Procreate comes with over 200 brushes you can use to make your artwork – without buying or making any more. However, eventually, you’ll find the need for some specialized brushes. I just made a fish scales brush that helps me add hundreds of scales to my fish art in seconds. It’s SUPER helpful. I’ll have a demo for you shortly!
There are a CORE GROUP of Procreate brushes I use for my line art that covers almost everything except the specialty stuff like complex or repeating patterns. The following are the best 12 brushes I use to create salable artwork with Procreate IOS software on the iPad Pro 11″ tablet.
Best Brushes for Procreate Line Art Projects
- Monoline. You can find the Monoline brush in the CALLIGRAPHY section. This brush is great for Outlines. It’s great for creating clean, consistent outlines for drawings. Whether you are drawing a simple sketch or a more complex illustration, the Monoline brush will help you draw clear and defined outlines that will make your drawings pop. It’s also great for Cartoon Characters – its smooth, clean lines fit the subject well. Some use Monoline for intricate Mandala Art. This brush is ideal for detailed patterns as required for this art type.
- Technical Pen. Found in the INKING category, this brush is also pressure-sensitive and mimics the feel of a fine-tipped technical pen. It creates clean, precise lines and is great for intricate line work.
- Ink Bleed. Found in the INKING category, the Ink Bleed pen appears to bleed ink excessively as you draw. The effect is cool and useful for some types of line art drawings like where you need a different effect that isn’t smooth and precise.
- Fine Liner. Found in the SKETCHING category, this brush is designed to mimic the look and feel of a traditional fine liner pen. It creates precise, thin lines that are perfect for detailed line art.
- HB Pencil. Found in the SKETCHING category, this brush simulates the look and feel of a traditional HB pencil, creating lines with a slightly textured feel. It is great for sketching and creating more organic line work. If you need a pencil-type brush to outline, or to initially draw your subject, the HB Pencil is a good choice as it gives you the feel of an organic pencil.
- Calligraphy. There are 10 brushes in this category of brushes. The Script and Water Pen are the ones I use most, but you have to try the Odeon brush, it has an incredible effect. These brushes are good for drawing thick and thin lines, and they are often used for lettering and calligraphy. You can create elegant and expressive lines with the calligraphy brushes so you should test them all out.
- Gel Pen. Found in the INKING category, this brush is designed to mimic the look and feel of a traditional inking pen. It can create thin and medium-thickness lines that are super-smooth and don’t change with pressure, so the line remains the same thickness.
- Studio Pen. Found in the INKING category, this brush creates lines with almost no texture, just ultra-smooth lines that are sensitive to a very light touch. It is great for sketching and creating organic line work, and can also be used for more detailed line art. The Studio Pen is sensitive to pressure.
- Dry Ink. Found in the INKING category, this brush resembles pencils most closely when the point is fine, and looks a lot like dry charcoal when the brush is enlarged. The Dry Ink brush creates a rough, textured line that resembles the look of a dry brush painting. It is great for creating a more expressive and dynamic line.
- Fine Tip. This is an ultra-fine-line pen in the INKING category that doesn’t change with pressure. You can create clean, precise lines in tattoo-style illustrations. It creates sharp, fine lines that are perfect for intricate designs. The maximum-size brush is quite thin and will give you the ultimate fine-line drawing experience. Please note, there is no angled shading with this brush, the line also draws as a fine line, but a little lighter.
- Peppermint. In the SKETCHING category, the Peppermint brush is great for using at an angle for shading. It gives a nice smooth even gradient that is easy to use for creating the really find shading you may need in your line art.
- Comic Ink. Found in the INKING category, this brush is designed specifically for creating bold, graphic lines in comic book-style illustrations. It creates a strong, solid line that is great for creating bold outlines and shapes.
Note! Some of these brushes are unbelievably sensitive to the jittering movement of your hands as you draw. They capture every twitch of a muscle in your hand and arm as you draw. This isn’t ideal for most people. It’s better for most people to make the drawing more smooth as if they’re a great artist and don’t have errant twitches or unsteady lines. The way you can fix it with any brush is:
- Tap on the brush you want to alter the settings for.
- Under STABILIZATION increase the amount under Stabilization | Amount to at least 30%.
- You can also play with StreamLine to see if it has the right effect on the brush for you what you want to do. Start with 30% and see if that helps.
- Click gold DONE button in the upper right side.
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[Featured image at top of page ©Jenna Lovic and used with permission]