2,000+ of the Best Adobe Illustrator Brushes for Designers

While Adobe Illustrator comes with a selection of brushes pre-installed, many designers install other brushes (downloaded from third parties) to expand the possibilities. With the right brushes, your work in Illustrator can be both faster and more aesthetically pleasing.

Here, we'll feature the best Adobe Illustrator brushes you can download and start using today.

Free Illustrator Brushes

When it comes to free, everyone is on board! It is important to know that there are many free options to help enhance your designs in Illustrator. Below we'll look at different types of brushes that are organic, mechanical, and fluid.

All of these brushes are great to use in Illustrator because it creates vector files which lead to endless limits to the size these designs can become in publication.

Ink/Watercolor Illustrator Brushes

These are a type of brushes that bring out the look of hand-drawn in a vector design. Artwork can be created on a digital canvas now with brushes that harness the elements of watercolor and ink effects. The following brush sets are some great options for you to utilize for designs that need a more organic feel.

Teardrop Foliage Illustrator Brushes

This brush set is clean and simple. It is art deco in look and takes to complementary and contrasting colors well. It is teardrop leaf style foliage. It pulls together 12 distinct styles that work with the different sizes of teardrops to make the brush diverse for any professional designer looking for an edge in vector design.

Foliage Brushes

This classic foliage brush includes the AI, SVG, and EPS formats for versatile use across the Adobe Illustrator program. This brush collection features 16 different organic styles. These brushes can be used to create a surreal earthy feel. This includes a natural brush that depicts a leaf style like a fern. You can go from curly to linear options within one package!

Illustrator Brushes for Making Swooshes and Swirls

This brush set is the springboard to creating your own fun swirled and curled designs in Illustrator. This brush set gives creative projects a new look that can be stylized by the designer for each client giving them a unique design for their needs. When applying this larger set of brushes to a spiral path you get unique outlined and a custom swoosh.

Abstract Illustrator Brushes

This set of Bittbox brushes includes 35 abstract options for professional designers. These brushes were designed with precision according. These brush options are here for you to create elaborate designs that utilize the full extent of Adobe Illustrator brush capability. This in essence is an arsenal for creating brush artwork on the digital canvas.

Pattern Brushes for Flowers and Circular Designs

This set of 30 floral brushes is put into your digital paintbrush palette to create floral designs. With the circular feature, it holds to a soft edge and one that is mutable from oval to spherical. By replicating the brush strokes in a symmetrical pattern you can create an endless variety of digital flowers.

The Best Premium Adobe Illustrator Brushes

Some of the best brushes come from the Envato Elements site. It's a great creative site that offers some of the best brushes in Illustrator so that designers can tap this treasure trove of resources. Below are some of the top brushes that will help to create almost any creative design in illustrator. Graphic styles can be unleashed with this tool in Illustrator.

Big Illustrator Brushes Pack

To start off the list we are looking at 56 brush-set! That's right. Fifty-six brushes are featured in this pack. There are flourishes, clean pen-like brushes, chalk, pastels, and more. It is a set that comes with an AI swatch file, EPS files, and CS4 files. It can be utilized across versions of the program and with different file formats. This larger pack is a great tool to start with as a designer new to creating original artwork in Illustrator.

Doodle Brush Collection

Let's go back to notebook drawing to subdue boredom in that 5th-period high school math class! This brush pack is one that was originally created with pen and paper. Then put into Illustrator to clean up and turn into a vector brush set for designers to use. It is one that is classic and emulates the perfect pencils – brush pack option for a hand touch to the digital design board.

Vintage Illustrator Brush Kit

Illustrators that have moved from pen and paper to digital canvas need this set. It is one that you can create full-colored illustrations with for so many projects. There are 54 different types of grunge brushes. These are great to use for children's and vintage design projects. Create a personal project and these brushes for Illustrator can help. These brushes have different textures. The stroke can be adjusted as well. So illustrators get ready to draw!

Magic Marker Brushes for Illustrator

The magic marker Crayola is alive on screen with this set. There are over 30 brushes for a designer to use in their projects. These strokes are a set of wax crayon brushes. It can be used to create dynamic typography in Illustrator for poster or postcard projects. Have a billboard that you want to grab someone's attention from the nearest Interested!? These brushes can create a personal connection with their handwritten style.

Pencilcraft Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

These 30 brushes in this set were created with real pencil lead to paper! Pencilcraft is an upgrade from the original pencil tool in Photoshop. It is made with no stretched strokes to keep to the reality of a pencil stroke depending on the pencil lead pressure to the paper. There is a grunge element to the gritty delivery bringing an element of refined detailed texture to the design. This is a great choice to add to any designer brush options. 

1950s Artist Brush Pack

These illustrative brushes were created with real ink, and old brushes, and yes, finger smudging is very creative with a 1950s vibe. There is no brush size or stroke restriction and you can use these high-resolution scans changed to vector brushes with ease. There are 19 of them plus an extra 20 with a special finger smudge technique included!

Illustrator Pencil Brushes

This brush set is realistic in meeting pencil to paper on the screen. There are rough textures and a jagged edge to this set. An update is now available for pressure sensitivity. A graphic tablet user can now apply pressure for different outcomes with this set. It is one of the reasons that makes it top of the list in brush options for a palette in Illustrator.

Flexible Art Brushes

These art brushes are light, airy, and feminine in nature. The floral pattern brushes are ones that would work well on custom letterheads and stationery. There are 16 flexible floral art brushes to utilize in any floral design project. Once you install this set you can check out your brush window for 16 EPS files and brushes ready to use!

Line Drawing and Art Brushes

These leaf brushes are amazing in that they are simple and refined. You can edit them and use them as you need to for each project. Giving a fluid and unique look to each creative piece for the illustrator using them. There are 10 leaves total that render a fully seamless brush and other EPS and vector-created brushes. This is a brush set that is great for branding or logo projects.

Floral Art Brushes

This feminine package is one that is fully customizable! With EPS and AI files from illustrations to brushes, you have options with vector elements that can fully be edited by you in Adobe Illustrator. With these limitless options, you have a package that is key to branding design such as logos, business cards, signage, and online social media branded templates. Customized brushes such as this floral set is a must for designers.

Arrow Head Pattern Brushes

This 20-set collection of fun and doodle-inspired arrow brushes helps to bring about the arrow in a dynamic way when adding it to a project's overall appearance. Creative projects that need to accentuate the arrow need this brush set. Built for patterned work, these brushes come in EPS, PNG, and AI files. A brush kit like this one can be used in playbooks for sports as well to help graphically enhance the delivery to players!

Charcoal Brushes

This brush set is delivered in two different file formats. One is in AI for CS5 formatting. The other is in EPS for file usage across platforms. This is a natural classic chalk – brush set that works well in the artistic illustration on the screen. These halftone Illustrator brushes bring the shading game digitally up a notch.

Lighthouse Liner Illustrator Brushes

This is a set of brushes and patterned backgrounds. These work well together with high-quality vector capabilities to create layers of texture variation for illustration. The variety is amazing from ink to dot to pat brushes. The brush definitions are important to understand so that each one can be applied properly. You can create borders and fills with this one set.

Wiggle Illustrator Vector Brushes

These 48 brushes were designed to take plain lines to fascinating ones within one application. You can work with the brush diameter and placement in order to create visual diversity on the page. You can literally make the page wiggle, just like the name states. 

Chemist Illustrator Brushes

These 35 stipple and grain brushes work well in many applications. There are different file formats available for different versions of Illustrator. Also, there is a how-to guide on the differences between PC and Mac users' capabilities and the uploading process. Most of these work in any version from CS3 up! There are 10 brush files that can be added to Adobe Photoshop! Create across program platforms!

The Illustrator Ink Well

This set is CS5 through CC 2020 compatible. There are dry ink brushes, outline brushes, art brushes, pattern brushes, tapered brushes, and the list goes on! There are example files and instructions on how to load these brushes into Illustrator. You can use these brushes with a variety of textures to layer artwork with color. Professional users are raving about the versatility and the fun element of these ink brushes. 

Dry Ink Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

There are 77 brushes that take on the feel of Japanese ink to brush to textured paper. You can use the varying weights of strokes and textures to illustrate something in-depth and diverse. These fully-scaleable brushes help you to create dynamic outlines, rough-edged detailing, and typography customization to fonts!

Dry Ink Brushes Volume 2

These 80 dry-ink brushes add a dimension to the illustration that creates a rough unfinished look. There are 46 scatter brushes and 34 line brushes included for AI. Create expressive lines in the program to add a unique edge to border design or illustration.

Real Rope Illustrator Brushes

From traditional rope to twine textures these high-quality brushes give you authentic rope texture and appearance in your brush collection. The Bakers Twine brushes are provided in 11 color options! These are only compatible from CS1 to CC. There is a how-to guide on how to upload and use these brushes. Depending on your project you can create an anchor rope for the sea or gift tag twine attachment on screen!

Shader Brushes

When you have a two-dimensional clean outline of an illustration but need some added shading for depth, this brush set helps. If you need to create a border or depth to text or graphic this brush is the one to use. It is a vector file that will have capabilities for gradually fading into your background. They have non-stretched lines to help keep conformity to your shading pattern within your design. Twenty-two high-quality brushes are included!

Incredible Impressionism Brushes

This package is for the designer that wants to add a 19th-century dimension to their digital art. Whether you want to create impressionism artwork or add a stippled texture to an element this brush set can do that for you. It is cartoonish in nature, but realistic in the subject matter. This set is one that can make straight edges more diverse and work with creative bright color shading.

Vector Dot Brushes

There are 50 vector dot brushes included in this set. These are hand-drawn and digitized. A PDF of how to install the brushes is included. You can use dot brushes for additional flourishes to text, borders, backgrounds, patterns and so much more in Illustrator. There are lots of dots that make up multiple variations of brushes here.

Illustrator Painted Canvas Brushes

There are a variety of brushes from angled art brushes to flat brushes to messy paint brushes. This brush design is meant to be one that mimics messy and textured art applied to the canvas. The poppy example you see is used as a tutorial image with instructions to learn how to achieve the look and feel these brushes can deliver. 

Linocut Brushes for Adobe Illustrator

The set has 35 hand-made Illustrator brushes. These are molded and sculpted linocut brushes to add a chunky texture brush set to the collections. It is one that works and gives your brush set brush characteristics of lino printing without the printer.

Linocut Brushes

This brush set is one that allows you to lino cut without all the hassle. It is rough and raw for that natural feel. Compatible with every version from CS1+ you can use this brush set in any project. This is a pattern brush that adds texture to an illustration to give a virtual appearance of 3-dimensional textured surfaces. 

Graphic Beats Illustrator Brushes

This combo pack of brushes and symbols boasts over 300+ of each kind! This is a huge hitter and contender for abstract brushes to use in designs and approaches to digital illustration. This set is a part of the Graphic Beats trilogy and hits it out of the park on beautiful, high-quality brushes. You can create your own comic strips with speech bubble brushes/symbols. This is a professional's asset in the industry.

Spray Paint Illustrator Brushes

This set brings wall art to the screen from self-made artists on the streets…a.k.a…graffiti. There are close to 35 unique-looking Adobe Illustrator brushes that can be utilized with splatter brushes and paint strokes. This urban exploration by Artifex Forge steps up the game in street art online.

Watercolor Illustrator Art Brushes

Eighteen different strokes are available that highlights watercolor in the art brush options for the screen. These textures can be layered and colored for backgrounds and dynamic shape additions to text or photo applications in Illustrator. This beautiful brush kit is one that artists can adapt fundamental paint applications within the software.  This set is flexible in changing size and dimension once the brushes are loaded within the brush panel in Illustrator.

Vector Watercolor Brushes

Forty-four modern digital watercolor brushes are included in this set. From thin to thick stroke application, this 100% created on paper than scanned in for digitization brushes help to bring another depth of texture to your work. They are usable for posters, banners, and larger projects that need a splash of color and texture to accompany the text.

Collection of Hand-Made Brushes

Wow! Over 150 brushes are in this collection! It is a combo pack of watercolor, charcoal, and ink brushes. With this many brush options, you can create a digital mix medium in your illustrative approach. Art Illustrator brushes are essential to an illustrator's or graphic artist's tool set. There are over 83 high-quality handmade brushes which make this set a MUST on our list.

Chunky Markers

Smell the permanent marker now! Back in the day of labeling moving boxes with those large black markers, this brush set is one that gives texture and feel to your illustrations. There are 34 realistic marker brush strokes in this brush. It is samples from actual markers to give it the 85% coverage you are looking for with a few missing spots for realistic pen strokes on the screen. A quick reference guide and sample files are included to learn how to use each brush.

Scribbler Brushes

The new and improved version no longer has the nemesis of stretching brushes. This new set of 48 bristle brush strokes are inspired by mid-20th century illustrators in their pencil look. You can draw naturally as if the screen is a sketch pad with confidence in this set.

Antique Print Effect Brushes

The old fashion newsprint illustrations come to life on the big screen. Well, maybe not a big screen by a 24 inch one that transfers it to a big screen anyways! This is another brush option in the arsenal that allows fro pressure sensitivity with its 32 brushes. For those professional illustrators that like to use graphic pads this is another must addition for you to create dynamic brush artwork in Illustrator. Remember to read everything though. This has an extensive how to upload and use guide included!

Scatter Texture Brushes

Fully focuses on textures, these brush options utilize the typical nature textures we see around us and apply them to an extensive design scheme for Adobe Illustrator. By using these pattern brush options you can add a dynamic to the creative project you are work on with a brush. There are 48 high-resolution vector options in this set!

Stipple Brushes for Illustrator

This brush set is one that has 18 brushes evenly divided between the stroke brushes and stipple brushes. This set is creative with teh 1970's vibe from the Eclectica Stipple Brushes Studio for Illustrator. It is one that can be used in brush artwork needing to channel the Retro phase! 

Outline Brushes

These outline brushes are loud in their delivery. This collection boasts of 2 parts to this set and a “how-to” graphic included for a professional designer to utilize the set to its full capability. There is even a demo file included as shown (the skull) for you to study how the look can be mastered with the included brushes. All these brushes come in sets of outlines from fat to thin for the designer. Creative projects that need a little “pop” need to have this brush included. 

Essential Artistic Illustrator Brushes Collection

The Essential Artistic brush collection is diverse in that it has scattered brushes, artistic brushes, and patterned brushes to create a set of 28 brush in Illustrator. This is a set of quality brushes that add to a professional's artwork in Adobe Illustrator. There is a nature texture to the brush shape and patterning adding diversity to you project.

Flow Brushes

This set of 68 no-stretch brushes is dynamic for flat, yet colored illustration in Adobe Illustrator. You can create multiple strokes and layer your illustration without stretching each stroke as an object. Flow brushes are premium Illustrator brushes that allow a graphic designer the lateral exploration of digital illustration. This set works well in in CS6 back to CS3; however, only in Adobe CC's version can you automatically apply rounded corners!

Plant Branch Brushes

This set is an smaller set of plant anatomy brushes at its core. It can be used well for borders if used in strands of multiple brush strokes. The pattern brush is designed to create a symmetrical design element such as a border or underline. They are illustrative and 2-dimensional in form.

Cuba Illustrator Brushes

This set comes in a 4 pack set working with CS6+ versions of Illustrator. The brush file is intended for professional designers' use. If you are a Mac user, all you have to do is drag the files into your brush panel for Illustrator.

Chain and Barbed Wire Pattern Brushes

This vector brush pack is one that is patterned. It is meant to replicate itself into endless designs with a metallic feel. By adding this to your brush tool arsenal you will have a basic and solid brush style to use with other styles in layering a creative illustration.

Tattoo Style Art Brushes

There are 31 styled brushes total in this pack from stippled scatters, dashes lines, standard lines, and fat to thin lines. These stipple shading brushes replicate the effect that a skin and ink artist does with tattoos. The digital illustrations that are capable of shading are extraordinary. However, the limitation is that this only works in CS1 and Adobe CC versions of Illustrator.

Authentic Acrylic Brushes

The feel of bristle brush strokes is authentic with this brush set. Each brush was crafted from real acrylic paints and brushes. This set houses 20 realistic acrylic brush strokes. This pack only works in CS5+ versions of Illustrator. It is a version-sensitive brush making it extremely unique and hard to utilize at times. If you need banners or borders for a design project this is the brush set to use.

Wood Grain Brushes

Woodcuts – Brushes that define rugged and ruff cut. Typography designers can utilize this brush set to create fonts or designers can use it as a background texture to add to any design. Create custom textures with these 13 wood art brushes and 3 wood cross-section scattered brushes to create different depths and items needing a wood grain accent.

Final Thoughts on Illustrator Brushes

Adding some or all of these brush sets to your toolbox as a graphic designer or professional illustrator would enhance your project's deliverable to your client. Most of these brushes come with instructions or tutorials on how to use them. By adding these items to a brush folder in your Adobe Illustrator application folder you would have direct access underneath the brush icon in the program to load options endlessly. The brush library file that lives within the application folder is underutilized by many trained designers. Now is the time to build the library under the brush button option if you want to accelerate your design from good to great!