As digital artists, we are lucky to have access to tools like Procreate that allow us to create stunning works of art. But what truly sets apart a good digital artwork from a great one is the use of the right brushes. The best brush packs can elevate your artwork from simple illustrations to complete masterpieces. They offer endless possibilities and can help you achieve the exact look and feel that you desire in your digital paintings.
Are you ready to take your digital artwork to the next level? This article is a must-read for any digital artist looking to expand their brush library and create stunning and unique masterpieces in Procreate. So, sit tight, and let’s dive into the world of the best Procreate brushes available.
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Procreate Watercolor Kit
This comes as close as it comes to giving the look and feeling of painting with real watercolour.
The brushes in this watercolour kit give an authentic watercolour painting experience, with just 25 brushes. Having fewer brushes that are more versatile is a benefit for artists who don’t want to interrupt the flow of painting by switching between brushes too often.
Additionally, the kit comes with a cold pressed watercolour paper texture. This will give your artworks added depth and sense of realism.
Switch between hard edge brushes to soft blended washes of colour, to vary the way the colours mix. The kit also comes with stippling brushes, splatter brushes so you can add texture to your piece. Quill brushes enable you to vary the thickness of the lines, depending on the pressure applied. Then the blotchy wash brush mimics the appearance of watery washes, that make the pigment disperse and dry on the paper. This gives it an organic and natural look.
On top of the watercolour brushes, the set also comes with pen and pencil brushes, for artists who like creating pen and wash style illustrations. Use the blender brushes to mix colours together. The spidery blender brush creates the appearance of colours feathering into one another.
Check out the watercolour painting tutorial using these brushes, so you can start to learn how to use the kit!
Graphite Pencils for Procreate
The perfect set for creating sketches, as well as polished looking digital drawings.
Get the sketchbook look with these graphite pencil brushes that replicate the appearance and behaviour of natural graphite. The individual brushes are differentiated on their ‘pencil hardness ratings’. So the brushes range from a graphite 9H to an 8B. With the 8B brush, you’ll be able to achieve deep shadows and a large tonal range. Whereas the H or hard pencils are better for sketching out outlines that you may later erase, or for technical drawings such as architectural pieces.
Create drawings with incredibly realistic values and textures. One great digital art tip is to build up layers on top of one another to create more depth in your work. Use any number of pencil drawing techniques with this brush pack, like cross hatching or stippling.
The set also includes a blending brush, that emulates the look of blending with your finger or a paper stump. So you can make ultra smooth transitions, for blended shadows in portraits or softening the edges of a distant mountain in a landscape piece.
Perfect oils brush pack
The Perfect Oils brush pack has 87 brushes, that include imprimatura, underpainting, impasto, and detail brushes. This pack offers endless possibilities for creating stunning digital artwork that looks like it was painted by hand.
The benefit of painting digitally rather than with regular oils, is that there’s no mess and no clean up! These brushes have been made with many traditional oil painting techniques in mind. Create the appearance of the first layer of an oil painting in no time, with imprimatura, underpainting, and canvas grained paint strokes.
This brush pack also offers impasto brushes for brilliant textural effects. These brushes allow you to create the appearance of three-dimensional paint that holds its texture on the canvas. This means you can create Impressionist or Expressionist style paintings, with short, sharp brushstrokes like van Gogh.
Finally, the ‘Perfect Oils’ brush pack also features detail brushes, perfect for precision work and creating small areas of glazes. These brushes mimic the effect of paint thinned with linseed oil, allowing for smooth and subtle transitions in your artwork. You’ll find that these brushes are great for adding the finishing touches to your digital paintings, giving them that extra touch of detail and depth.
Rusty Nib Inkers for Procreate
Another brush pack that fantastically recreates the authentic look and feel of a traditional medium. The Rusty Nib Inkers brushes for Procreate enable you to create realistic looking ink drawings. Whether you want to create fine line drawings to sketch a cityscape, or a scratchy nib aesthetic for a comic book piece.
This set includes a variety of pen and brush stroke types. You’ll find that is a range of sizes and textures in pack, so you can create thinner lines or bold strokes depending on the look you’re going for. The pack also contains brushes that real dip pens, and Sumi-e brushes with their finer points moving and thickening as you draw.
The brushes also feature a flat brush, for those who like to create art with streaky, organic looking lines. This brush gives your work that vintage print look, so each artwork will have its own individual character and style.
Rusty Nib Inkers brush set is also available for Photoshop, so if you have both programmes, or are thinking about learning Photoshop as well, you can use these brushes across both platforms. This is great for those who are interested in creating multi-platform artworks. Check out our review of the best brushes for Photoshop if you want to learn more.
3D Procreate Brushes
The 3D Procreate brushes offer a world of incredible textures. Choose from creating three dimensional forms with silk, stone, clay, glass and more wonderful materials. These brushes are perfect for calligraphy and lettering projects, allowing you to create smooth lines and pops of colours with ease.
This brush pack also offers an array of 3D effects, allowing you to create interesting abstract and dynamic shapes with just a few taps. These textures can be used to add depth to your projects without having to use complex layering techniques. Additionally, the brush set comes with 16 3D pressure brushes, so you can adjust the thickness and opacity of your lines.
Realistic Marker for Procreate
Alcohol markers are a fantastic medium that can create incredibly vibrant effects. However, Copic Markers can be a little pricey! If you want to try to recreate the look of an alcohol marker illustration without the hefty price tag of a set of alcohol markers, this set is a brilliant choice!
The brushes come in round, chisel tip and soft marker textures. They perfectly emulate the transparency and blending effects you get from using professional marker pens. Use the ten brushes, with the paper texture to create wonderful illustrations and designs. The transparency of the brushes is what gives it a realistic look, so you can create beautiful layered effects, altering the colour and value of the previous layers.