Free Arthur Rackham Vector Art - Collection 1

Yep. No catch. Just a collection of small PD works from Arthur Rackham, converted into vector format (by yours truly) so they can be scaled to any size and remain clean! Feel free to pass along to others. When possible, credit Arthur Rackham (but there is no need to credit me; I didn't bring much to this party). Download Arthur Rackham Spot Art Collection 1 in any or all of the following formats by clicking on the format name:

ARSPC1 in Adobe Illustrator Format (6 megs; zipped)
This file is saved in an older format (so you can open it as far back as CS2); you'll need Illustrator to open this directly, but it does have a PDF wrapper so you can open it in Photoshop and choose your resolution when you do. BTW, it's in B&W only, so if you open it in Photoshop, just choose grayscale (so the end file is smaller and easier to work with). This is actually the most versatile format of all the saves, but it's also 6 megs and not everyone has Illustrator.

ARSPC1 in Editable PDF Format (1 meg; not zipped)
As a PDF, you can: 1) place it directly into a layout program (like InDesign) and crop to the part you want, 2) open it in Illustrator and cut/paste the parts you want, or 3) rasterize it into Photoshop as described above. This is almost as versatile as the pure Illustrator format, but sometimes there are issues with opening PDFs in Illustrator when the vectors are complicated (it tends to "chop" more complex images into "smaller bits").

ARSPC1 in SVG Format (1 meg; zipped)
This is the best version to download if you have Illustrator (because it's smaller, and fully editable), but Photoshop does not know what to do with an SVG, so you'll have absolutely no luck with the file on that end.

And yes... the fact that this is titled "Collection 1" does mean I'm planning on future installments.

Really Old Old-School Artist Week Day 5:Arthur Rackham

And so we come to the conclusion of my week of "Really Old Old-School Artists." Today's artist is Arthur Rackham, and it may be a long time coming from me to old Arthur. I've never really felt the need to feature Rackham in one of these posts because his work is really all over the internet, and has already made its way (along with the likes of John D. Batten) into many an OSR product relying on public domain artwork (e.g., John Stater's Blood & Treasure). The reason I'm delving into such familiar old-old-school artist territory is because most of the Rackham illustrations I'm featuring today have yet to reach the point of oversaturation among us OSR types. The particularly gruesome image below (the first image with the chopped off heads, e.g.) comes from the 1907 edition of The Ingoldsby Legends, a book based on the 19th Century collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry prepared by Richard H. Barham (under the pseudonym of Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor).