5 Brushes: Heavy Rotation

Fia Kilbourn

Apr 3, 2023

I love and stockpile Procreate brushes like they're going out of style. I'm pretty sure I bought my first set shortly after downloading Procreate many years ago. I've since amassed quite a collection. I have also tried my hand at creating my own. It's still a learning process for me, but maybe I'll get confident enough to release a set of my own some day.

In the meantime, here are five brushes I find myself grabbing for many of my projects!

Bardot Brushes Dry Brush Paintbox It's hard to pick the best Bardot Brushes set, because you really can't go wrong with any of them. But I do find that the dry brushes are great for adding some crunchy texture to my shading or anywhere else I feel like I want something a little gritty.

illustration of strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, and kiwi — This summer fruit illustration uses dry brushes in the shadows and some of the texture on the fruit.

Procreate Lightpen (and Brush) under Luminence

This brush is so so dreamy! Anytime I want to make something look magical, I use this brush for some glowy charm. I add it on the edges of shapes for some rim lighting or I make little dots that look like luminescent floating specks.

an illustration of outer space and underwater mixed in a magical world — Here's an example of how I used the Lightpen to add the feeling of wonder to this illustration.

Ian Barnard Grid Builder

I don't often plan out my lettering precisely, but when I want to I really appreciate this set of grids to help me construct something a little more neat than how I usually letter things.

I used the Grid Builder set to plan out this banner on the homepage of my website.

Procreate Stipple under Inking

I saw an Instagram video from artist, Kelly Anne Dalton, adding a beautiful sparkly brush to a moon illustration and immediately commented to ask her what brush she was using. I was surprised to find it was the stipple brush that came preloaded with Procreate. I have since learned how to tweak the settings to get more interesting effects from it, but it's a great way to quickly make something look twinkly.

illustration of a dodo mummy. — I used the stipple brush in the background of this Dodo mummy to give it a magical feel.

Procreate Streaks under Calligraphy

Last but not least, my favorite lettering brush for script. I don't know what it is about this brush, but I find my script letters just come out way better when I use this brush. Something about the flow and smoothness allows me to get nicely shaped letters almost every time.