Looking to start a career in digital arts or pretty much established? There’s a free software that should be part and parcel of your toolkit. Its name is Krita.
Krita is a free and open source software that has fast performance and extensive features making it a favorite for concept designers, illustrators, 2D artists, 3D artists and visual effects creators alike.
A trusted and safe haven for all digital artists. The user experience of this software is off the chain and boasts of a combination of pen buttons, icon-based HUD and keyboard modifiers to ensure all mostly used function are accessible in fewer clicks. It’s core layer and mask features span across multiple level layer groups, select multiple layers, drag and drop layers and layer highlighting.
Don’t still understand how powerful this free software is? Let’s take a deep dive into the world of Brush packs on Krita. Whether you’re a newbie in the world of digital arts or a pro.
Before we start with the list, if you are interested in learning about different techniques and painting methods in Krita, don´t forget to check my article on “The Best 24 Free Krita Tutorials Online”. Also, don´t forget to check my “Krita vs Gimp comparison” article.
By the way, I´m sure my Recommended Art Supplies and Gear page will be very useful to you if you are searching for honest reviews on digital tablets, pens, and art supplies in general.
Now let´s continue, with the list of the top 25 brushes and brush kits for Krita you should totally try out and they’re totally FREE:
1. Krita Cheat Brush Pack Heads
This brush kit created by Marts-Art is a great toolkit for digital artists who are just starting out to learn and for the intermediate digital artist to speed up their work. The entire collection features simplified angles of 15 heads.
It has become quite known, that one of the most complex aspects of drawing is drawing the head and getting its features like the nose, mouth,
You can learn more of the capabilities of these brushes on YouTube.
2. Minimalist Brush Pack
Created by Aliciane out of a growing need to help others just trying out the Krita Software for the first time. The updated version of the Minimalist brush pack features the pencil brush, flat wet brush, opaque brush, airbrush, move tool, blur tool, smudge tool and two additional brushes to take your digital artwork to sky-high level.
It’s a great way to improve your blending and coloring. She even ranks Krita as the best open source digital painting program that she has used. Just so you know you are in great hands. Looking for an easier way to download the Minimalistic brush pack? You can download through Google Drive here.
3. Krita Brushkit Version8.2
In this brush kit, you get a whopping 64 brushes. Isn’t that amazing? This brush kit was created by artist, David. From 2011 till date, he has created brush kits and constantly shared them for free over the years. What I also love most about this brush kit is he took the time to explain the functions of each brush, making it easy for users to choose the right tool for their art process.
David is a digital artist who is a staunch supporter of the open source community. He also has a webcomic known as Pepper & Carrot. You can learn and view more of his work on Patreon.
4. Charcoal Pencils
David Revoy makes another debut on this list with this amazing brush kit inspired by charcoal pencils, colored pencils, and pencils. With brushes you could either choose a medium or light stroke based on what you aim to achieve with your drawing. Another awe-inspiring thing to note is you’re not limited to the colour black for your pencil, you can use any colour that you want to as your charcoal pencil brush tool.
To get your hands on this great brush kit, visit this link. You can also watch a very explanatory video on the tool kit, its use and how to use them on YouTube.
5. Krita Modular Brushes Version 4
A painters’ dream. This brush set was born out of the need to explore the possibilities of Kritas Brush engine by Vasco Basque.
It comes pre-loaded with 122 presets, tilt sensor support and works fantastic with Krita 2.8.
His goal for releasing this tool is to give you the perfect tools to help bring your imagination to a canvas without any sort of limitations.
If you another version other than Krita 2.8, there’s a new version of the brush sets now available for download on Krita 2.9. Get the Modular Brush set V5.0 here.
6. Krita Watercolor Set V1.01
One of the best brush sets out there to create stunning watercolor paintings. These sets of brushes were created by Vasco Basque to help digital artists master the art of using simulated watercolors on projects.
His basic idea behind the presets is to control the diffusion of water by pressure with scattering and rotation settings merged with opacity and color change rate. He goes on to state that the basic formula is ‘more pressure – more scatter, less opacity.
Download this brush kit for free on DeviantArt.
7. Comic Page From A to Z Using Krita
A very in-depth video tutorial by David Revoy on how to make a comic page using the Krita software. It’s also a great way to learn how to use Krita when starting out as a newbie user.
His French accent while teaching makes the video a joy to watch as he explains every step in the most basic form possible.
You can find a zip pack with all the tools mentioned in the video for free here.
8. Floral Brushes
If you are a lover of flowers, then this a great resource for you. This free brush kit created by Jshinncreative consists of new floral brushes to help you in creating your next visual floral work design.
You can find the link to download at the top right corner of the page.
Jonathan,
Don´t forget to check my article on The Best 24 Free Krita Tutorials, so you can learn the bist painting tips and techniques for Krita.
9. Hair Brushes & Smudge Brushes
Created by a digital artist known as Motokazu Kawai. The smudge brushes give the feeling of a comb in your digital artwork.
It’s the right tool kit for drawing the hair of a male or female with all the effects you would get in a real life.
You can download the hair and smudge brushes on this page. It comes with a detailed write up on how to properly install the brushes on Krita.
10. Material Brushes
The perfect brush kit for creating magical special effects in your painting. The Material Brushes was created and assembled by visual artist, Jshinncreative. He also used presets from a Krita Developer named Wolthera.
11. Krita Comics and Cartooning Bundle
This brush set was developed by Saeger Ryman. It’s a great toolkit for cartoon and comics creators. The kit was uniquely designed for 300dpi and includes emulations of typical cartoonist tools. You can get the brush kit here.
Saegey is a digital artist and hobbyist based in the United States. His work places a focus on drawing and painting Japanese manga characters.
12. My Paint Leaf Brush
Digital artist, Taleclock creates a unique custom brush for painting leafs. This brush was created using my My Paint and gives a very outstanding finish when it comes to the art of leaves.
You can view more of his celestial work amongst other things as a visual artist on Tumblr.
13. RZV Krita BrushKit
This is the newly upgraded version of the brush kit was created by Razcore for Krita Version 4.0. According to him, creating this brush set was inspired by the speed tutorials on software like Corel Draw and Photoshop made by artists like Sinix, Atey Ghalian, The Art of Aaron Blaise Simon Stale, Sergey Kolesov and Marco Bucci.
Get your RZV Brushkit here.
14. Acryl Brushset
This toolkit comes pre-loaded with a set of seven acrylic brushes for you to use. Created by Vasco Basque yet again, these brush sets come in handy for creating great effects on your painting.
You can download the Acryl Brushes here.
15. Custom Grass Brushes
Racking your brain on how to get the perfect grass scenery has now become a thing of the past. Thanks to this amazing custom grass brush set created by xGreatCthulhux.
It’s the perfect way to capture landscape looks and nature as a whole using the Krita Software for your digital painting.
Have a sneak peek of a painting where the custom grass brush was used here.
If you don´t did it yet, remember to don´t forget to check my article on The Best 24 Free Krita Tutorials, so you can learn the bist painting tips and techniques for Krita.
16. Hushcoil 2018 Brushes
An exciting collection of 280 brushes for you to work with and choose from. This brush kit provides a range of uses for basic drawing, sketching, drawing and more detailed work.
It goes further to bundle the brushes in 4 packs based on the genre which consists of Concept, Paintbrush, Basic, Pen,
You can download as individual packs using this link.
They go further to note were designed to work in high-resolution canvases and also state that you should restart Krita upon installation of the brushes.
17. Krita Mix Brushes Bundle
A miniset of paint brushes for Krita Software 2.9. I particular love the various dimensions of coat of painting you can achieve with these brushes. You can either decide to use the blend and paint for background colors, enhance main silhouettes with the opaque brush and ‘wet blend only’ t break noisy edges. With other sets of brushes in the toolkit you are sure to find something that suits your current needs.
You can find a detailed breakdown on how to install the brushes on Krita and also download the brush sets here.
Also, learn more of David Revoy’s work on Patreon.
18. Basic Pencils by JshinnCreative
Achieving fine detail in your drawings now at your finger tips. The Basic Pencils Bruhkit created by digital art professional Jshinncreative is sure to bring out the intricate beauty in your work.
You can download the Basic Pencils Brushkit here. Take a look at more work done by Jshinncreative on DeviantArt.
19. 21 Brushes by BaukjeSpirit
The cool thing about this set of 21 brushes is that they can be used on Krita, Adobe Photoshop and GIMP. Make the perfect arches in your drawings with these bad boys and have us to thank for it.
You can view a speed painting done by BaukjeSpirit using this same brush kit here. Something beyond phenomenal.
20. Brush Preset Duo Bundle
Visual artist, David Revoy developed this small bundle brushes while working on the episodes of Pepper & Carrot, his webcomic.
You can download this great brush set here. Make sure to read through the installation instructions on the page before download to ensure it’s done the right way.
Watch a short tutorial on the functions of each brush and how they work on YouTube.
21. Jackpack Krita
This brush kit would come in great use to draw, paint, using ink, water and creating any special design in your art. Most of these brushes will work outside Krita v4.0 and some are also ink brushes that were created for the sake of speed in drawing and painting. As such, will work in symmetry mode and non-symmetry mode depending on the choice of brush you make.
Absolutely free, download the brush bundle here.
22. Brushes Preset Pack Version 2
Comic creators are in for a treat with this toolkit of brushes. Coming in a pack of 2 with a total of 36 brushes, you have a wide array of brushes to choose from.
The first pack is the Art pen and the second is named the Generic Pen. There are also three new tools to be on the lookout for in this toolkit. They are the Aboriginal Dots, Ink Power Rectangle and Clone Tool.
Find also that the basic brushes have a greater blending mode that gives better results when a stroke overlaps a stroke.
Created by Camille Bissuel, download the brush kit for free here. Take note of the installation guidelines on the same page.
Learn more about Camille’s work.
23. Aldys Brush Pack
This brush pack was specifically created for Krita 2.3.1 and as such may not work on other recent versions of the software. No worries though, taking a look at the work Alvaro the creator of the brush tool. You’ll have a million reasons why you have to download this toolkit.
View some of Alvaro’s work and download the brush kit for your use on DeviantArt.
24. Brush Pack by Raghukamath
This is the second updated release of this brush kit to better take advantage of the new parameter feature on Krita known as ratio. The brushes create a very unique stroke and bring a new look to your illustrations and painting on the Krita software.
You can download the brush pack for free here.
Raghavendra Kamath also known as Raghukamath is an Indian illustrator designer based in the city of Mumbai. To get more knowledge on his work, visit his website.
25. Modular Brush set by Vasco Basque
Twice the charm. This brush kit is worthy of mention yet again just because of how remarkable it is.
Here are some cool features of the brushes and why they are an absolute must try. First, this is a wonderful brush set and the digital art community can attest to it. Secondly, there is also another upgraded version of the software known as Modular Version 5.0 for Krita 2.9. Thirdly, taking a look at Vasco’s work, if you draw of nature-themed art, these brush kit is a must-have.
It’s amazing how much the community is looking to help out budding digital artists through giving back and also helping other visual illustrators be the best they can be. Take a look at each of the brush sets and find the ones you would love to try and use on your next project. If this article has helped you so much, don’t hesitate to share with others. Have massive fun painting!
