Photoshop Brushes – 12 Free Brush Sets

Photoshop brushes are a dime a dozen on the web these days. The problem isn’t so much in finding the brushes but in finding brushes that are actually worth anything to you. Anyone working in Photoshop needs a good set of quality brushes. Lets get into a few of the better free brush sets out there and see if we can make your arsenal that much stronger.

Loading most of these brush sets is simple: Copy the .abr file to your Photoshop/Presets/Brushes folder and then load up Photoshop and find them installed in your Brushes Palette. You may be able to drag and drop the .abr file right into your Brushes Palette when Photoshop is open.

Splatter Brushes

These brushes are everywhere, grunge is great! Paint splats and drips are useful in many ways, I use them in my work to build up subtle textures and break down layer masks. Here are some good variations in this common theme. Some start to look similar to each other, but the good thing about brush sets is that you can delete the ones you won’t be using and keep the good ones.

Messy spraypaint:

http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-hi-res-photoshop-brushes-messy-spraypaint

Splashes of paint:

http://mouritsada-stock.deviantart.com/art/Brush-Pack-Splashes-Of-Paint-94180220

Gradient splats:

http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/527-Gradient-Splats

Paint smudges:

http://designblurb.com/20-painted-photoshop-brushes/

Dry Brushes

Dry brushes give that rough feel and add lots to creating a texture. Think of them as the opposite to the brushes above, both have specific advantages.

Rough and grungy:

http://www.brusheezy.com/brush/1403-High-Quality-Rough-and-Grungy-Photoshop-Brushes

Smokey:

http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/358

Sky and clouds:

http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/351

Tape:

http://keepwaiting.deviantart.com/art/Tizzape-Tape-Brushes-29459997

Pattern Brushes

Patterns can give you good, quick lines and shapes to add to backgrounds in graphics or used on their own can bring new zest to a design

Bitmap and Halftones:

http://komettails.net/brushes/all/2/

Halftone:

http://idesignbrushes.com/halftone-three

3D Halftone:

http://idesignbrushes.com/3d-halftone-brushes

Spirals:

http://idesignbrushes.com/spiral-brushes

Brush sets are an important part in any Photoshop users design arsenal. Some of these brushes get a bit repetitive but as I stated above, pick and choose which ones you like and simply throw the other ones away! Let me know if you have any brush sets out there that I may have missed, I am always looking for more!

Don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.