Adobe Illustrator comes with its own brushes to help illustrators add visual effects do their designs but they do not provide as much variety as you may like to have, You can also create stickers for Adobe Illustrator to make labels and cutouts of your artwork to add to your vector images in illustrations. Getting alternative brushes on Adobe Photoshop is quite easier than getting brushes on Illustrator (they are somewhat rare), which is why we made this comprehensive list containing 35 of the best brushes you absolutely can’t miss if you use Adobe Illustrator a lot or even if you are just about to start using the program, these brush packs will help you ease the process of creating unique and diverse designs.
1. Alien Adobe Illustrator Brush
You can create jagged lines and spirals with this brush sets that imitate the look of an alien. If you work with designs that involve video games, movies or posters depicting alien life forms then these brushes will help you create authentic and slimy(if you desire a slimy alien) look that fits perfectly into whatever design you are creating. The brush points allow you to make thick and thin alien lines so you can taper your designs and make them look like a torso or finger of an alien.
2. Pro Water Illustrator Brush
Illustrating water can be challenging for some designers but with the help of this brush pack, you will effortlessly include water and other liquids into your designs in a way that looks realistic and natural. The brushes allow you to create different sizes of water droplets or sprays of liquid and colors can be adjusted to suit different types of water or other liquids. The brushes were created using many photos of real liquids to get the look and shape of water and vector tracing soft are for a realistic finish. Use these brushes to create fliers or posters suitable for prints and digital copy.
The Vector brushes were designed to give you a variety of brushstroke intensity and point tips so you can create different sizes and textures of fonts and typography. The brushes have a very high resolution so the quality of your completed project will not be compromised and the overall design will still look professionally done. They add a truly unique element to each design that makes your work stand out and add an extra eye-catching spiciness to your illustrations.
4. Equal and Opposite: Paper Tooth line brushes
If you want your artwork to look like a design that has already been printed then you should definitely be using these brushes. They translate well into print and can also be used for web content as well. They give your fonts and typeset a jagged look that looks like the ink used in the brush strokes is seeping into the paper. There are four native Brush points in this set and they can each be adjusted to create strokes in whatever sizes you desire to create a dramatic effect.
Have you always wanted to recreate the texture of chalk on a chalkboard in your designs but lacked the know-how or time to create your own chalk brushes from scratch? If you have or even if you haven’t, chalk designs are pretty popular and any serious Illustrator ought to have chalk brushes in their collection of brushes. They can be used to make unique fonts that are crafty, stand out and look exactly like using chalk to write out words on board would. A lot of bars and eateries like to have the chalk effect on their menus and signposts or fliers and using these brushes will help you create the perfect designs for such clients.
6. 16 ‘Sketchy’ Illustrator Brushes
This pack of 16 sketchy Illustrator brushes is perfect for typography that looks like it was sketched by hand. They were created by scanning strokes of a permanent marker on paper and digitizing them. The brushes are of different styles and points so users can get a varying amount of thickness and sizes with the stroke of each brush. They are great for making marker inspired fonts and hand-lettered typography that will look great on fliers, journals, posters, and social media designs. These designs can also be replicated by using paintbrush strokes.
7. Illustrator Floral Art Brushes
The Illustrator Floral Art Brush Set contains a set of 19 watercolor brushes that are hand drawn and 6 scatter brushes. You can make all sorts of floral designs that look hand made by using this set of watercolor brushes. If you love to make colorful flowery designs with your illustrations, this brush set will help you achieve stunning projects that are suitable for print as well as web use. They have a very realistic look because each design was made with real watercolor brushes on paper and then digitized. You can change the shape of each brush so each design comes out looking unique and different and can be easily edited.
8. Marker Pen Brushes For Illustrator
Using these marker pen brushes to create borders or text in your illustrations make the design process so much easier and less time consuming than creating a look that resembles a marker on your own from scratch. The brush set has different brush styles and point sizes so you can have many sizes and thickness of marker strokes. Each stroke of the brush looks very much like a hand-drawn marker and they are also great for using in comics illustrations. You can use different pressures to create strokes that are perfect for a hand-lettered design.
9. Bamboo Pro Illustrator Brush 1
Recreate the look of real bamboo shoots when you use the Bamboo Pro Illustrator Brush. They can be used to create different fun fonts and typography in different colors of bamboo stalks. They can be twisted and curled to create different styles and shapes or even wrapped around your designs. The brush points allow you to create varying thicknesses and width of bamboo stalks so you have enough range to make as many designs as you want. The bamboo shoots can also be used to make unique backgrounds for your designs.
10. Child’s Play Crayons Illustrator Brush Set
The Childs Play Crayons Illustrator Brush Set contains 12 different styles of brushes that give you the look and texture of crayons. Each brush perfectly imitates the look of colored pencils and crayons as they were created by scanning the textures of real crayons. They have varying thickness and are pressure sensitive so they give you the look of hand drawn lines. These brushes will translate well for designs in children’s books or posters and fliers for schools or designs that require the unique look crayons have to offer.
11. Illustrator Grunge Brushes
The Illustrator Grunge Brushes set contains different styles of brushes that help you create a vintage and retro look with your designs. They can be used for various kinds of graphic design and give a rough and rugged look to your fonts and vectors. The brushes in this pack come in varying point sizes and styles so you can create different sizes and thickness of scratchy grunge brush strokes. They are perfect for making fonts, illustrating skulls, and other designs you want to have an aged feel.
The Perfetto Brush Font helps Illustrators create a font that is similar to handwriting. The dry brush strokes look very realistic as they were created by neatly drawing brush strokes on paper. These brushes are perfect for fonts on logos, social media posters, typography, and packaging for book covers and products. These font brushes have different ligatures for upper and lower case characters and include support for international languages.
13. Free Natural Line Illustrator Brushes
With this brush set, you will get a variety of mixed styles of vector brushes to make the process of drawing different types of lines much easier. If you need a brush set to help you create the hand-drawn effect and realistic looking sketches then you should download these brushes. The sketch effects you get with the brushes range from pencil type lines, chalk lines, marker effect lines, and so many other options. The varying sizes of brush tips make it easy for you to create thin as well as thick lines.
If you like to create some funky work and illustrations then the Sick Brush Kit 2 is part of your must-have brush sets. This version has some upgrades and includes the entire illustration from the creator to guide you on how they are used. There are also helpful instructions if you have trouble downloading and installing the brush set. The brush set includes 25 Illustrator brushes with different brush tips and styles that help you create different strokes from feather light strokes, swirly curls, to crawling vine patterns.
This brush set helps you replicate the look of a realistic crime scene tape in your designs. At some point, as an illustrator you will have a design that involves using the popular crime scene tape so having this brush in the back of your pocket will help make creating the design a lot easier. Avoid the stress of manually drawing the vectors by using this brush with its already customized style for danger tapes or do not cross police type lines.
The Beat Em Up Brush Set contains 10 different brush styles that can be used to create video game characters in your vector images. They’re called “fighter” brushes as they are perfect for drawing characters in-game posters and they are particularly favored for illustrating combat characters in games. The brushes can be used to shade, draw and outline the different parts of a characters body and surrounding scenery and make them look like they walked right out of a video game.
17. Telephone Cord Pattern Brush
For a decidedly different style of brush that creates patterns that replicate the design of the old home phone telephone cord, you should use this brush set. They help you make the curly design of a telephone cord and use them to create letters, borders, overlaying or text shape. They can be used to make digital and print copies of vector image designs for the telecoms industry or whoever desires to use the telephone cord effect in their graphics. You can adjust the thickness, colors, and size of the curly cords to complement your final design by changing the brushes settings.
This brush pack contains 25 hand painted rocks available for you to use in your illustrations. The rocks were painted without photo references so they look exactly like they were done by hand. If you are not going for a photo-realistic look with the rocks in your designs then go right ahead and use this brush pack. You can include some of your own rock designs so that it looks more differentiated and the design is unique to you.
19. Go Media 14 Free Scatter Brushes
Go Media created these 14 brushes and made them available for download and use by Illustrators to help create the “scatter” effect of things spreading out after an object is shattered. The process of creating this effect by hand can be time-consuming, monotonous and rather boring so these brushes were created to help ease that challenge. You can use them to create whatever sort of scattered effect for lettering and more in your designs and even dictate how much space is within each shard of broken pieces.
These brushes give you the ability to design illustrations with advanced sci-fi features like holograms and mechanical representations just like in video games or movies. If you create graphics with geometric shapes and signs for sci-fi related audiences go right ahead and download this set. They are also good for making borders and designs that depict mathematical calculations and other related illustrations. They are all high-quality brushes so they’ll perfectly complement your work.
21. Art Me Brushes For Adobe Illustrator
If you are looking to create an artsy design that has a bit of handcrafted inspiration then you need to get the Art Me Brushes for Adobe Illustrator. There are 26 brushes in this set that have different textures and colors, they make you feel like you have a digital collection of art supplies that you can trust to create beautiful illustrations. You can get brushes in metallic colors, watercolors, foil, pastel colors, oil, flat colors, and paint. You’ll have fun creating different designs with this brush set as you can adjust stroke weight to change the thickness of each stroke in your design.
DJonasse created a set of 20 grunge brushes in this set that give your lettering a scratched and aged look that closely resembles a vintage photo. The brush styles give you varying levels of thickness and patterns with each stroke when you adjust the stroke weight so you can create unique designs each time. Download and install this brush pack to add a grainy and retro vibe to silhouettes, backgrounds, and letters in your finished projects.
23. Antique Map Illustrations
Antique and old-timey fonts and illustrations still remain a favorite for many people in their designs. With the Antique Map Illustrations Brush pack containing 40 brushes that give your lettering a vintage and old school map typography, feel like you are using an actual ink pen to draw each letter. The maps letters were made by scanning lettering from maps from the 16th and 17th century gotten from the library of Congress digital repository so they have a truly authentic feel. The set included borders, animal illustrations, borders, and text details.
24. Baseball Thread – III Brush
Illustrators are constantly looking for new and interesting ways to create designs that are attention-grabbing and will remain in the minds of their audience, with these brushes you can create a truly unusual design that will make your poster, flier, graphics or whatever illustration you are making stand out. The threads give your typography the signature red seam look of a baseball thread. You can increase or decrease the size of the baseball threads to suit your design and create a piece that will resonate with baseball lovers everywhere.
25. FudgeGraphics Free Marker Pen Strokes Illustrator Brushes
This brush set contains a whopping 64 brushes in different styles. They are pen markers and scribble style brushes that can be used to create letters and typography that have a hand-drawn and natural look. The brushes are of high quality and resolution and your final project will maintain its high quality despite using these brushes in your design. You can adjust the stroke weight for each brush to get a differing level of thickness with the lines.
26. 8 Free Stipple Shading Brushes For Adobe Illustrator
Stippling is a popular form of shading especially with people who make designs for clothing and apparel designs with an aged vintage feel. This brush pack contacts 8 sets and styles of brushes that will help you create and include grunge detailing into your illustrations for a truly retro look. The brushes can be used add a grainy feel to your illustration by building on tiny vector textures and tones, the grains can be spaced out and clustered together in whatever way you find works best with your design. By adjusting the stroke weight you will also be able to change the density and size of stipples and grains to go with your design.
27. Ornate Vector Pattern Brushes
These brushes can be used to create ornate and intricate patterns in your illustrations. The brushes come in different sizes so you can create thin or thick patterns by adjusting the stroke weight of each brush. They can be used to create decorative designs on the borders of images in just a matter of seconds instead of spending a long time manually drawing the delicate and intricate lines for such designs. Download and install these brush sets and start to create swirly lines and curves with these brushes that add an extra level of detail to your illustrations and finished projects.
This pack of feather brushes helps you create vectors and illustrations of bird wings, angel wings, feathered accessories and so much more. There are 20 brushes in total and 19 of the brushes colors can be changed to suit your design purposes while one of the peacock feathers always retains its natural color. You can change the feathers textures by adjusting its opacity and blending until you achieve your desired feather texture. There is also an option for you to increase the width and thickness of the brush strokes by adjusting the weight of the brushes strokes.
These Swirly Vector Brushes come in a pack of 34 brush styles, 19 of them are Art Brushes while the other 15 are scatter brushes. You can use either of these styles of brushes to create swirly patterns like curving vines and plants and flowers, butterflies or undulating lines. As you use the brushes, you can adjust the effect by increasing or reducing the thickness of the brush stroke. The opacity and color of the brushes can also be changed to suit your preferences just like with any other brush set.
30. Ano Hana Flower Photoshop Brushes
The Ano Hana Flower Photoshop Brushes were specially created to imitate the look of real-life flowers with three brush presets that allows you to have a variety of colors and designs with your flower vectors. The first brush has a background and foreground color jitter with grey and white color tones, the second brush preset has peach and dark pink tones which you can skew, adjust hue and brightness of the flowers and make them semi-transparent or jitter. The third brush preset has a basic flat color with pale ice blue and grayish blue tones. You can adjust the brushes opacity, brush flow and adjust the background and foreground settings to suit your preference.
31. Railroad Track Pattern Brushes
This brush pack contains brushes that will give your designs a look just like that of a real railroad track. There are two styles of brushes in this set, some brushes give you the plain railroad track effect with no background while the other style of brushes gives the railroad effect with a gravel background. These brushes can be used to design toy sets, worksheets, maps, transport company logos, or they can also be used to add railroad detailing to any other illustrations
Create typesets that imitate the look of torn pieces of paper by downloading and installing this brush set. This super cool design makes your fonts and lettering look like they were done with ripped up pieces of paper which come in different text colors and sizes. This unique brush set will help any Illustrator add character and fun to their designs on posters, book covers, letters and so much more
33. Spicy Brush For Illustrator
Download and install the Spicy Brush For Illustrator Brush pack if you often create illustrations for the food industry. The use of these brushes is not relegated to the food industry alone as it can be used and enjoyed by whoever wants to add a bit of spice to their designs. You can use the spices such as chili peppers to create typography and lettering that look like they have been made from real food as well as other designs that will require using spices like a menu or flier, and social media posters for restaurants, market logos, and food packaging.
34. Bubble Pro Illustrator Brush
This brush set creates streams of bubbles that are beautiful and look identical to real bubbles. The different brush styles create bubbles that are easily customized to your preference of size or color. Your designs will definitely pop( pun intended) and stand out from the rest with professional looking bubbles with can be made clear or colored. They can be used to make posters and fliers for parties, beach hangouts, product packaging and so much more. The bubbles can be tinted with different tones to make them look even more realistic and they are in high resolution so the quality of your finished image remains top notch.
These brushes help you create a look that looks just like a pencil sketch. They are very realistic looking and can be used to “sketch” anything from letters to faces. The brush pack contains a set of 15 different brush styles with points that allow you to change the thickness and texture of each brush stroke. From extremely father light thin strokes to thick and bold lines, they create illustrations that will translate well into print and can also be used in digital designs.
Conclusion
We hope that this list of 35 brush packs for Adobe Illustrator will help ease the challenges artists have with creating some effects in their illustrations. Most of the brushes are free for personal use but you may need to contact the creators for permission to use their work for commercial purposes. Download and install some or all of these brush packs and start to enjoy a stress-free illustration process.
