The Ultimate List of Free Digital Painting Brushes
Hi guys! I’ve been searching the internet for some digital painting brushes that will imitate the traditional brushes – and other tools used in traditional art. I managed to find really great brushes that nowadays are the main set in my “brush palette”.
Check them out and download your favorite brushes!
In this article, I gathered awesome brushes that can be used in Photoshop. But in the future, I’m going to create similar lists to other graphic software.
As a student, I didn’t have any money, so my obvious choice was to search for free brushes published by the creators (mostly on DeviantArt) with permission for free use.
My main goal was to gather some nice tools that will allow me to create digital paintings imitating the visual effect of traditional paintings – you know, the texture of paper and canvas, the visible use of a bristle brush… that was something I couldn’t achieve easily with the use of Photoshop’s default brushes. The brushes are free to use, but if you plan to use them for your commercial projects, I recommend to contact the artist first, to have a clear situation.
List of free digital painting brushes
Below you can find a list of free digital brushes for Photoshop used by professional illustrators/concept artists.
Maciej Kuciara digital brushes
Download Maciej Kuciara brushes
Artist: Maciej Kuciara | visit Maciej’s website
Maciej Kuciara is one of my idols and people I look up to. His skills, and especially his background made me realize that no matter what are your obstacles – if you are really passionate about things that you do and work hard to achieve your goals, you can do this.
He worked as a concept artist for such projects like: The Last of Us, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ghost in the Shell.
I was hyper happy when I found out that Maciej published his set of brushes for free download. Here’s Maciej’s comment on brushes:
Here’s a full set of brushes I use, used or might use in my works, most of it I gathered over last few years. Some of the brushes you’ll find in this set I’ve adopted from other artist sets, including: Jaime Jones, Mathias Verhasselt, Danny LuVisi, Shaddy Safadi and more. Feel free to do whatever you like with them, I feel like it’s one of few ways I can contribute to our artists community.
Darek Zabrocki’s digital brushes
Download Darek Zabrocki’s digital brushes
Artist: Darek Zabrocki | visit Darek Zabrocki’s website
Darek Zabrocki in a professional concept artist from Gdansk, Poland. He worked in such project as NEED FOR SPEED (2020), WITCHER 3 WILD HUNT: BLOOD & WINE, ASSASSIN’S CREED: SYNDICATE and many other projects.
Noah Bradley’s digital brushes
Download Noah Bradley digital brushes
Artist: Noah Bradley | visit Noah Bradley’s website
Noah Bradley is an illustrator and a founder of “Art Camp”- an online art course. Noah Bradley worked on such projects as The Sin of Man, and created an illustration for Magic: The Gathering
Loish’ digital brushes
Download Loish’ digital brushes
Artist: Loish | visit Loish’ website
Grzegorz Rutkowski Photoshop Brushes
Download Grzegorz Rutkowski’s Digital brushes
Download Grzegorz Rutkowski’s digital brushes
Artist: Grzegorz Rutkowski | visit Grzegorz Rutowski’s website
AaronGriffinArt digital brushes
Download AaronGriffin’s digital brushes
Artist: AaronGriffin | visit AaronGriffin’s website
Sakimichan digital brushes
Download Sakimichan’s digital brushes
Artist: Sakimichan | visit Sakimichan’s website
Jonas De Ro’s digital brushes
Download Jonas Ro’s digital brushes
Artist: Jonas De Ro | visit Jonas De Ro’s website
Houston Sharp’s digital brushes
Download Jonas Ro’s digital brushes
Artist: Houston Sharp | visit Houston Sharp’s website
Mac Smith’s digital brushes
Download Mac Smith’s digital brushes
Artist: Mac Smith | visit Mac Smith’s website
Wangjie Li digital Brushes
Download Wangije Li’s digital brushes
Artist: Wangije Li | visit Wangije Li’s website
Rafał Górniak aka Rav89’s digital brushes
Download Rav89’s digital brushes
Artist: Rafał Górniak aka RaV89 | visit Rafał Górniak’s website
Michael Guimont aka Wavenwater’s digital brushes
Download Wavenwater’s digital brushes
Artist: Michael Guimont | visit Michael Guimont’s website
Przemysław aka Env1ro digital brushes
Download Env1ro digital brushes
Artist: Env1ro | visit Env1ro’s website
Przemysław aka Env1ro has created many amazing brushes which you can find on his Deviantart’s page.
If you like his work, you can donate a few dollars:
Please donate via Paypal using p.szczepanski@gmail.com email. I will be really appreciated!
PaintLines contains 24 HQ brushes (resolution about 2500px) brushes compatible with PS 7 and up!
LilithDemoness digital brushes
Download LilithDemoness’ digital brushes
Artist: LilithDemoness | visit LilithDemoness’ website
Sites – here you can find other free digital painting brushes
How to Install & Use Photoshop Brushes
Oprócz możliwości korzystania z podstawowych zestawów pędzli, kształtów, wzorów czy innych dodatków, możesz zainstalować również własne, pobrane, np. z Internetu.
There are several ways to import brushes to Photoshop – it may vary depending on which version of Photoshop do you use. Follow the step below to import your brushes.
- How to import Photoshop Brushes
- Download the brushes. If it’s a zip file, unpack it first.
- Go to Window ->Brush presets (You can also open the Brushes panel flyout menu)
- Click the
icon (or the 
icon in you are using the brushes panel the flyout menu) to see more options - Select Load Brushes… option
- A new window will pop-up. Locate your brushes and select them.
- Click Load
- Your new brushes are now added to the Brush Presets window (you can find them at the end of the list).
- Enjoy your new brushes!
Often asked questions about digital brushes
How do you get Photoshop brushes?
With the installation of Photoshop, you automatically get also a set of default brushes which you can use for free. You can also import new brushes – the ones created for free by artists or purchase a pack of professional brushes.
All you need to do is to download them and follow the steps from “How to Install & Use Photoshop Brushes” part of the article.
You can also create your own brushes. To learn how to create a digital brush in photoshop visit this article: How to create a brush in Photoshop
What brushes to use in Photoshop?
It depends on what project are you working. The most commonly used brush is the round brush (from the Photoshop default set basic brushes). You can easily modify it to fit your needs in the Brush settings
For more sophisticated effect, use the Dry media, Thick Heavy and wet media brushes set – they imitate the traditional painting media. That are free brush sets in Photoshop to which you should have an access.
Where do I download photoshop brushes?
There are various sites on the internet where you can download brushed for free. One of the largest sites with such resources is Deviantart – you can check out digital brushes on Deviantart here.
Please go to the Sites – here you can find other free digital painting brushes part, to see more sites.
Where do I find brush presets in Photoshop?
Brush presets is an option in Photoshop, where you can view your actual brushes. To open Brush presets, go to the Window and select brush presets.
Final thoughts
Remember, it’s not the brush that matters it’s what you do with it!
Do you know any awesome brushes that should be listed here? Let me know in the comments!
FUR brushes for PROCREATE [Free and Premium]
How to create a brush in Photoshop
Hello Anna,
while scrolling through this blog I read your little introduction and I just wanna say that you don’t have to apologize for bad grammar. Even my English sucks but who cares? Languages are meant for communication purposes nothing more nothing less. You are doing a great job with this blog, really appreciate your efforts.
Hi Vikrant!
Thank you so much for your comment, it means a lot to me! I’m still attending English language classes and watch lots of TV series in the English language (yesterday I finished watching the entire “The Office” series). Looking back at some of my older posts, I can see how much my English has improved 🙂
You are right about the communication, my friend took in a few Ukrainian refugees, they communicate in polish/ukrainian languages (they are from the same language group, therefore mutually understandable on a very very basic level), in some cases they use google translate or english words and are doing just fine! They don’t need proper grammar to understand each other 🙂
Hi Anna,
Thank you for your thorough research and post, it is greatly appreciated. The about the brush creators section is great. No excuses now I guess. The ‘how to import brushes to photoshop’ for those who don’t want to google is just the cherry on top. I found some awesome brushes here! To be honest maybe too many awesome brushes. It’s just sooo much. I just wanted to let everybody reading this post know, that you can import these to PROCREATE as well. Except maybe Noa Bradley’s since it’s a toolset, not a brush set, but I am still working on it. I am not sure when they introduced this feature or even if it was always in procreate. My point is, to download them, unzip them on iPad (built-in function since 2019) either just click on them and procreate will do the rest, or at the brushes, click new and import, selecting the set you want to use.
Thank you Anna again, you are a champ!