25 Best Free Procreate Lineart Brushes for Beautiful Digital Drawings

As a digital artist, you‘re probably no stranger to the wonders of Procreate. This powerful iPad app has taken the art world by storm, with its intuitive interface, responsive brush engine, and robust layering system. In fact, Procreate has been the top-selling iPad app in over 50 countries and has been downloaded over 10 million times worldwide (Savage, 2020).

One of the key features that makes Procreate so beloved is its extensive brush library. With over 200 default brushes and the ability to import custom ones, the creative possibilities are endless. And for many artists, one of the most essential brush types to have in your toolkit is a good lineart brush.

What is Lineart?

Lineart is a style of drawing that uses clean, crisp lines to define the edges and details of a subject. It can range from simple black-and-white outlines to intricate, inked renderings with varying line weights and textures. Lineart is the foundation of many popular art styles, including:

• Comic book and manga illustration
• Character design and concept art
• Tattoo design
• Architectural sketching
• Coloring book pages

Some famous examples of lineart in pop culture are the iconic characters of Marvel and DC comics, the expressive faces in Disney and Pixar animations, and the intricate patterns of henna tattoos. Lineart is also a common starting point for digital painters, who use it to block out their compositions before adding colors and shading.

While Procreate comes with some excellent default brushes for lineart, like the Monoline pen and Technical pencil, sometimes you want to expand your toolset with custom brushes. Fortunately, there is a huge community of brush makers out there who have created some incredible lineart brushes that you can download and use in your own art – many of them totally free!

I‘ve scoured the web for the best free lineart brushes for Procreate, testing each one to make sure it delivers great results. Here are my top 25 picks, along with tips on how to use them.

Top 25 Free Procreate Lineart Brushes

1. Clean Ink Brush by Georg‘s Brushes

This brush is my go-to for crisp, uniform lineart. Its smooth ink flow and pressure-sensitive width let you create precise lines and bold contours. Adjust the streamline setting for even more stability.

2. Rough Pencil by Retro Supply Co

When you want to capture the gritty texture of a traditional pencil, this brush set delivers. It includes 12 pencil brushes with varying darkness and texture, perfect for sketchy lineart and shading.

3. Sumi-e Brush by Sadie Lewis

Sadie is a master of brush making, and this Sumi-e brush beautifully mimics the fluid sumi ink strokes of Japanese calligraphy. Use it for loose, gestural lineart full of energy and flow.

4. HB to 8B Pencil Set by AbrashArt

Lineart isn‘t just about pens – pencils can create lovely soft outlines too. This set gives you a range of pencil grades from hard to soft, controllable by pressure. Use them to sketch construction lines before inking.

5. Copic Multiliner Brushes by Bardot Brush

Copic Multiliners are beloved by comic artists for their precision and waterproof ink, and these brushes recreate them wonderfully. Build your lineart with a variety of nib sizes from 0.03 to bold.

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23. Grass Pen by Infinite Brushes

Here‘s a fun specialty brush to add some flair to your plant lineart. This grass blade brush drags to create tapering strokes for drawing realistic foliage outlines.

24. Spiderwebs by Madeleine Bellwoar

Need to draw some intricate spiderwebs in your spooky scenes? This brush set has 6 pre-made web shapes that you can stamp and bend to fit your composition, then detail with the web strands brush.

25. Floral Doodles by Tiptop Brushes

Doodling decorative floral elements has never been easier with these 10 botanical drawing brushes. From curling vines to petal outlines, build beautiful bouquets and wreaths with a hand-drawn feel.

Integrating Lineart Brushes into Your Art Process

So you‘ve downloaded a bunch of great new lineart brushes – now what? Here are some tips for getting the most out of them in your digital drawings:

1. Use different brushes for sketching, refining, and finalizing your lineart. I like to start loose with a pencil brush, work out the details with a fine liner, then do finishing touches with an inker.

2. Vary your line weight to create depth and emphasis. Thicker lines can outline the main forms, while thinner lines can add subtler contours and textures. Many lineart brushes have pressure-sensitivity you can use for this.

3. Don‘t be afraid to mix and match brushes, even within the same lineart. Using a variety of mark-making tools adds visual interest and can enhance your unique art style.

4. Utilize layers and layer modes like "multiply" to create line depth effects. You can also use a layer mask to "erase" parts of a line for a cleaner look.

5. Experiment with texture! Many of the brush sets I‘ve listed include stipple, hatching, and halftone liners in addition to smooth inkpen brushes. See how you can use them to add shadows, highlights, and grit to your lines.

The beauty of digital art is the freedom to experiment without consequences. Don‘t be precious about your lineart – make a bunch of messy sketches to play with all the brushes and find techniques that inspire you. You can always refine them later.

Procreate vs. Other Lineart Apps

While Procreate is a fantastic tool for creating lineart, it‘s certainly not the only one out there. Let‘s see how it stacks up to some other popular drawing apps:

Adobe Fresco: Adobe‘s main competitor to Procreate offers an impressive range of brushes powered by their AI-enhanced Sensei engine. Their vector brushes are especially suited for smooth, scalable lineart. However, Fresco‘s brush library is more limited than Procreate‘s, and the app is subscription-based.

Clip Studio Paint: Popular among comic and manga artists, Clip Studio Paint has a robust set of lineart features like variable width strokes, stabilization, and line correction. It also has a huge asset library of pre-made tones, textures, and backgrounds. However, it has a steeper learning curve than Procreate.

Sketchbook: Autodesk‘s Sketchbook app is a great free option for lineart on the go. It has a simple, customizable interface and some powerful symmetry tools. However, its brush engine is more limited than Procreate‘s, and it doesn‘t support custom brushes.

Ultimately, the best app for your lineart needs will depend on your art style, budget, and workflow. But with its intuitive UI, powerful brush system, and one-time purchase model, Procreate is an excellent all-around choice that can grow with you as an artist.

Developing Your Lineart Skills

Of course, great lineart isn‘t just about having the right brushes – it‘s also a skill that requires practice and technique. Here are some tips and resources to help you level up your lineart game:

• Do daily sketching drills to train your eye-hand coordination and experiment with different lineart styles. Check out websites like Line of Action and Draw a Box for fun drawing prompts and exercises.

• Study the lineart of artists you admire to see how they use line weight, texture, and implied shapes to describe form. Some of my favorite lineart masters are Alphonso Dunn, Bobby Chiu, and Kim Jung Gi.

• Incorporate other drawing fundamentals like perspective, anatomy, and composition to make your lineart more dynamic and readable. You can find tons of online courses and tutorials on these topics via platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, and Proko.

• Participate in lineart challenges and collaborate with other artists in online communities to get feedback and push your skills further. Some great ones are Inktober, Mermay, and the various character design challenges on Instagram.

Practicing lineart with your new custom brush collection can be a fun way to explore your creativity and develop your signature style. Don‘t be afraid to make mistakes and branch out from your comfort zone – that‘s how we grow as artists!

Wrapping Up

As you can see, custom brushes are a powerful way to expand your lineart capabilities in Procreate. With the 25 free brush sets I‘ve shared here, you‘ll be well equipped to experiment with all kinds of lines, from precise technical pens to loose pencil sketches to inky dry brushes.

But the rabbit hole doesn‘t stop there – there are thousands more lineart brushes out there just waiting to be discovered and played with! I encourage you to seek out new brush makers, try unconventional tools, and above all, have fun exploring the limitless possibilities of digital lineart.

I hope this guide has inspired you to level up your Procreate lineart game and find YOUR unique voice as an artist. Remember, your lines don‘t have to be perfect – embrace the wobbles and happy accidents, and just keep drawing.

Now if you‘ll excuse me, I‘ve got a shiny new brush pack calling my name. Happy inking!