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Writer's pictureSamantha McNesby

Free Vintage Ephemera Skeleton Graphics

More free vintage skeleton graphics ahead! I’m still adding to the Something Wicked collection, which has now grown to 30+ pages, so I have a huge pile of vintage skull graphics to share. This one began as a 16th century engraving by Egbert van Panderen:



There are several similar copies of this, including a pair in the British Museum that differ slightly from this one, primarily in the lettering. The amount of symbolism in each is astounding, if you’re interested in art history, you can get the full scoop on this memento mori ephemera graphic here.



In addition to the different text, this one is also higher contrast. I made some changes to the piece to make it more useful for journaling. Since I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t read Latin, removed the inscriptions and cleaned the image. I was surprised to see how much this resembles modern US currency, the engraving style definitely goes back a long way.


Here is a look at the revised design, with the text removed. Don’t try to save it here, it is low resolution. There is a free file of the vintage skull graphics with high resolution images awaiting you below.

I’ve also used a version of this for this ATC background set (if you’re a premium member, it’s in your section, free).



Where to Find Free public Domain Images for Printables

The original version of this vintage skull ephemera is from the Riksmuseum, one of my favorite sites for finding public domain images to alter. You can find my big list of sites offering free images for commercial use here, it’s a helpful starting point if you’re new to design or just need some interesting images.




 





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