My top 5 free Procreate brushes + how I use them

Hello, buddies,

Hope you’re doing well. Here I come with a selection of the best free Procreate brushes I use in my art. These are the brushes I use in my art most often, and I believe you could call them a “digital artist’s must haves”).

I’ll give you the links to where to you can download them and show you how I used them.

(All brush set images come from the websites I’m linking to – just saying, so that you know where I took them from).

What is Procreate?

Procreate is a popular digital painting and illustration app designed for iPads. It’s one of the most popular digital painting tools, known for its advanced tools and intuitive interface, and the one I use all the time.

What are digital brushes?

Digital brushes in software like Procreate simulate the effects of traditional art brushes. They allow us, digital artists, to create various textures, strokes, and effects in our artwork. 

These brushes can mimic the behavior of real-world tools like pencils, paints, and inks.

You can use as many digital brushes as you want, but to use them, you need a physical “brush”, too. Well, in fact, it’s not a typical brush with bristle, but you know what I mean – you need a stylus (in case of iPads – Apple Pencil) to draw on your tablet or screen.

How do digital brushes work?

Digital brushes function similarly to stamps, as they allow users to apply pre-designed patterns, textures, or shapes onto a digital canvas. 

So, when you’re drawing a line, you actually drawing an array of dots (or other shapes) coming one after another so fast and so close to each other, that you perceive them as a single stroke.

Types of digital art brushes

• Brushes that imitate materials or techniques used in traditional art, e.g. ink brushes, watercolor brushes, pencil brushes, sketch brushes.
• Stamp brushes – brushes to paint specific objects, e.g. windows, fences, trees. 
• Brushes that imitate textures, so called “texture brushes.” Here, the choice is extremely big, and you will find all types of textures, e.g.  – stone, wood, metal – whatever.
• Brushes for drawing specific things, e.g. hair brushes, foliage brushes. 
• Brushes typical for a given drawing software, e.g. Procreate brushes, Photoshop brushes, Clip Studio Paint brushes. I’m mentioning this type of brush as a matter of principle – if you find a Procreate brush you really like, there’s nothing stopping you from recreating it in Photoshop. What’s more, often you can import working Photoshop brushes into, for example, Procreate.
• Brushes that allow painters to draw in a very specific style but don’t imitate traditional techniques, e.g. pixel brushes.

Jingsketch Procreate Brushes: Basic 10

You can download them 💮here»

I’ve been using this brush set for the longest time, especially these three: Sharp Render, Flat Square, and Edge Control. I liked they are textured – if you want to instantly make the shapes in your paint more interesting and less flat, it’s great to use them. Soft Brush Grain is nice to add that extra touch to your artwork at the final stage.

Here, I used the brushes to paint most of the painting: the grass further away and on the right. Since these are hard brushes, you can, still using the Jingsketch’s brushes, switch to the Swipe Tool to soften the edges, as I did (upper right image).

HABOOK Paint Brushes for Procreate

You can download them 💮 here»

Again, more textured brushes. Here my favorites are: Square and Edge. You can already see I have a liking for hard brushes. That’s because they give you much more control over your edges – it’s easy to make your paintings too blurred if you overuse the soft ones.

Marc Brunet’s Starter Brush Pack 2023

You can download them 💮 here»

You might know Marc from his YouTube channels where he shares his art knowledge. Apart from that, he sells art courses, guides, and brushes.

There’s only one brush from Marc Brunet’s set I use but it’s a great one: Texture Comb. I used it mostly to paint grass or foliage in general. I think it suits stylized artworks best. Oc, you can use it for more realistic painting, but rather sparingly.

emilyamiao procreate brushes

You can download them 💮 here»

Emily is Story Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios and her art simply slays. Her brushes are best for lineart and sketching, or to draw details. Here, I used them to paint grass over the pond.

Matt’s Sketching Procreate brush set version 1.1

You can download them 💮 here»

Ladies and gentlemen, here comes creme de la creme, the Holy Grail of Procreate brushes – Matt’s watercolor brush set.

Mateusz Urbanowicz is a Polish artist based in Japan. You might know him for his ink & watercolor paintings, especially his Japanese storefront series.

I’ve been using his watercolor brushes (Matt’s watercolor FILL, Matt’s watercolor OPAC, Matt;s watercolor think, Matt’s add texture) all the time recently for everything except for lineart. I love their texture and the fact they are semi-transparent – you can make your painting a little bit more nuanced with them. Absolutely recommended.