How to Make Your Own Brush in Procreate
How to Make Your Own Custom Brushes in Procreate
Introduction
Procreate is a powerful and intuitive digital illustration app for iPad that has become an essential tool for artists, designers, letterers, and more. One of the standout features of Procreate is the ability to create your own custom brushes from scratch. While Procreate comes with a wide selection of excellent default brushes, making your own allows you to craft the perfect brush to suit your artistic style and needs.
Creating custom brushes opens up a world of creative possibilities, from recreating the look and feel of traditional art media to making unique brushes for special effects and flourishes. Your imagination is the only limit! In this guide, we‘ll walk through the process of setting up a new brush in Procreate‘s Brush Studio and explain what each setting does. Let‘s get started!
Accessing the Brush Studio
To make a new brush, start by opening a canvas and selecting the paintbrush tool from the toolbar at the top of the screen. Tap on the brush icon in the top right to open the Brush Library. Here you‘ll see all the default and custom brushes currently available. To create a new one, tap the + button in the upper right corner.
This will launch the Brush Studio, where you can customize every aspect of your brush‘s appearance and behavior. The Brush Studio can seem overwhelming at first with so many different settings, but they‘re grouped into logical categories. We‘ll go through each one so you understand how they shape your brush.
Tour of the Brush Studio
The Brush Studio is divided into seven main sections:
• Shape – This determines the shape of the brush tip and its spacing as you draw a stroke. You can select a shape from the default options or import your own.
• Grain – Adding a grain gives your brush a textured appearance, like paper grain or canvas. You can choose from preset options or import custom grain images.
• Dynamics – These settings control how the brush behaves based on your drawing speed and the pressure/tilt of your stroke. This includes size, opacity, and scatter.
• Apple Pencil – If you‘re using an Apple Pencil, you can customize its pressure curve and tilt settings here for more expressive strokes.
• General – Miscellaneous settings like the blend mode, opacity, and whether your brush is restricted to the layer‘s alpha.
• Stroke Path – Gives you control over the stroke‘s taper as well as options for smoothing and streamlining.
• Rendering – Advanced settings for light, shading and burn effects.
Now let‘s dive deeper into the key settings you‘ll use to customize your brush.
Shape Settings
The Shape category is where you define the basic shape of your brush tip. The Stroke Preview at the top lets you see how the shape translates into a brushstroke as you paint.
Use the Shape Source dropdown to select from the following options:
• Pro Library – Choose from preset shapes like round or square tips, stipple patterns, and more.
• Imported – Use your own black and white shape image. Tap Import to select it from your photos.
• Procedural – Mathematically generated shapes like discs, lines, stars, and spirals.
Below the shape selector are sliders to modify the brush tip:
• Spacing – This sets the distance between brush tip stamps as you draw a stroke. A lower spacing means the stamps overlap more for a solid line. Higher spacing makes a dashed stroke.
• Rotational Spacing – Checking this will rotate the brush tip as you draw based on the Rotation slider below. Great for calligraphic strokes!
• Jitter – Adds randomness to the scattering of brush tips in a stroke. Useful for more natural, organic looks.
• Fall Off – Fades the size, opacity or scatter of the stroke as you paint.
• Interpolated – Smooths angled brush strokes as you draw.
Grain Settings
Adding a grain to your brush introduces texture, as if you were painting on a toothy canvas or grainy paper. Like the Shape settings, you can select a Grain Source from presets or import your own image. For best results, use a high contrast, black and white image.
The Grain sliders give you control over the look of the texture:
• Scale – Makes the grain pattern larger or smaller.
• Zoom – Zooms into the center of the grain image.
• Rotation – Rotates the grain pattern.
• Depth – Adjust the strength and contrast of the grain.
Dynamics
The Dynamics section is where you determine how the brush behaves based on the speed and pressure of your stroke. This is key for capturing realistic, expressive strokes that respond to your drawing movements.
Each Dynamic effect has an Amount slider that controls how much it responds to your speed or pressure. The Preview stroke at the top simulates how the dynamics change as you draw.
• Size – The brush grows larger or smaller based on your drawing speed or pressure.
• Opacity – The brush becomes more or less transparent based on speed and pressure.
• Softness – The edges of the brush get softer or harder.
• Granularity – The spacing of the brush tip changes, breaking up the stroke.
• Volume – Adjusts the amount of paint being applied.
Apple Pencil & General Settings
If you‘re using an Apple Pencil, you can customize its pressure curve and tilt sensitivity in the Apple Pencil tab. This allows you to optimize the brush to respond naturally to your unique drawing movements and grip.
The General settings cover the brush‘s Blend Mode (how it mixes with colors underneath), as well as its Maximum and Minimum Opacity. The Clipping toggle restricts the brush to the current layer‘s alpha channel, preventing overspray on the background.
At the very top of the General settings, give your custom brush a descriptive name so it‘s easy to find later.
Saving & Organizing Brushes
Once you‘re happy with your brush settings, tap Done in the top right to save it. You‘ll see it appear in your current Brush Library. To keep your brushes organized, you can create new folders called Brush Sets.
Tap and hold on your brush preview to bring up additional options:
• Duplicate – Makes a copy you can tweak and modify.
• Share – Exports the brush to share with other Procreate users.
• Delete – Removes the brush from your library.
To create a new Brush Set folder:
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Tap and hold on your Brush Library
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Drag downwards to reveal the New Set button
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Tap New Set, give it a name, and hit OK
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Drag and drop brushes into the set to organize them
Creative Custom Brush Ideas
Now that you know your way around the Brush Studio, here are some ideas to spark your creativity:
• Gouache – Use the Artists Gouache shape, add some gritty grain, and dynamics that respond to speed/pressure for an organic paint look.
• Stipple Shading – Pick a stipple pattern for the shape and randomize its scatter and rotation for realistic stipple shading.
• Vintage Brush Pen – Choose a narrow oval shape with pressure dynamics to mimic the look of brush lettering.
• Glitch Effect – Import a noisy grain and use the Smudge blend mode to create cool digital glitch distortions.
• Halftone Dots – Use a halftone dot shape and dynamics to recreate old school comic book shading.
These are just a few examples – the creative combinations are endless! Don‘t be afraid to experiment with unconventional settings.
Troubleshooting Tips
If your custom brush isn‘t behaving as expected, here are some things to check:
• Is the brush too transparent? Check the Maximum Opacity in General settings.
• Brush is too small/faint? Increase the brush size in the Shape settings.
• Stroke is too sparse? Decrease the spacing between brush tips.
• Grain texture not showing? Make sure your grain image has enough contrast. Use pure black and white for best results.
Remember, you can always go back and edit a brush if you don‘t like how it turned out. Tap the brush name and hit Edit to jump back into the Brush Studio and make changes.
Wrap-Up
Creating your own custom brushes in Procreate is a fun way to expand your creativity and artistic expression. The Brush Studio puts an endless array of unique brushes at your fingertips. Experiment with the settings and let happy accidents guide you to unexpected brush textures and behaviors.
As you create new brushes, remember to keep them organized in Sets so they‘re easy to find later. And don‘t forget to share your custom creations with the Procreate community!
With practice and experimentation, you‘ll hone your own signature collection of brushes that bring your digital artwork to life. Happy brushmaking!