35 free Photoshop brushes every creative must have!

The web is absolutely full of free Photoshop brushes; there are thousands of sites offering free brushes just a click away, but this makes it incredibly difficult to find good quality, free brushes. To save you some time, we've rounded up 35 of our favourite sets that every designer should have!

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Photoshop brushes are a fantastic time-saver as they allow you to quickly create rich artwork without having to draw all the individual design elements. There's a huge spectrum of brushes available ranging from leaf designs to grungy textures, clouds to typography. While Photoshop CS6 does ship with a set of brushes pre-installed, these only scratch the surface of what's possible with the brush engine, so grab the free downloads below and start adding superb design flourishes to your work!

• For more Photoshop advice, check out 101 Photoshop tips, tricks and fixes to try today

01. Paint Lines

These 24 very high resolution brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, providing lots of options within the pack.

• Limitations: none

02. Sponge Party

Some beautiful textures make up this collection of eight high quality brushes, including some excellent sponge brush marks, great for adding timbre to collage work.

• Limitations: none

03. Coffee Stain Brushes

Some excellent stain marks that would pass equally well for daubs of ink as much as coffee or tea. These brushes add a nice degree of life-wear to your images, instantly aging them.

• Limitations: none

04. Gradient Shapes

A nice set of simple swishes that incorporate gradient colours to provide a modern, soft-edged finesse to any graphic design project.

• Limitations: Free for personal and commercial use

05. My Heart Brushes

These 18 love heart themed brushes have a nice real media feel that sets these apart from some of the alternatives available on the web.

• Limitations: none

06. Smoke Brush Set

A great collection of smoke art from Graham Jeffery, saved as 21 different brushes.

• Limitations: Non-commercial

07. Vintage Wooden Brush

This simple brush offered by Creative Nerds brings a wonderful, rich flaking wood texture to your brush arsenal.

• Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

08. Hi-Res Clouds

This is a really useful set of 17 brushes, each of which features a different cloud design that can easily be used to add interest to your images

• Limitations: None

09. 3D Halftone

A really nice set of halftone images arranged in 3D with perspective to create interesting patterns that add depth to designs

• Limitations: Non-commercial

10. Dust Particle Brushes

A really useful set of dust particle brushes from WeGraphics that add instant dirt and richness.

• Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

11. Dried Blood Splatters

A full 117 brushes, each featuring a different dried blood effect. Great for creating blood effects, but also worthwhile for paint simulation.

• Limitations: None

12. Scorched and burned

Another great set of brushes from WeGraphics that feature realistic scorch and burn effects in 10 different designs.

• Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

13. Funky Paisley Brushes

A rich set of brushes each featuring a paisley design element. Also includes the original PNG files the designer used to create the brushes.

• Limitations: Non-Commercial Use

14. Grass and Plant Brushes

10 different brushes each featuring different grass and plant designs and ranging in size from 500px to 2500px.

• Limitations: Attribution under some circumstances

15. Ornamental Butterflies 2

A beautiful set of butterflies and plant-based ornaments that can add a sophisticated touch to corners and borders.

• Limitations: None

16. Antique Postcards

This wonderful collection of six antique postcard designs provides an excellent background for further design work. Each card brush features text and a delightful patina.

• Limitations: None

17. Moon Brushes

This excellent set provides 10 different phases of the moon in brush format!

• Limitations: None

18. 7 High Resolution Leaf Brushes

Great for creating organic textured background, this set features seven isolated leaf images with intricate details and textures.

• Limitations: None

19. Fractal Brushes

An excellent selection of fractal-based brushes that look futuristic - great for web design.

• Limitations: None

20. Fractal V Brushes

This pack of six brushes contains some lovely organic shapes.

• Limitations: Some usage/distribution restricted

21. Hi-Res Photoshop Hair Brushes

An excellent set of isolated hair styles rendered as silhouettes.

• Limitations: None

22. Dynamic Light Special FX Brushes

Create special lighting effects by using these brushes in combination with layer blending modes such as screen or vivid light.

• Limitations: None

23. Night Sky Brushes

This set of brushes includes 13 different night sky elements including space dust, stars and moons.

• Limitations: None

24. AP Brushes: Scar Face

Ideal if you want to introduce some scarring to portraits or simply generate beautifully textured background elements.

• Limitations: None

25. VectorPack Brushes

A nice range of circular brushes that are clean and modern.

• Limitations: None

26. Hair Brushes Set 1

Great for providing touch-up on model photography, this set includes detailed textured hair in a variety of falling styles.

• Limitations: Attribution necessary under some cirumstances

27. Sparkle Brush

A nice and simple brush that adds a sprinkle of diffused light orbs to bring a Disney-esque magic sparkle to your work.

• Limitations: None

28. Tree Borders Brushes

A nice set of brushes that allow you to introduce tree and bush silhouettes to the edge of your composition.

• Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

29. GreenPack Random Brushes

Four green-themed brushes - mainly worth the download for the excellent tree illustration that's included!

• Limitations: None

30. Water Brushes Vol. 2

12 large brushes that include splashes, ripples and water drops. An excellent set for backgrounds as well as foreground design elements.

• Limitations: None

31. Grunge and Smooth Floral Brushes

A great set of mixed media brushes along a grunge and floral theme.

• Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

32. Five Simple Fabric Brushes

Straightforward fabric textures, great for backgrounds in both print and web designs as they're high resolution.

• Limitations: None

33. Grunge2012

A great set of 25 grunge brushes with some excellent textures for adding detail to your work.

• Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

34. Floral Swirls

Useful set of floral swirl brushes ideal for building up rich borders and textures in both print and web designs.

• Limitations: None

35. World Map Brushes

A beautiful map in 12 brushes that feature the work of 16th Century cartographer Marin Waldeemuller.

• Limitations: None

Words: Sam Hampton-Smith

Now read:

• 101 Photoshop tutorials
• 20 best Photoshop plugins
• Download 40 free textures
• The 40 best free fonts for designers

That's all for now! Have you seen any useful Photoshop brushes? Tell us in the comments!