Best Magazines For Collage – Guide For Beginners

We all see amazing collages online and most of them use magazine images. It’s because magazine images are easy to use, they offer so many options, sizes, and colors. 

But what magazines to use? Are they all good? Where to find those magazines?

This blog post answers all these questions so you can start your collaging right away and have a handful of ideas.

And not to mention, these photos were taken by professionals who understand colors and perspective. So, in addition, fashion photos can help you choose colors and get inspired by the whole scene. 

Another perk I love about fashion magazines is that I can fussy cut the images and really blend them into my background. Sometimes that’s not 100% easy to do because some photos are of women with wild hair which isn’t easy to fussy cut. However, why does it need to be perfect? You can always cut the image imperfectly and add unique style to your collage.

Their headlines are usually very attractive and you can use the whole words or cut them up in letters.

Other pages can be used as backgrounds, paper scraps, patterns, etc. Since they’re full of colors and different materials, and a lot of big photos, they’re a great choice for any kind of collage.

They’re a little low on headlines and letters, but the landscape photos can be used for the whole background, or cut it up into smaller pieces and make a monochrome collage.

They already contain so much beautiful artwork that you can use for your project such as: illustrations, abstract elements, paintings, art supplies, etc.

Not to mention that this artwork inside can inspire you to create something so interesting by following their color schemes and style.

Combine these images with the ones from the fashion magazines, and you’re on your way to make something really beautiful and unique.

They don’t have to be high-end magazines. For example, I get a lot of free magazines from local companies like drugstores or health insurances, catalogues, or municipality ads magazines, etc. Believe me, I find some nice treasures in them. And they’re free!

But if you can find some, you’ll definitely love them for their retro vibes and aesthetics, portraits, and not to mention the typography. 

Also, if there are any thrift stores or flea markets around you, visit them and search for magazines. This is how I found interesting stuff at a local flea market.

Once I went on Facebook marketplace and got a great deal: I got 52 National Geographic magazines, and all I had to do was pay for the delivery. 

You can ask around at your doctor’s waiting room. They usually just get rid of those magazines, and if you ask them, I’m sure they’d be happy to give them away.

What I’ve found is that the best kind of magazine paper for collage is the glossy one. This is because the ink on the paper never smudged when I painted over with gesso or liquid glue.

On the other hand, some matte magazine images tend to smear the ink on the image. I don’t know the technicalities, it’s just my experience.

Although glossy paper has a shine to it (so it’s annoying when you look at it) I find it better than matte paper. Also, I can always tone down the glossiness by applying a layer of transparent gesso over my collage.

Whichever magazines you find and use, don’t forget to experiment with cutting styles (fussy cut, tearing, imperfect cut, cut with a border, etc), colors, papers, etc. Combine different images, even the ones that have no sense being together in real life. Bring some magic into it!