Creating Brushes in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

In Adobe Illustrator, you can stylise the appearance of paths using custom brushes (a path is the black drawing line in Adobe Illustrator).

There are many types of brush features in Illustrator: calligraphic, scatter, art, pattern, and bristle, but today we will focus on three Brushes, commonly used by designers:

1.Scatter Brushes 

Scatter brush makes random copies of objects in different angle and size along the path. It is a great way to randomise objects along a path. We will show you how to work with the Scatter Brush shortly.

2. Art Brushes

Art brushes take any Illustrator objects and extend them along a path. See below tutorial!


3. Pattern brushes

Pattern Brush is a personal favourite and great for generating seamless repeat patterns and creating intricate designs quickly. Learn how to make a seamless brush pattern in 3 simple steps!

1. Keep elements as straight as possible use a drawing guide to make it easier

2. Rotate your design -90degrees

3. Drag and drop to the Brushes Panal and select Pattern Brush option and play around with the settings and see what works best for you! 

See below tutorials for inspiration! 

Combining Brushes!

Fancy a creative challenge? Learn how to create a custom Brush in Illustrator using all three Brushes!

Part 1: You will learn how to prepare the Brush and learn to use the Scatter Brush and Art Brush!
Part 2: You will learn how to prepare your designs to define your Pattern Brush!

Free email-course on the essentials


Custom Brushes in Photoshop

Creating Custom Brushes in Photoshop will come in handy in lots of creative projects! from painting to creative typography! See below tutorials for inspiration!



Photoshop Free Brushes!

Below I have listed some FREE cool Brushes you can download today for Adobe Photoshop. For free stock sites for Brushes, check out Brusheezy and Vecteezy both offer Brushes for Photoshop and Illustrator.

I hope you are feeling inspired and ready to start creating custom brushes! If you follow along to any of our tutorials, then be sure to tag us on Instagram or Facebook or use hashtag #yesimadesigner

​

UP NEXT

Learn how to create Textures in Illustrator to add shading to your artwork

Click here.

About the author 

Shumi Perhiniak

Shumi is a self-taught graphic designer and illustrator who has worked for Toni&Guy, Renaissance Learning, Baker Ross, and many others.

Additionally, she owned a brick-and-mortar stationery shop selling her art prints and now sells wholesale to retailers and online shops under the brand name www.herdesignworld.com.

Related topics you might be interested in

Make your portfolio stand out by participating in our Magazine Spread Contest! See how you can participate and have your work reviewed and featured on our YouTube channel.

Continue reading

Take part in our Design Contest and enhance your portfolio! Find out more about how to take part and get your work reviewed and featured on our YouTube channel.

Continue reading

Grow your personal “garden” of inspiration and references with the awesome online tool: mymind.

Continue reading

Here are five top mistakes you should avoid when putting together your portfolio

Continue reading

Top Graphic Design trends that will shape the creative industry in 2024 and beyond!

Continue reading

Get familiar with Type Anatomy, today we want to introduce you familiarise you with some odd but very useful typographic terms!

Continue reading

Having a hard time finding the perfect gift for your creative friends? We can help! Take a look at these 18 brilliant gifts for designers!

Continue reading

We will cover the basics of graphic design theory and explain everything you need to know to start creating beautiful designs!

Continue reading