LINE ART Brushes for Photoshop [FREE and Premium]
Are you in need of LINE ART brushes for Photoshop? Check out this list of FREE and premium brushes; you might find here a brush pack that meets your needs 🙂
Quick info for all beginner artists here: Lineart is a style of drawing that focuses primarily on using lines. Artists who draw comics/ manga often call “line art” the contour illustration of a character (and other objects) that functions as a base for later coloring.
Before you download any brush…
There are lots of great YouTube tutorials showing the drawing process, so I won’t get into great details on how to draw line arts, but I will mention some tricks that can really improve your artworks.
Plugins for smooth line art drawing
There are pen stabilizer applications to Photoshop that help with drawing smooth lines:
– Lazy Nezumi (Windows)
– Hej Stylus (for macOS)
Check your brush settings
See if changing some settings can improve your current brushes. To create smooth brush strokes without too much lag, set the smoothing amount to 10% – 45% for optimal performance. Malcolm Monteith wrote a great article “Best Brush Settings for Lineart (Photoshop) in 4 Easy Steps!“, check it out.
Practice and have a “clean” sketch.
The messier the sketch is, the more troublesome will be to draw the lineart. Some artist do 2 or even 3 layers of sketches – first sketch is for drawing the idea, the latter sketches are meant to add more details and tidy up the illustration before doing the lineart. The cleaner the drawing, the easier it will be to do the lineart.
I hope these tips will help you with your work, and that you will find here the brushes that meet your expectations!
Ps. if you are looking for “messier” line brushes, you can also check out this list: INK brushes for Photoshop [FREE and Premium]
Quick list – LINE ART brushes for Photoshop:
- Photoshop Inking Brush Tool Presets by FRENDEN
- Attack Of The Liners
- Traditional Art Pack by Miguel Nogueira
- Underline brushes [FREE]
- Esben Lash Line brushes
- Drew Green’s Cartooning Brushes
- 5 SMOOTH INKING BRUSHES
- Kyle’s Basic Inker [FREE]
- Lineart Brushes by RinGreen [FREE]
- Dave’s Camelhair Brush Set [FREE]
- Camelhair Brushes (16 brushes)
- Inkers by Guerillacraft
- Comic Lines [FREE]
- RAM – Photoshop CC – Paint Set – 50 Pack
- RAM – Photoshop CC Comic Inking Brushes – 25 Pack
- Outline brushes
- Graphite Pencil Photoshop Brushes [FREE]
- Manga Brush Pack for Photoshop
- Comic Ink Brush Tool Presets for Photoshop CS5 + (CC)
List of Photoshop Line Art Brushes
Brushes listed here are dedicated mainly for ADOBE PHOTOSHOP and can not work/ or not function correctly in other software. If you are a PROCREATE user, go to this list: LINE ART Brushes for Procreate [Free and Premium]
The brushpacks are listed randomly. I tried to make this list as diverse as I could. I couldn’t place here all brushes I found, so I included just the ones that I thought would be the most useful for you. Please let me know in the comments if you know any useful brush pack that should be listed here!
1. Photoshop Inking Brush Tool Presets by FRENDEN
View brushes (10)
File Types Included: .BRUSHSET
Software compatibility: Photoshop CS5, CS6, and Creative Cloud
Frenden wasn’t satisfied with the inking brushes available in the Photoshop library and on the market at that time. So he decided to take the matter into his own hands and created Photoshop brushes that not only look amazing, but are also easy to control!
Below you can see Frenden doodling in Photoshop with his inker brush:
So, in this set you will find 10 brushes in total, they can be put into 2 categories: pencils – for sketching, and inkers – for drawing the line art.
2. Attack Of The Liners
View brushes (200+)
Zipped File Size: 425.4 MB
File Types Included: ABR, BRUSHSET, PDF, PROCREATE
Software compatibility: Photoshop and Procreate
“Attack Of The Liners” offers us over 200 brushes and stamps! What’s even better, this set also contains files for both – Photoshop and Procreate!
Brefly, in this pack you will find: 52 liners, 20 shaders and textures, 31 pattern fills, 97 stamps and particles, 10 sketches and erasers, 12 texture overlays, and 12 color palettes. Whoa, that’s a lot. In addition to this, you will also get 2 instruction videos and 19 page user guide.
There are so many miscellaneous brushes, it makes me believe that this pack actually has all brushes you might need for drawing your own comic story. They also look super realistic, even the erasers have a texture that helps to imitate traditional art. I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell that some of the illustrations included in promo images were drew digitally.
I took a closer look at the “liners”, and as I mentioned earlier, the creators try to imitate traditional art – so most of the brushes have a little texture. I like that they have so many variations of the “outlines”.
Take a look for yourself! Here’s a video presentation of this pack:
If you aim for traditional art look, this pack is probably the best choice 🙂
3. Traditional Art Pack by Miguel Nogueira
View brushes (11+)
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: created in Adobe Photoshop CC2018
The Traditional Art Pack offers a set of brushes for artists seeking to incorporate a traditional media look into their digital art.
Briefly, You will find here 11 brushes: Lead Pencil, Charcoal Pencil, Charcoal Stick, B Pencil, Smudge stick, Ink pencil, Calligraphic Brush, Hard Pencil, Rough Pencil, and bristle brush.
In addition to the brushes, there’s also 6 watercolor paper textures included and a PSD file with step-by-step setup.
Miguel Nogueira is a freelance concept artist located in Berlin, with over 7 years of experience as a freelance concept artist and illustrator. He was the main concept artist for “Amnesia RebirthAmnesia Rebirth. You can check out his artworks on Artstatioin: – migno.artstation.com
4. Underline brushes [FREE]
View brushes (15)
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Here are 15 simple underline brushes, uploaded by artistmef. The brushes are free for personal and commercial use, however, you must add credits to the website. Artistmef is a nickname of an Ukrainian artist Ihor Vitkovskyi, he specializes in creating Photoshop addons and textures. You can see move of his brushes and textures here: creativemarket.com/ArtistMef
5. Esben Lash Line brushes
View brushes (6)
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Esben Lash Rasmussen is Copenhagen-based Illustrator & concept artist working in the entertainment industry. He’s mostly known for his work at Riot Games (Los Angeles), Sixmorevodka (Berlin), and IO Interactive. On his website, he offers tutorials where he shows his process in illustration and Splash Art,as well as brushes.
One of the pack that Esben created is “Line brushes” pack. It is optimized for Photoshop, but also works with Procreate & Clip Studio Paint, except for the “Rough brush” as it is only compatible with Photoshop.
You can follow Exben on his Instagram: @esbenlash
6. Drew Green’s Cartooning Brushes
View brushes (10)
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Drew Green is a cartoonist, who spent 7+ years in the industry at Cartoon Network, Netflix, Warner Bros, and Disney TVA (*with prior freelance experience in animation character design, comics, and illustration). He uses this pack of brushes in his work (if drawing in Photoshop). See the brushes sampled in the video below; Drew describes each brush and explains when he uses them.
7. 5 SMOOTH INKING BRUSHES
View brushes (5)
Zipped File Size: 492.2 MB
File Types Included: .ABR .SUT
Software compatibility: Photoshop, Procreate & Clip Studio Paint
Paintable.cc published on their website 5 smooth inking brushes, free to download (*well, you just need to join their newsletter in order to download them). They are great for Comic-like inking and strokes for illustrations. Below is a quick tutorial recorded by Paintable. I have to point out that they use in their tutorial software that helps with drawing smooth lines – Lazy Nezumi and Hej Stylus.
8. Kyle’s Basic Inker [FREE]
View brushes (3)
Zipped File Size: 252 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Here are other FREE brushes! This set was created by Kyle T Webster – an illustrator that drew for The New Yorker, TIME, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, Scholastic, ADOBE, Nike, IDEO. *You can find out more on his website – kyletwebster.com
In the set you will find 3 variations of the brush: More ‘snap.’, Sharp lines/edges and Better taper.
9. Lineart Brushes by RinGreen [FREE]
View brushes (3)
Zipped File Size: 6,57 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: created in Phtoshop CS6
When I was searching for lineart brushes, I found this free set published on Deviantart. This website is a goldmine if you are looking for free brushes; however, sometimes, it takes time to find the right ones. This is one of the few I found there, dedicated entirely to drawing the lineart.
Ps. To download it, you need to sign up to the site.
10. Dave’s Camelhair Brush Set [FREE]
View brushes (8)
Zipped File Size: 661 KB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
David’s story is similar to others listed here – he didn’t like the default Photoshop brushes, so he spent lot of time creating his own, personal camelhair-brushes, that have smooth but yet crisp lines. They were created specifically for drawing lineart.
You can use these brushes for commercial projects, but do not claim these brushes as your own creation.
There’s another, updated version of these brushes: Dave’s Camelhairbrushes V 2
11. Camelhair Brushes (16 brushes)
View brushes (16)
Zipped File Size: 1.33 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Here’s another pack created by David, this one has brush strokes that will allow you to create more dynamic lineart. These brushes have been inspired by the camelhair brush in Corel Painter. This set was created in PS CS5 so should work in this version and up, + it’s the newest version of the Camelhair brush pack mentioned above. You can get it for only 2$.
12. Inkers by Guerillacraft
View brushes (84+)
Zipped File Size: 83.68 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
I’ve already mentioned “Inkers by Guerillacraft” in my INK brushes for Photoshop list. It mainly features brushes that imitate inks. However, the set is so diverse that everyone can find the brushes that will be useful for their current project, as well as brushes that may come in handy later.
So, for you guys, who want to achieve a more “traditional” look of your drawings, this might be the pack worth checking out. I recommend you also to check out Guerillacraft website, there’s lots of other brushpacks and free brushes to download he created: guerillacraft.co
13. Comic Lines [FREE]
View brushes
Zipped File Size: 10,6 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Here’s a set of brushes that the author uses for drawing his comic art and sketches. This set was created in Photoshop CS6, and are free to download. You can test them yourself. There’s no need to add credits if you use these brushes, but please remember to send your thanks in the comment section so the author knows you like their brushes.
14. RAM – Photoshop CC – Paint Set – 50 Pack
View brushes (50)
Zipped File Size: 29.1 MB
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop CC 2015
* Warning: this isn’t strictly a line brush set. It’s a general set that includes only a few line brushes.
This set was created by Robert Marzullo (Ram Studios Comics). It includes Rock Textures, Dirt Brushes, Tree Bark, Puffy Clouds, Hex Brushes, Skin Brushes, Stars, Mountains, Foliage, and Sparkles. But most importantly – it also includes line brushes.
Robert explains everything about this pack in the video below. He starts by explaining the line brushes.
I’ve decided to include this general set; personally, I find it quite useful. Robert also created another pack strictly dedicated to comic inking brushes. I mentioned it as a separate listing below.
15. RAM – Photoshop CC Comic Inking Brushes – 25 Pack
View brushes (25)
Zipped File Size: 9.24
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop CC 2015
Robert also provides us with his comic brushes, but compared to other sets listed here, Robert focused here on creating texture brushes suitable for painting comic backgrounds. So, you will find here brushes with cross-hatching effects, bricks, hair texture, stipple shading, bullet holes, and more. Watch the showcase recorded by Robert to learn more:
*PS. If you are interested in video tutorials about drawing, check out Robert’s Youtube channel: @RobertMarzullo
16. Outline brushes
View brushes (18)
Zipped File Size: 36.8 MB
File Types Included: .ABR, .JPG, .PDF
Software compatibility: Photoshop
I found “outline brushes” pack while doing my research, and decided to add it to the list. It’s great for lettering, but might be useful for your other projects.
The “outline brushes” consists of 12 round tip outline brushes, 6 extra brushes and 14 worksheets.
This pack was created by Snooze One, a lettering artist, you can check out his other brushes and artworks on his website: snoozeone.com
17. Graphite Pencil Photoshop Brushes [FREE]
View brushes (6)
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
I was lucky to find another free set, this time on Behance. The brushes were created by Onur Cem, who tried to imitate graphic pencils. There are 6 brushes in the pack, and they differ in texture and brightness.
This pack is free for personal & commercial use.
18. Manga Brush Pack for Photoshop
View brushes (49+)
File Types Included: .ABR
Software compatibility: Photoshop
A starter pack for those who want to draw digital manga/webcomic. You will find here brushes for sketching, inking, and dot & lines patterns for backgrounds. It is not a must-have pack, but I think it could be useful for some of you (especially the beginners), I added it mainly because of the dot & lines patterns, typical for manga.
19. Comic Ink Brush Tool Presets for Photoshop CS5 + (CC)
View brushes (145)
Software compatibility: Photoshop
Aaan another pack I already mentioned in my other list. I can’t write this list without including this pack as it has great brushes for inking, as well as for adding textures/drawing backgrounds. It imitates different drawing tools, like pens and various brushes. There are 145 brushes in total.
*For PC and Mac desktop version of Photoshop CS5 and later. If you’ve got CC on a desktop computer–you can load ’em. Note: This .tpl file does not work with tablets or laptops that cannot run the full desktop version of Photoshop
HAIR brushes for Procreate [Free and Premium]
MARKER brushes for Procreate [Free and Premium]
