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Free Procreate Brush Sets

There are plenty of free Procreate brushes on the site in the Procreate Brushes Browser/downloader, but I’m going to start adding more free Procreate brushsets as well.

I just uploaded the first one this week but I will be adding many more and I will try to remember to update this post each time I add new bush sets but you can always just check the browser too.

How To Find the Free Procreate Brush Sets

To find them, just visit the brush browser and select “Brush Pack” from the dropdown menu and it will show you all the brushset files.

how to set the filters to download free Procreate brush sets
Set the filters to “Free” and the Type to “Brush Pack”

Here is a list of GrutBrushes Procreate brush sets available to download for free (just the one for now but I will update as I add new sets)

Free Dashes and Dots Procreate Brushes Brushset

Procreate dash and dots brush pack examples (brushset file)
20 Procreate dashes brushes in one brushset file

Dashes and Dots is the first free brushset file and it contains 20 different Procreate line brushes of dots and dashes in different shapes, sizes and gap widths.
The dots and dashes follow the direction of your Pencil, stylus or finger as you paint with them.

Remember that dashes are rigid. Tight curves with dashes don’t look very nice, so making a smooth curve with dashes requires a fair bit of distance (or small dashes)

Like turning a ship, the gentler and wider the curve the better. Think of making a circle with match sticks, you’d want a gentle curve with 20 matches. doing it with just 3 sticks would give you a triangle instead of a curve.

 

I will publish another free mini set next week. Stay tuned! 

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How To Download Procreate Brushes Into Your iPad from the Procreate Brush Browser

This video is available in multiple languages, select yours from the globe icon on the video

New free Procreate brushes added every week

How To Install the Procreate Brushes From the Brush Browser (Step by Step text tutorial)

1. Visit the Procreate Brush Browser to download a Procreate brush
2. Scroll through the brushes to find one you want. You can filter by brush type (watercolour, ink, pencil, etc) or even search by keyword
3. Tap the thumbnails to see a video preview of each brush
4. When you find a Procreate brush you want to install, tap the "download" button to download it to your iPad
5. The download will begin. You can see it by tapping the little down arrow in the top right of your Safari browser
6. When the .brush file has finished downloading, tap the file name
7. The brush will be imported into Procreate
8. When Procreate opens, you can tap on the brush icon and your new brush will be in there

Can't Find The Brush You Downloaded?

You can always find your downloads later by opening the "Files" app and your downloaded brushes will be in there. 

Files app icon with other icons on an iPad

use the FIles app to find missing Procreate brushes that you downloaded

Can't find the Files app? Swipe down on your Home screen and type "Files" and the Files app icon (blue folder) will appear

Tap the brush you want to install and it should install into and open Procreate. If that doesn't happen, tap and hold on the .brush file in Procreate and  choose to open in the Procreate app

Tip: To save the brush to your own drive (in case you get a new iPad one day) tap and hold on the brush, choose "Share" and save it to a safe place on your favourite cloud drive (DropBox, Google Drive) or Air Drop it to your other devices.

Download even MORE great Procreate Brushes

Apart from the free Procreate brushes in the Procreate brush browser/downloader above, you can also get all the GrutBrushes Procreate brush sets that exist today and any new ones published in the next year for just $20 here

That includes all the Procreate watercolours, the full Procreate pencil set, the Oil Impasto set, the inks, literally every Procreate brush I've made and will make for the next 365 days.'

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How to Import GrutBrushes Photoshop ABR brushes into Procreate

Yes, it’s true that you can import Photoshop ABR brushes into Procreate and most of the GrutBrushes Art Brushes will import and Procreate will convert them.

BUT…I should start by stating that I don’t recommend importing Photoshop ABR brushes into Procreate if you can avoid it. It’s always going to be better to install the native Procreate .brush format brushes whenever you can.

When Procreate imports an ABR it does an incredibly difficult conversion, and it does it amazingly well, but it’s still a conversion and you will find that many of the brushes don’t look exactly the same as they do in Photoshop and you will find an occasional brush that just don’t work at all.

For this reason I recommend installing my native Procreate brushes instead of the Art Brushes Complete Photoshop brushes set, but I understand that since I have about 5 times as many Photoshop brushes than Procreate brushes, people will still want to import the Photoshop Art Brushes into Procreate so I made this step by step video tutorial to show you how to do it on your iPad:

Video Tutorial: Converting GrutBrushes ABR Photoshop Brushes into Procreate

flags to show that video is available in French, Spanish, German, Korean, Italian and Japanese

Note: The Photoshop to Procreate video tutorial above is available in many languages (German, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, etc) just click on the globe in the bottom right to choose your language and/or subtitles where available. Feel free to email me to request additional languages!

“Procreate can convert any Photoshop ABR. All the brushes I converted imported perfectly”

I hear this a lot and it’s tempting to think that Procreate can convert absolutely every Photoshop brush you throw at it because it does such a good job, but unless you have used that brush in Photoshop, it’s almost impossible to know if a brush has converted properly.

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Wacom Stylus Pressure Not Working?

This will show you how to check if your tablet pressure is working in Photoshop. It can be tricky to tell if your stylus or pen is not working or if it is just that brush, especially with fancy brushes that seem to change as you paint with them. This test will account for that.

TLDR: In short, If you can vary the pressure and or transparency of your brush strokes while painting with the default hard round brush and pressing harder or softer on your stylus, then the pressure from your stylus is being successfully sent to Photoshop.

This first test will start you off with a basic brush, enable pressure and then test to make sure Photoshop is getting pressure data from your stylus.

Note: This video has subtitles available in about a dozen languages Click on CC to select

 

Next up is a similar test, to check your pressure response but using transparency

Make sure you have Opacity pressure set to “on” Watch the tutorial below to see how it’s done

Summary:
Wacom Pen not working? If a line drawn with your mouse looks identical to a line drawn with your stylus while varying the pressure you apply to it with your stylus, and the “opacity pressure” box is checked, then Photoshop is not getting any pressure signal from your pen, stylus or tablet. 

turn on 'use pressure' checkbox for pressure opacity
Make sure this box is checked ‘on’ if you want your pen pressure to affect the opacity of your brush stroke

The easiest and most successful solution is usually just to reboot. Especially if your stylus pressure was working fine just a few minutes before. If that doesn’t solve the problem then it is almost certainly a tablet driver issue and you should check for the latest appropriate driver for your tablet.  

Restart Wacom Driver Without Rebooting

If you are using a Wacom tablet on Windows, you can try to restart your tablet driver before trying a full reboot.

If the tablet driver has stopped working you can restart it by going to the Windows Start search bar, type “Services” and open the “Services app

Scroll down until you see “Wacom Professional Service” Right-click on it and choose “restart” 

Windows services panel with 'restart Wacom service' selected to restart tablet driver without rebooting
You can usually restart Wacom Tablet driver in Windows without rebooting

For more problem solving tips, including very common Windows Ink issues and to download Wacom tablet drivers go here

Huion Tablet Driver downloads are here

Yiynova tablet driver downloads are here 

XP-Pen Pressure Not Working?

If you use an XP-PEN and your brush strokes are not responding to pressure from your XP-Pen, open the PenTablet properties and make sure that the ‘Windows Ink’ check box in the bottom left is selected as shown in the screenshot below.

XP-PEN PenTablet preferences with Windows Ink checkbox selected
Turn on Windows Ink checkbox in XP-PEN PenTablet preferences to use pressure in Photoshop (Thanks for the screenshot Beth M!)

 

When you restart Photoshop your XP-Pen pressure should be working in Photoshop  

Feel free to leave additional questions in the comments and I’ll answer if I can. 

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How To Convert Any Photoshop Brush to a Mixer Brush

Did you know that you can convert any Photoshop brush to a mixer/blender brush by holding down ctrl+alt on Windows or Cmd+Option and clicking on it? I show you how in less than 30 seconds in this Photoshop video tutorial.

Keep in mind that not all brushes will make ideal mixer brushes and you will almost certainly want to tweak it once you make it.

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How to Convert and Export a Photoshop TPL (Tool Preset) to an ABR

This quick multi language video tutorial (click on the globe at the bottom right of the video to change language) or the written tutorial (below) will show you how to convert and export TPL files (Photoshop Tool Preset) to an ABR brush that you can import in other apps like Artstudio Pro, Procreate 5, Adobe Sketch and Fresco

You will need Photoshop CC 2019(?) or later

  1. Find and select the tool preset of the brush you want to convert 
  2. Right click on it, select ” convert to brush preset” and it will show up as an ABR in your Brushes panel

3. Select the newly converted brush in the brushes panel.

4. Click in the top right corner of the brushes panel and

5. Choose “Export Selected Brushes”

You’ve now converted your TPL brush into an ABR that you can import into other apps such as Artstudio Pro or Procreate V5

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After The Flood by Valentin Kopetzki

“After The Flood ” digital painting by Valentin Kopetzki • Painted using GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes

Sometimes I see an artist use my tools and I feel like they have some innate connection to them. It’s such a thrill to see my brushes play a part in a brilliant performance by talented hands. This grand and masterfully painted scene by Valentin Kopetzki is one such example and also the latest addition to the GrutBrushes Gallery.

The Spectrum award winning “After the Flood” was painted as an illustration for the H. P. Lovecraft story “The Whisperer in Darkness” and was included in the 26th issue of Spectrum Fantastic Art.

You can see more of Kopetzki’s work on his instagram account where, as well as more landscapes and fantastical scenes you will also find some powerful portrait work

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Martin Guldbaek in the GrutBrushes Gallery

detail of boy light study by Martin Guldbaek
detail of boy light study by Martin Guldbaek

When I see how Martin Guldbaek uses my Oil Impasto Photoshop brushes it is such a thrill. He brings out their sculptural qualities and gives them weight, to create forms that feel almost physical even though they are mostly just broad brush strokes of digital paint, but so perfectly placed, thanks to Martin’s superb understanding of light and volume. Continue reading Martin Guldbaek in the GrutBrushes GalleryFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail