45 Free Photoshop Brushes

Brushes can save you some serious time when it comes to adding design flourishes, so we’ve rounded up our favourite free Photoshop brushes.

The web is absolutely full of free Photoshop brushes – there are thousands of sites offering free brushes just a click away, but this makes it incredibly difficult to find good quality, free brushes. To save you some time, we’ve rounded up of our favourite sets that we think every designer should have!

Photoshop brushes are a fantastic time-saver as they allow you to quickly create rich artwork without having to draw all the individual design elements. There’s a huge spectrum of brushes available ranging from leaf designs to grungy textures, clouds to typography. WhilePhotoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC do ship with a set of brushes pre-installed, these only scratch the surface of what’s possible with the brush engine, so grab the free downloads below and start adding superb design flourishes to your work!

01. Texture Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A useful selection of nine different fabrics that show off the weave and pattern of the material with a scratchy realism.

02. Starfield

free Photoshop brushes

Four brushes, each at 2500px square, allowing you to quickly create detailed star patterns and celestial dust clouds.

03. Feathers and Birds

free Photoshop brushes

A total of 12 individual brushes, each of which includes a stand-alone piece of artwork ranging from detailed feather illustrations, to whimsical birds-on-a-branch.

04. Gritty and Grunge

free Photoshop brushes

Seven useful brushes that will instantly add a grimy background to your work, featuring useful specks and splatters as well as areas of grit.

05. Spray Splatter

free Photoshop brushes

A lovely collection of 12 brushes covering up to 2500px each. This set features a range of spray patterns suitable for generating dirty backgrounds and textures, or highlighting typography.

06. Speckle Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

This superb set of five Photoshop brushes were made using a piece of toast. No, seriously!

  • Limitations: none

07. Technical Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A beautiful set of 10 illustrative brushes in a technical-drawing theme, including wonderfully detailed cross-sectional designs.

  • Limitations: none

08. Heads Up Display pack

free Photoshop brushes

A set of 30 high-resolution brushes that provide all the elements of a HUD in the style of Iron Man. Includes brilliant details such as exploded diagrams and topographical renderings.

  • Limitations: non-commercial only

09. Nature Silhouettes

free Photoshop brushes

This is a really useful set of 19 different silhouettes, each featuring a different flora, ranging from trees to grasses.

  • Limitations: none

10. Grimey Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A useful set of brushes for adding a bit of dirt to your images, this collection of five brushes from Mattox Shuler is understated but incredibly versatile.

  • Limitations: none

11. Paint Lines

free Photoshop brushes

These 24 very high resolution brushes will provide a real-media feel to your design work. Some brushes look like paint tin marks, while others are thicker, providing lots of options within the pack.

  • Limitations: none

12. Sponge Party

free Photoshop brushes

Some beautiful textures make up this collection of eight high quality brushes, including some excellent sponge brush marks, great for adding timbre to collage work.

  • Limitations: none

13. Coffee Stain Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

Some excellent stain marks that would pass equally well for daubs of ink as much as coffee or tea. These brushes add a nice degree of life-wear to your images, instantly aging them.

  • Limitations: none

14. Gradient Shapes

free Photoshop brushes

A nice set of simple swishes that incorporate gradient colours to provide a modern, soft-edged finesse to any graphic design project.

  • Limitations: Free for personal and commercial use

15. My Heart Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

These 18 love heart themed brushes have a nice real media feel that sets these apart from some of the alternatives available on the web.

  • Limitations: none

16. Smoke Brush Set

free Photoshop brushes

A great collection of smoke art from Graham Jeffery, saved as 21 different brushes.

  • Limitations: Non-commercial

17. Vintage Wooden Brush

free Photoshop brushes

This simple brush offered by Creative Nerds brings a wonderful, rich flaking wood texture to your brush arsenal.

  • Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

18. Hi-Res Clouds

free Photoshop brushes

This is a really useful set of 17 brushes, each of which features a different cloud design that can easily be used to add interest to your images

  • Limitations: None

19. 3D Halftone

free Photoshop brushes

A really nice set of halftone images arranged in 3D with perspective to create interesting patterns that add depth to designs

  • Limitations: Non-commercial

20. Dust Particle Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A really useful set of dust particle brushes from WeGraphics that add instant dirt and richness.

  • Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

21. Dried Blood Splatters

free Photoshop brushes

A full 117 brushes, each featuring a different dried blood effect. Great for creating blood effects, but also worthwhile for paint simulation.

  • Limitations: None

22. Scorched and burned

free Photoshop brushes

Another great set of brushes from WeGraphics that feature realistic scorch and burn effects in 10 different designs.

  • Limitations: Cannot be redistributed

23. Funky Paisley Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A rich set of brushes each featuring a paisley design element. Also includes the original PNG files the designer used to create the brushes.

  • Limitations: Non-Commercial Use

24. Grass and Plant Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

10 different brushes each featuring different grass and plant designs and ranging in size from 500px to 2500px.

  • Limitations: Attribution under some circumstances

25. Ornamental Butterflies 2

free Photoshop brushes

A beautiful set of butterflies and plant-based ornaments that can add a sophisticated touch to corners and borders.

  • Limitations: None

26. Hi-Res Photoshop Hair Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

An excellent set of isolated hair styles rendered as silhouettes.

  • Limitations: None

27. Dynamic Light Special FX Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

Create special lighting effects by using these brushes in combination with layer blending modes such as screen or vivid light.

  • Limitations: None

28. Night Sky Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

This set of brushes includes 13 different night sky elements including space dust, stars and moons.

  • Limitations: None

29. AP Brushes: Scar Face

free Photoshop brushes

Ideal if you want to introduce some scarring to portraits or simply generate beautifully textured background elements.

  • Limitations: None

30. VectorPack Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A nice range of circular brushes that are clean and modern.

  • Limitations: None

31. Hair Brushes Set 1

free Photoshop brushes

Great for providing touch-up on model photography, this set includes detailed textured hair in a variety of falling styles.

  • Limitations: Attribution necessary under some cirumstances

32. Sparkle Brush

free Photoshop brushes

A nice and simple brush that adds a sprinkle of diffused light orbs to bring a Disney-esque magic sparkle to your work.

  • Limitations: None

33. Tree Borders Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A nice set of brushes that allow you to introduce tree and bush silhouettes to the edge of your composition.

  • Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

34. GreenPack Random Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

Four green-themed brushes – mainly worth the download for the excellent tree illustration that’s included!

  • Limitations: None

35. Water Brushes Vol. 2

free Photoshop brushes

12 large brushes that include splashes, ripples and water drops. An excellent set for backgrounds as well as foreground design elements.

  • Limitations: None

36. Grunge and Smooth Floral Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A great set of mixed media brushes along a grunge and floral theme.

  • Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

37. Five Simple Fabric Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

Straightforward fabric textures, great for backgrounds in both print and web designs as they’re high resolution.

  • Limitations: None

38. Grunge2012

free Photoshop brushes

A great set of 25 grunge brushes with some excellent textures for adding detail to your work.

  • Limitations: Non-Commercial use only

39. Floral Swirls

free Photoshop brushes

Useful set of floral swirl brushes ideal for building up rich borders and textures in both print and web designs.

  • Limitations: None

40. World Map Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

A beautiful map in 12 brushes that feature the work of 16th Century cartographer Marin Waldeemuller.

41. Antique Postcards

free Photoshop brushes

This wonderful collection of six antique postcard designs provides an excellent background for further design work. Each card brush features text and a delightful patina.

  • Limitations: None

42. Moon Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

This excellent set provides 10 different phases of the moon in brush format!

  • Limitations: None

43. 7 High Resolution Leaf Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

Great for creating organic textured background, this set features seven isolated leaf images with intricate details and textures.

  • Limitations: None

44. Fractal Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

An excellent selection of fractal-based brushes that look futuristic – great for web design.

  • Limitations: None

45. Fractal V Brushes

free Photoshop brushes

This pack of six brushes contains some lovely organic shapes.

  • Limitations: Some usage/distribution restricted
  • Limitations: None

Words: Sam Hampton-Smith