Almost every image editing software uses brushes to create their textures and patterns and make the drawing process for complex images much easier. Their brushes are also used for editing photos and designing graphics. GIMP brushes are used to brush images onto the page by using a paintbrush tool. When using the GIMP Program to edit and retouch images, there are a large number of brushes available for you to download, install and use. These brushes are usually developed by communities of GIMP users and they are mostly available through DeviantArt free for you to download, however, you may need to check their licenses, terms, and conditions if you plan to use them for commercial purposes.
GIMP usually comes with some default brush sets but they usually do not have that many provisions for digital painting and art so you may have to download some more brush packs to make your user experience with GIMP much more satisfactory. So if you are looking for brush packs that will help you draw everything from hair to grass or water, then you will definitely need to download some new brush packs we have mentioned below.
If you are interested in downloading the top free brush packs for GIMP we have made things easier for you by rounding up 40+ of the best GIMP brushes available you absolutely can’t miss.
• Grasses N Plants GIMP Brushes
If you do a lot of work that involves drawing grasses and plants, then you should definitely download and install this brush pack. With this tool, you can draw blades of grass and other plants a lot easier as you will be able to draw more realistic looking plants and shrubs in a matter of minutes instead of spending hours drawing a single shrub or plant. The Grasses N Plants GIMP Brush packs have different styles of drawing grasses or plants you can use to create custom scenery that requires detail and precision. Or you can use them to create easily stamp-able grass patterns into the backgrounds of your drawings. Inside the brush pack, each style of plants brushes has their own customizable settings which you can tweak and adjust to suit your drawing style and image preferences.
• Digital Oil Brushes
This set of digital oil brushes give a very professional feel to your images and offer a high-quality finish. The pack contains a set of five standard brushes with each one having different options and variations of making them look like they have a different quantity of paint loaded onto them or different levels of paint thickness on the brushes. You also have the option of a wet or dry brush to create thick or thin designs. There is also the option to mix paints as you work by mixing and combining the colors in your foreground and background. You can use this brush set to mimic the look of a real oil painting and a paint brush. It was originally designed for photoshop but it works very well on GIMP as well. There is a total of 13 styles of brushes in this brush set so you will run out of options and ideas for painting and drawing.
• GIMP Anim. Grass Brushes Set
This grass brush set enables you to add realistic looking touches to grasses and plants in your designs. The set includes four different brush styles and instructions on how to use them. Having a good selection of colors is essential for painting grasses so you can use two or more different tones to create the perfect looking grass design. To get the best results out of this brush set, switch up the use of different brush pressure, brush sizes, opacity, and colors. There are up to 18 different samples of grass so you won’t run the risk of having repetitive designs. The four versions of grasses included are :
• A thick tall style of grass based on living grasses
• A thick short grass style also based on living grasses
• Thin tall brown colored dead grass style
• Thin short brown grasses based on dead grass
These grass styles can be customized to whatever your preference is in the brush pack settings.
• GIMP-BrushBrush
It can be quite challenging to match some real-life painting mediums into a digital format and GIMP provides some digital brush sets that will bring you as close as you can get to the real deal. The GIMP BrushBrush pack was specially created to bring the medium of watercolors one step closer to digital artists. The design was created to match with the GIMP Program and everyone who uses GIMP absolutely must have this Brush Set in their arsenal. The creator of the brush set used the most rigorous process to bring a realistic look by using a dry paintbrush and actual watercolor paints so the end result looks very accurate like real watercolors. Since it is watercolor centered and has just one brush style it may not fulfill all of your artwork needs so you may need to rotate with other artwork brush packs. This does not limit the designs that this brush pack creates however, it is capable of creating truly beautiful artwork.
• Hair Brush Set for GIMP
Drawing hair is not always the easiest task as it can take hours to get it just right. However, the thing with drawing hair is that once you get the technique down you will have the skill for life. Getting a proper brush set for drawing hair will help ease the process and having the Hair Brush Set for GIMP with its 5 custom brushes specifically made for hair will help any artists get an accurate drawing of hair. This pack contains different kinds of brushes all made for drawing hair and will help advanced artists cut down the time and stress of drawing the perfect head of hair. We recommend that you watch some tutorials on how to use hair brush sets to learn the proper ways of using hairbrush tools to draw. If you do a lot of portraits, you’ll want to have this brush set. You may also have to use a pressure sensitive tablet for graphics to get the full effect of this brush set.
• GIMP Water Brushes
Sometimes drawing water isn’t always an artist’s favorite thing to do and with these GIMP water brushes, you’ll be able to create realistic looking ripples of water effortlessly. You can use these water brushes as an alternative to learning to paint from scratch all on your own. The brush set comes with two different styles of brushes that help you give the ripple effect to flat surfaces and make your drawings of water look very realistic. You can make your water paintings look even better by adding different sizes and colors or shades of ripples to the water surface.
• GIMP Smudge Effects Brushes
Some images need a special smudge effect in order to capture the essence of the drawing. You may not be an expert at creating drawings with smudges on your own just yet, but you can achieve that effect by using a brush. The GIMP smudge effects brushes make it easier for you and give you a shortcut to drawing images with smudges that you may not have been able to achieve on your own. These brushes imitate the same look you would get from running a finger through wet paint. You can different blending modes and brush tips to create the effect you desire
• Radon Brushes
These brush sets were originally made for Adobe Photoshop but are easily adapted and converted for use on GIMP. They are a number of different brushes and styles of brushes available with this brush pack that has been described as truly awesome to use. They are also great for creating unique sci-fi and abstract effects like lit up lines, curves, and bursts of different shapes.
• GIMP Texture Brush Set 1
Some of the most popular brush sets in the digital painting and graphics world are texture brush sets. There have a wide variety of brush styles and so they serve many purposes and give you a number of options to work with. The brushes contained in this brush pack are all unique and give your paintings texture all while being easy to use and set up. You can customize your settings to the opacity, and blending modes that suit your style of painting and preferences so you can paint with as many textures as you please. These brushes are extremely practical and can be used in graphic design and art to create and design basically anything you want to add a grunge feel to your designs.
• GIMP Hair Brush
Some artists may have difficulty drawing hair and fur as laying down strands individually can be time and energy consuming. This brush set provides a solution to these hairs design challenges like shading. You may have perfected the art of drawing human hair but you have not gotten around to mastering how to draw fur and animal hair. Using the GIMP Hair Brush pack will ensure that you have a crutch that helps you draw realistic looking fur and body hair in your digital images. The brush pack comes with a mini tutorial on how to effectively use the GIMP Hair Brush pack in the preview image and gives you tips on how to get the best results with hair textures and strands.
• Light Beam Brushes – GIMP
If you like to add dramatic beams of light to your graphics or artwork then this brush set would be perfect for you. Creating lighting effects in your designs is one of the most important aspects as it helps to create focus and changes the mood of an image. However, creating this effect from scratch on your own can be quite tasking without the help of a brush pack. Downloading and installing these brushes give you different options for lighting that are of pretty good quality. Some of the options of lighting here include shafts of light, lens flares, rays of sunlight, lighthouses and so many other options. They brush pack is easy to use for both beginners and advanced users of GIMP.
• GIMP Scratched Wood Brush
Creating the look and effect of a scratched wood surface on your designs can be made easier with the use of this brush pack. They help give wood surfaces and images an aged, vintage or grunge theme effect and whatever effects you wish for your finished image to have. The different styles of brushes in the pack can be used to add character to images with just a single click thus making the design process for a distressed look a lot simpler for you.
• 20 New GIMP Brushes
If you are looking to add some serious variety to your collection of digital brush packs then you should download and install this brush set immediately. As the name suggests, there are 20 different styles of brushes including jagged styles, scatter brush styles to more surreal styles. The brushes were specially created to be used for experimental paintings that test your imagination and design skills. Using these brushes is not restricted to painting alone, they can also be used to create complex textures and patterns and put finishing touches to your graphics and images.
• NovaLupe’s Hair Brushes – For GIMP
Drawing hair can be a challenge especially in the beginning but if you have the right tools it doesn’t have to be as tasking or time-consuming. The NovaLupe Hair Brush pack is one tool that helps you create realistic looking hair without the stress of laying individual strands of hair in the painting or graphic. The hairbrush set helps you with layering, texturing as well as all shading and blending the hair. You can include as much detail as you want into the look by adding flyaways and wisps of hair around the face of the subject of your art.
• Free Photoshop/GIMP Brushes
If you paint a lot of environmental artwork and graphics that have a lot of plants, leaves, and grasses then getting this brush pack would help make your work faster and more professional. Different styles of brushes that are simple and effective to use are included in this brush pack that help creates the look of a real paintbrush and they also tend to focus more on creating beautiful textures. Each brush is unique with its own special functions that make the work of doing a perspective drawing easier. The brush pack contains a lot of brush styles (around 40-50) of them for both Photoshop and GIMP users. Any style of artists from comic book illustrators to concept artists and character designers will have a great time using this brush pack as it can be used for both drawing and painting.
• GIMP Odysee Brushes
The GIMP Odysee Brush pack makes it easier for you to draw abstract designs when using GIMP. They’re also great for making designs that include outer space and stars as the brush styles allow you to add bursts of light and glowing effects. Whether it’s curves, lines or any other incandescent shape from your imagination, this brush pack helps you create them in a way that is easy and looks realistic in just a matter of minutes. Amateurs and advanced users alike can use these brushes to edit and create cool graphics.
• GIMP – leaves- brush
This brush pack introduces you to a whole new world of drawing leaves. You can create animated leave designs featuring different styles and sizes of leaves. The different styles of brushes in this pack make it easy for you to add different foliage effects on any color of background you desire. The set allows you to draw individual leaves as well as clusters in less time than you would have used when using free handed techniques. They can be used in animated cartoons and in graphics to give you a finished result that has realistic looking leaves of all shapes and sizes which add character to your piece.
• GIMP- Diamonds Brush
Most people do not realize how much impact a diamond effect has on graphics and images. It may seem more suited to artists who draw paintings but they also work well for graphics too. Download and install this brush set to gain access to designs inspired by shapes and include accents that sharpen corners and smoothen the transition of an image from different resolutions. They can also be used to include patterns into the background of your pages for an added touch of a pop art feel.
• Cloud Brush for GIMP
Drawing beautiful realistic clouds has never been as easy as it is now. With this 7 brush set, you can create whimsical looking clouds that are in high definition where you feel like you can reach out and touch each cloud. The shape of each cloud can be manipulated for a more random natural look. You don’t have to leave the sky in your images a plain blue anymore, you can add clouds and even include a touch of grey scale to the clouds so they suit a storm scene or adjust tints for a sunset sky.
• GIMP Animated Crayon
GIMP animated crayon brush pack contains three different brushes that are crayon based and replicate the texture and look of drawing with a crayon. The give a good pencil feel and they’re great for artists who create animations and cartoons. They give a very natural look to your drawings and smaller crayon brushes can be used to mimic pencil art. They’re easy to use and you can experiment with each brush style until you find the ones that work for whichever style you use.
• GIMP – 8 Hair Brushes
This brush set includes 8 different brush styles created specifically for drawing realistic looking hair with the right layers, shading, and textures. Hair can be drawn in different and varying lengths and thickness of hair strands instead of letting artists struggle with laying hair strands individually. It is great for advanced artists who have been accustomed to drawing hair and beginners can look to tutorials to help them, master, using these brushes to create stunning portraits and other art that will include drawing hair.
• GIMP 2.2 Grunge Brush
Grunge brush sets help artists add a textured and aged feel to their work that makes it stand from others. If you are into old school and vintage art then you shouldn’t miss including the GIMP 2.2 grunge brush pack into your list of brush sets to own and use. You can customize its setting to suit your own style, colors, and size by adding textures and gradients when you use these brushes. Create beautiful website backgrounds, posters and so much more by downloading and installing this brush set to your GIMP program.
• Ultimate Series Abstract II
These brushes help you include abstract effects to your graphics and paintings with ease. They can be colorized and have the balance of colors adjusted to give a unique feel to each artwork. If you do a lot of sci-fi and video game inspired art then this brush set would have a welcome spot in your family of brush packs. They can be used to make curves, lines, lights, and swirls to mention a few and you can also create some undefinable shapes unique to you.
• GIMP Green Lotus Brushes
If you want to create art and graphics that features flawlessly executed lotus flowers then this is the perfect brush pack for you. The brush pack helps the artist create realistic looking lotuses with different brush styles and a variety of complimenting colors. They’re easy to use by both beginners and advanced GIMP users so you can play around with the brushes and twist and adjust settings to your preferences until you discover what ways you can use them to best suit you.
• GIMP Ropes N Chain Brushes
For graphic artists who do a lot of work with comics or drawings that require creating ropes and links of chain, you may be tempted to try to freehand drawing each chain, wire or cable and rope but after creating several drawings, you’d realize the need for a brush pack that caters to this need. If you draw chains and ropes a lot, this brush pack will prove to be indispensable. The set contains different styles and sizes of ropes and chains. This brush set also includes brushes in styles that will create detailed and realistic looking links in a chain and twists of ropes used to tie things in your graphics and images.
• Nitro Brushes
The Nitro brushes were made originally for Adobe Photoshop but have been converted and can be used on GIMP too. They help the artist create illuminated lines and curves as well as another shape they might want to make. The brush tips are of varying sizes so users can create thin lines and curves or thicker shapes. Manually coloring and illuminating these lines may take a lot of time that could have been used to make even more designs so using the Nitro Brushes to create designs faster and efficiently makes a lot of sense.
• Free Photoshop Brushes by Darek Zabrocki
The creator of this brush pack originally made it for photoshop but it can also be used without any glitches on GIMP. They were created and are used by a professional concept artist so you are assured it is of the best quality and meets every standard you could have. If you work with entertainment art, do art as a hobby or are just learning the ropes, then having this brush pack among your preferred sets will help you understand how the pros work and improve your skill.
• GIMP Hair Brush
If you struggle with drawing realistic looking hair in your paintings and artwork, use the GIMP Hair Brushes to create the fur and hair of the subjects in your drawings. It is especially useful for portrait artists and although it is possible to use regular brushes to create hair, it would serve any artist well to use a tool like GIMP Hair Brush pack to alleviate the challenges associated with drawing hair. It’s fast and easy to use and you can create different colors of healthy looking hair in just a matter of minutes. The brushes create soft wispy hair that would also be perfect when drawing fur as well.
• GIMP Animated Brush Pack
Perfect for digital paintings, this brush pack gives you a number of animated lines and textures to give your work more character. Drawing animations can be a long process but with these brushes, the process becomes a lot simpler and faster. You can use all types of
Patterns with this brush pack that would have taken you hours to do manually in your digital paintings.
• Pencil Brush by Nari 2nd Edition
Pencil Brush by Nari is perfect for sketch artists. There is a good number of Sykes of brushes that are detailed and high resolution. It has about 11 brush styles so you have some options to pick from. The brush styles have different textures and widths that has made it popular among many digital artists. They’re easy to use on most devices so if you are accustomed to sketching on paper, you’ll have no problem switching from that to using these brushes.
• Rolled Paint Photoshop and GIMP Brushes
This brush set has 23 brush styles and is compatible with photo photoshop and GIMP. If you want to get the effect of using a paint roller then you can do that with these brushes. They give the illusion of something being painted on with a single roller or multi rollers at the same time. They are also high resolution and can be used for many purposes like making the background image on graphics and photos. You may wonder why you want to have the roller paint effect in digital art but it actually comes in handy in a number of scenes like a cave or sky scene.
• Circle Chain Brushes for GIMP
If your style of drawing chains is made up of more circular than rectangular links then the Circle Chain Brushes for GIMP is one you should not miss. They can also be used to create chains for print tests to cut down on the time that would have been spent drawing the ropes of a chain. The brushes tend to change color to match with those of the foreground color which makes it easy to customize each chain you draw using it. If you like to draw images with chainmail, decorative chains or chained up individuals this brush set deserves a place among your stash of brushes.
• GIMP Angel Dust Brushes
The GIMP Angel Dust Brush pack has a white brush style that helps artists create a sparkling dust effect. The brush style gives dust particles an ethereal feel that will be difficult to replicate with freehand methods. Download and install this brush pack if you like to create art that has sparkles and dust particles that glitter and shine. They will give your image a high-quality finish that does not look artificial in any way.
• Grass and Plant SET 3 GIMP
This set has 15 brushes which include 2 animated brushes. There is an option for a greyscale brush so you can have a variety of color tones for your plants and grass. The brushes make grasses quite realistic looking and make great enhancements to natural pieces. They create very real looking shrubbery and clusters of plants and forest profiles when you use the Grass and Plant
• Lightning Brushes GIMP
Lighting gives a stunning effect to any graphics and being able to reproduce realistic looking lightening effects in your images is a top priority of any digital artist. By using the lightning brush set with its 19 different styles of brushes you can make your very own custom strikes of lightning in varying lengths and size. The quality of the brushes are high so your picture won’t be compromised and grayscale can be added to the lighting to make it have a stormier appearance.
• Snow Patch Brushes GIMP
Create beautiful and realistic looking patches of snow in your images with these brushes. You can draw a patch of snow on rocks, the floor or on buildings in a way that they coat the surface and look just like real snow would. The brush set is easy to use by both beginners and advanced digital artists. They will be perfect for making textured snow in Christmas and other snow-themed graphics and paintings.
• Inkpen GIMP Brushes
These brush sets give you plenty of lines and curves to work with to help with your digital artwork. If you are a serious illustrator or comic artist who uses inking a lot then you must have this brush pack in your collection. It is not as ideal for painting as it is for digital drawing so the digital artist will gain more from using this brush pack. The brush styles allow you to create varying thickness in curves and lines that are well defined.
• GIMP Smoke Brushes
These brushes enable you to draw realistic smoke in your graphics and paintings or photo work. It has 12 samples of smoke so you always have options to choose from and avoid repetitive designs. There are three versions of smoke which are:
• Brushes with sharp smoke
• Brushes with an even sharper smoke
• Brushes with soft smoke
These pattern brushes create smoke that blends well into the other textures in your image and the setting for each sample can be adjusted and made specific to your needs.
• GIMP Cracks Brushes
The GIMPs Cracks Brushes pack has about 23 brush styles that help artists create a cracked look on whatever surfaces they desire like a cracked wall, rocks or floors and even cracked skin, They also give a cracked feel to an entire image if you want to make it look old or broken. GIMP Cracks Brushes will give your image the most realistic looking cracks so your graphic does not end up looking too artificial. The variety of brush styles contained in the set make it easy for you to draw different types and sizes of cracks in your image.
• GIMP Splatter Brushes
You can create awesome and realistic looking splatters of paint, blood, water, and other liquids in your artwork by employing the use of this brush set. The quality of the brushes used are very good so you don’t have to worry about compromising on the quality of your finished product. You can use them to make graphic designs as well as work on photos and paintings as well. This set was originally created to be used on PaintShop Pro but has been converted and can now be easily used on GIMP as well.
• GIMP Edge Brushes
Use the GIMP Edge Brushes to create beautiful lines and curves that can be either glowing or not. You can use these brushes that come in different styles to create different thickness and sizes of your desired shape. The brushes can also be used to color and make avatars. They’re great for creating pulsing lights and planetary bodies, so switch from manually adding these effects to your graphics and download the GIMP Edge Brushes.
Conclusion
We’ve rounded up some of the top brush packs that give artists special effects that look realistic and can be used to enhance their images. Go ahead and give some(or all) of them a trial today and experience a new way of using the GIMP Program.
