator sites on the list, which will unlock access to more free illustrations than you can probably sift through in a lifetime. In other words, there’s plenty for you here, so let’s get started.

Here are the top websites offering free illustrations 🎨

  • Illu-station 🖼️ 500+ free illustrations in PNG, SVG
  • unDraw 🖼️ 1,000+ free illustrations in PNG, SVG
  • IRA Design 🖼️ 3 free customizable libraries* in PNG, SVG
  • DrawKit 🖼️ 60+ free libraries in PNG, SVG
  • Absurd Illustrations 🖼️ 1 free library + 9 Paid
  • ManyPixels 🖼️ 7,500+ free illustrations in PNG, SVG
  • Freebie Supply 🖼️ aggregator website with many sources
  • Ouch! 🖼️ free in PNG; paid in PNG, SVG
  • Vivid.js 🖼️ 90+ free icon illustrations in SVG
  • Humaaans 🖼️ multiple free libraries in PNG, SVG
  • Interfacer 🖼️ aggregator website with 300+ sources

*Libraries can be thought of as categories, each with multiple illustrations inside of them.

Free illustrations: A quick primer 🎨

Before we get to the best sources for free illustrations, let’s go over some fundamentals to keep in mind:

  • Take a look at the license. In general, the two most ideal licenses you want to see in a free illustration library are MIT or CC0. These have virtually no restrictions. Some of the resources we included here do have those, but most have their own custom licenses. Wherever possible, we included links to the license pages for your convenience.
  • Don’t overthink it. Always have a plan in mind for how you’re going to use illustrations in your design. If you’re unsure, check out popular design sites to get some inspiration.
  • Tell a story. Illustrations work best when you’re telling a story. E.g., your illustration reflects the type of service or product you provide. The goal is to use visuals as a form of communication.

If all this sounds good, then let’s look at 🔎 the different free illustration resources we have for you today.

1. Illu-station

Illu-station is a great tool for finding high-quality, free illustrations for your projects

Meet the newest member of the Themeisle family, Illu-station. We launched it in the early months of 2021, and before we knew it, the library was bursting with over 200 illustrations!

And we’ve only just begun. We plan to continue adding copyright-free images in the future. And, yes, they will be available in both SVG and PNG formats.

We even included a few distinct styles to guarantee there’s something for everyone. Just scroll through the catalog to find something suitable for any personal or commercial projects you have running. You can even customize the color right from the browser. Or, if you want to perform more advanced tweaks, download the free illustration as SVG and customize everything to match your website design project. The choice is yours.

All images are free to download with no signups or popups getting in your way.

2. unDraw

unDraw is one of the more well-known free illustration libraries

unDraw has been in the works since 2017 and is maintained solely by Katerina Limpitsouni. Since launching her open-source illustration library, Katerina has designed more than 1,000 illustrations in every category imaginable.

Personally, what makes unDraw so appealing is that you get copyright-free SVG files, and you can also color manage the illustrations directly from the website. You can view the full license here.

By having access to SVG files, you can edit, customize, and stitch together multiple illustrations for a thoroughly custom design.

This is the one for your bookmarks toolbar.

3. IRA Design

IRA Design

IRA Design lets you create custom illustrations using pre-built components. Each component has five different gradient styles, and you can download them as SVG, AI, or PNG files.

And just to clarify, you have to download the files on your computer before you can edit them. If you look at the top navigation bar, there’s a Download button.

Select whether you want SVG, PNG, or ALL files, and you’re set.

4. DrawKit

DrawKit has some nice free illustrations available

James Daly built DrawKit as a means to help designers and startup owners quickly design their projects. The site gives you access to dozens of free illustrations in several styles – 2D, 3D, icons, mockups, animations, and more. As of the time of this writing, there are a total of 62 free illustration libraries available. And if you like James’s work, you can also subscribe to one of his premium packs, which will unlock access to even more illustration libraries.

All files are free to use for most commercial and non-commercial purposes, with some restrictions. For example, you can’t sell t-shirts with the designs on them. You can read the full license for details. Files are downloadable in both SVG and PNG formats.

5. Absurd Illustrations

Free illustrations from Absurd Design

Absurd Illustrations showcases how imperfection can be applied as the “perfect” design feature. These lucrative, highly creative, and seemingly outlandish illustrations are surely going to leave your visitors with a sense of awe and wonder.

The project focuses on playfulness as a means to inspire imagination. There are so many niches within which to design a website, and sometimes, having an unusual design makes all the difference.

Absurd Illustrations example
An example use case for Absurd Illustrations.

The majority of illustrations on this website are for paid members, but you can get the first library for free. The free illustrations have a separate user license. You can read the details of both licenses here, but the short version is that for the free ones, you’ll need to add a link back to the absurd illustrations website, and you’ll also be restricted only to PNG files.

However, if you really like the designs, then you can subscribe to the premium membership for either $19 per month or $199 per year. This will unlock access to all of the illustration libraries – of which there are currently ten (the free one + the nine paid ones). You’ll also be able to download the image files in both PNG and SVG formats.

6. ManyPixels

ManyPixels offers over 7,500 illustrations for free

ManyPixels is another fantastic resource which is very similar to unDraw. Both resources have different creators, so the designs will have some unique qualities.

You can still choose a default color before downloading any of the free illustrations, and you can download full SVG format files.

The license implies that ManyPixel’s images are free to use in any way imaginable. They also have an FAQ that affirms this. The only restriction is that you cannot recompile the files and sell them somewhere else.

7. Freebie Supply

Freebie Supply

Actually, if you’re using Sketch or Figma in your daily workflow, you can find tens of thousands of free resources, including illustrations.

Freebie Supply is one of the many sites that compile such resources into one singular directory. You can see in the snapshot above that for Sketch – there are more than 300 pages of free content.

As far as licensing goes, you’ll have to check that individually. But as far as the availability of free designs goes – it’s phenomenal!

8. Ouch!

Ouch! has free vector and 3D illustrations

Icons8 specializes in icon design as its primary business purpose. But they’ve recently started to expand into other areas as well, including free illustrations for personal and commercial use.

Ouch! is packed with thousands of creative and unorthodox vector graphics for your next web design project. The free illustrations are somewhat limited compared to the overall size of the vast library, but there are still a good amount of options if you dig around. The free files are also only available in low-resolution PNG format. For SVG vectors and high-resolution PNGs, check the pricing options directly on their site.

Also important to note is that there are separate licenses for their free illustrations and their paid ones. For the free images, you must provide attribution via a link back to their site.

9. Vivid.js

Get free illustrations from Vivid.js

This one is for you, JavaScript devs. Vivid.js is a dynamic SVG icon library that’s going to give new life to your website designs.

The icons are fully customizable, and in total there are more than 90 high-quality icons to choose from.

10. Humaaans

Humaaans

Humaaans focuses on the human aspect of design. As an illustration library, Humaaans emphasizes the human connection to design.

These wonderfully creative artworks will fit into any design project where you need to add a touch of emotion and liveliness.

The illustrations work great for icon placements, but also for full-blown hero sections.

They are completely free to use under CC0 license, but you can provide a voluntary donation amount when you download them. The download is provided via Gumroad, so to get them free, you just put $0.00 for the price. Otherwise, if you wish to make a donation to the creator, then you can set your own price.

11. Interfacer

Interfacer homepage

Interfacer is a hand-picked library of design resources. It covers elements like fonts, UI kits, icons, and illustration packs.

Each free resource leads you to either a download page or a separate website.

In case some of the links are not working, do a quick Google search to find an alternative.

Conclusion 🧐

Were you surprised by the sheer number of free resources other designers have put up for you to use? Of course, these aren’t the only available options (other interesting platforms include, e.g., Freepik or Open Doodles).

It’s great 🙋 to know that there are people putting their hard work and sweat into something that eventually gets used and seen by millions of people. If you’re searching for entire illustration sets, vector icons, stock photos, SVG illustrations, or free vector illustrations for your next project, you have plenty of alternatives to choose from!

Such a wide selection of appealing solutions allows you to create landing pages, avatars, animations, social media elements, emojis, or even templates for your ecommerce sites. The sky 🎈 is the limit as far as your creativity goes! Just remember about appropriate attribution.

Which one worked out best for you? Let us know in the comments section!

Yay! 🎉 You made it to the end of the article!

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