Option 2: Hire an illustrator
If you have specific ideas about what illustrations for your blog should look like, but you’re not able to create or buy them yourself, you could also work with a professional illustrator or team of illustrators (as we do at Yoast). We would like to emphasize that you really need a budget for that, but that it could pay off. Working with a professional illustrator will get you original and on-topic images. Above that, if you work with the same illustrator for multiple blogs, you will also get some continuity between posts and within your blog. People will recognize your posts just by looking at the illustration. Which works great for branding.
Example: Yoast illustration for the topic ‘Keyword research’
If you see illustrations you like (e.g., on social media), make sure to check out who the artist is. Googling the name will probably lead you to their portfolio (if they did their SEO well!). Lots of illustrators and artists work freelance. You can also find collectives of artists offering their services on Facebook.