High-quality free Photoshop brushes are everywhere online, offering useful creative tools that can help you create outstanding digital art more quickly and efficiently. But quantity doesn't always mean quality, and finding the right brushes for your work can mean a long traipse around the internet and a lot of trial and error. To make things easier, we've rounded up the best free Photoshop brushes we've seen online in one mammoth list to save you from having to scour numerous sites.
Photoshop already comes with a decent set of brushes pre-installed, of course, but that's only a small taster of what can be created, so it's a good idea to explore third-party Photoshop brushes to expand your toolset and allow you to create more effects more quickly.
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Our list below includes free Photoshop brushes for a huge range of applications. Searching for brushes that evoke the feel of traditional media, such as pencil or watercolours? Aiming to replicate the texture of specific elements like grass or water? Want to push the boundaries with experimental grunge effects? Whatever effect you're looking for, you're sure to find a brush that fits your needs in this comprehensive list. Just remember to make sure you check the licence terms for each one carefully to make sure you don't use a brush illegally.
Need some help getting started with Photoshop? See how to download Photoshop and check out our list of top Photoshop tutorials. Meanwhile, if you're still not settled on what software to use, see our list of the best Photoshop alternatives. And if you're looking for brushes, you might also want to see our list of Illustrator brushes.
Free Photoshop brushes for painting
01. Canvas brushes collection
- Designer: Radical Madder
- Usage: free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
This is a small but useful collection of free Photoshop brushes. The eight brush options offer a realistic pencil, pastel or charcoal on canvas look. Options range from regular canvas to streaky and uneven supports for a range of effects.
02. Digital oil painting brushes
- Designer: Martina Palazzese
- Usage: Free for personal use
- Download here
These beautiful brushes will enable you to create high-resolution oil paintings in Photoshop. A range of gorgeous textures treats you to an authentic look and a stunning result. Free for personal use only.
03. Animation and illustration brushes
- Designer: Mateusz Urbanowicz
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use but please link to original download
- Download here
This brilliant set of free Photoshop brushes was created by Mateusz Urbanowicz based on the ones he uses for animation background and illustration painting. They emulate the way traditional animation backgrounds are painted, layering opaque poster colour paints with not-so-sharp brush strokes. They work best on larger canvas size files such as Full HD files. The set is free for personal and commercial use, but Mateusz asks that you link your artwork back to the original download if possible.
04. Concept art brushes
- Designer: Jeremy Fenske
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Jeremy Fenske is a concept and visual development artist working in Los Angeles. As well as sharing this set of Photoshop brushes for free, he's also included a 35-minute video explaining how he uses them. Check it out for some helpful tips.
05. Painting textures
- Designer: Obsidian Dawn
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use but see terms
- Download here
These Photoshop brushes are actually textures, meaning you can create some interesting effects that are...well... textured. They're great for backgrounds and for experimentation in general. Check the terms for all uses as you'll need to credit the artist. But if you can't provide credit, a commercial licence is just $3.
06. Abstract painting
- Designer: Darrian Lynx
- Usage: Free for non-commercial use
- Download here
This abstract paintbrush set offers a good range of options to explore. Many of them are perfect for creating a bright, messy, modern paint effect. This brush set is free for non-commercial use only.
07. Wavenwater Photoshop brushes
- Designer: Michael Guimont
- Usage: Free for personal use (contact artist for commercial licence)
- Download here
freelance concept artist and illustrator Michael Guimont put together this comprehensive set of Wavenwater Photoshop brushes based on his own personal collection of brushes and tool presets. We haven't counted exactly how many brushes are included in this set, but we can say there are certainly lots of options here that can add serious flair to your artwork.
08. Sakimichan Photoshop brushes
- Designer: Sakimichan
- Usage: Free for commercial and personal use
- Download here
Deviant Art member sakimichan has made 56 of her favourite custom Photoshop brushes for painting available to download for free in this big bundle. She recommends painting at 70-100 percent opacity with the pressure option on, and says that the brushes are already set up for this.
09. Digital painting Photoshop brushes
- Designer: Aaron Griffin
- Usage: Free for commercial and personal use
- Download here
Aaron Griffin is a self-taught illustrator and concept artist who's especially known for his figure paintings (his work has even graced the cover of our sister magazine ImagineFX). He's generously offering up the Photoshop brushes he uses to create his digital paintings, free of charge.
10. Thick acrylic paint strokes
- Designer: Creative Nerds
- Usage: Free for commercial and personal use
- Download here
The second instalment of a series of popular free Photoshop brushes from Creative Nerds, Thick Acrylic Paint Strokes Volume 2 allows you to quickly add an authentic paint effect to your illustrations. The brushes are free for both personal and commercial work, but you're not permitted to redistribute or modify them for resale.
11. Dry brush strokes for Photoshop
- Designer: Chris Spooner
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Dry Brush Strokes is a fantastic set of 12 free Photoshop brushes from Chris Spooner. These high-resolution dry brushes are superbly detailed, bristly and texture-rich. Featuring wispy lines and detailed edges, they're perfect for roughing up your artwork or distressing its edges.
12. Flower brushes
- Designer: Milka
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
The artist Milka, aka Oxana Kuznetsova, is behind this beautiful botanical collection. It consists of 15 high-quality Photoshop brushes, inspired by roses, lilacs, dandelions and other flowers. It's perfect for stationery, packaging, printouts or other floral designs.
13. Dry brushes
- Artist: Kirk Wallace
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Artist Kirk Wallace created these Dry Brush Photoshop brushes at home using ink and paper. Perfect for creating rough, harsh textures, they're also dynamic – you can click and drag to span larger areas without getting an ugly repeat effect, or you can paint with them.
14. Spray paint
- Designer: Creative Nerds
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Creative Nerds is offering this spray paint effect Photoshop brush set to subscribers (it's free to subscribe). The pack includes four high-res brushes (2500px each) that you can use to add a distressed effect to your paintings.
15. Speedpainting set
- Artist: Darek Zabrocki
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Concept artist Darek Zabrocki has worked on some major projects in the fantasy art world, including Assassin's Creed, Magic: The Gathering and Halo Wars 2. He's offering the set of Photoshop brushes he uses for his speed paintings as a free download.
16. Deharme traditional painting set – sample
- Designer: Bastien Lecouffe Deharme
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
This is only a sample of Lecouffe Deharme's full set of traditional painting brushes for Photoshop, but it provides a range of options, including oil, paint, charcoal and smudge brushes. If you like the sample, the full set of textured dynamic brushes is available on the designer's website for $6.
Watercolour Photoshop brushes
17. Watercolour brushes #2
- Designer: Snezhana Switzer
- Usage: Free for personal use
- Download here
This extensive pack of watercolour Photoshop brushes comes from Snezhana Switzer. It contains 40 Photoshop brushes, which all serve to mimick watercolours in digital paintings.
18. Furry watercolour Photoshop brush
- Designer: Heygrey
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
If you want to create a soft, hazy aesthetic, try this free furry watercolour Photoshop brush from Heygrey. It's described as a 'furry watercolour brush', and the creator suggests using it to create hazy backgrounds. We're especially impressed with the realistic watercolour effect achieved here.
19. Watercolour Photoshop brush: spray
- Designer: Creative Nerds
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
This Photoshop brush is handy for creating a large-scale watercolour spray effect in your artwork. It generates an impressively authentic effect, which you can apply to your own digital paintings with ease. Its creator says this brush was a pleasure to create.
20. Watercolour splatter
- Designer: pstutorialsws
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
These watercolour splatters were created with the help of professional-quality watercolour paint on cold press watercolour paper. There are 32 high-res Photoshop bushes in the pack, and you can download the lot for free.
Pen, ink, charcoal and pencil Photoshop brushes
21. Illustration brush set
- Designer: Matt Heath
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
This set of free Photoshop brushes was created by designer Matt Heath using an 8B Staedtler pencil and custom settings, creating a natural feel and wide variety of textures. These are available from Heath's Gumroad page – simply enter $0 to get them for free. Donations are appreciated, of course, and if you like these, you can get a huge set of art brushes from Heath here.
22. Ink brushes
- Designer: Brittney Murphy
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
This set from designer Brittney Murphy contains a whopping 192 ink Photoshop brushes. You'll find big slabs, thin strokes, ink splotches and everything in between here. Murphy generously offers these brushes for free, with no attribution necessary, as long as they're not redistributed.
23. Pencil Photoshop brush
- Designer: Andantonius
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Create the effect of a soft pencil sketch without getting your hands and paper dirty with smudged lead. This pencil-effect Photoshop brush is one of the most realistic we've seen, and you can download it for free from DeviantArt, courtesy of professional digital artist Andantonius, aka Jon Neimeister.
24. Realistic charcoal Photoshop brush
- Designer: WojtekFus
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Charcoal's an essential part of any artist's toolkit, but it's undoubtedly the messiest as well. With this excellent charcoal brush set, you can get those soft charcoal lines without getting charcoal all over your hands and everything else.
25. Real markers
- Designer: Eilert Janßen
- Usage: Free for personal and commercial use
- Download here
Perfect for fashion illustrations, industrial design and storyboarding, this set of 12 free real marker brushes from Eilert Janßen enables you to create lively imagery that looks like it's been sketched with marker pens. If you like what you see, you can buy more of Janßen's brushes on his website.
Next page: Natural brushes
