The power in an artist’s ammunition lies in the diversity of tools they use. Having a kit of brushes for multiple software under your toolbelt can really help beginner digital artists achieve nuanced finishes and up their overall game. So whether you’re looking to experiment with different tools to find your perfect match, or are trying to expand your repertoire to strengthen your portfolio, here are 12 of the best tools artists use to draw digitally: 

Didier Nguyen's Photoshop Sketching Brushes

These custom sketching brushes are multi-purpose, and can be utilized for all platforms to achieve various styles of sketching. These brushes can be used for fine and detailed line art, textures and shading, background strokes, grain, and more.

This brush set contains:

• 5 sketching brushes for Photoshop
• 1-hour demo video without music
• 1-minute demo video with music

Sebijy Essentials Brush Pack

This diverse set has more brushes than you may ever need! These brushes can be used to create advanced portraits, but can also satisfy other painting needs.

The bundle of brushes includes:

• 90+ brushes for Clip Studio Paint
• Youtube demo, which you can find here

Essential BrushPack 2019 Sketchbook Pro

If you were wondering how to diversify or alter standard brush kits, this pack of modified brushes will help you achieve just that. You’ll receive the altered brushes as well as a video tutorial on how to do so, so you can upskill your brush game.

This kit consists of:

• Trent Kaniuga’s essential brushes for Sketchbook Pro
• 8-minute video tutorial

Note: These brushes were created for the subscription version of Sketchbook Pro and may not be compatible with other versions.

Macalabs Procreate 5 Brushpack

This varied set of brushes are great tools for drawing, rendering and other special effects. The popular Macalabs brush pack, originally made for Photoshop, has been recreated for Procreate. 

The brush pack contains:

• 30 sketching brushes for Procreate
• 1 bonus ink-sumi spray brush

Note: These brushes were created for Procreate 5 and may not be compatible with other versions.

Brush pack Pro II for Procreate 5 iPad

This pack of brushes is made for the pros, and therefore extremely versatile. Some of these brushes are used by Loish, which is illustrated in the demo, in which their various uses are explained. 

With this bundle, you’ll receive:

• 82 brushes for Procreate
• Youtube demo
• Youtube install tutorial

Brush Set Vol. 2 for Clip Studio Paint / MS 5

This bundle contains a series of texture brushes that imitate natural media in order to achieve a soft finish to your drawings. They are compatible with Clip Studio Paint Pro and EX, as well as Manga Studio 5.

This brush kit consists of:

• 9 texture brushes for Clip Studio Paint
• Install instructions

Trent's Photoshop Brushes

This Trent Kaniuga kit includes a series of Photoshop brushes that he uses in all of his most popular Youtube videos. They also include gradient map presets, which can help streamline your workflow.

The pack contains:

• Brushes for Photoshop
• Video tutorial
• Gradient map presets

Note: These brushes are only compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS5 or later.

Line Art – Procreate Brushes

If you’re a beginner digital artist looking to enter the world of comics, manga, or niche illustration, this set of Procreate brushes will help give you a boost! These pressure- and tilt-sensitive brushes were created to digitally replicate the expressive lines found in traditional media to help you achieve realistic results.

In this bundle, you’ll receive:

• 16 ink and line art brushes for Procreate
• PDF guide

Photoshop Pencils

This wide range of pencil brushes is for those interested in comics, storyboarding, roughs, and sketches. These brushes will help you achieve flawless layouts, notations, lettering and technical drawings.

This pack contains:

• 82 pencil brushes for Photoshop

Drawing Box – Procreate Brushes

If you’re coming from the world of traditional art, you’ve probably been wondering, “what DO artists use to draw digitally?” This drawing brush set for Procreate is possibly one of the closest you’ll find to the real thing. These realistic dry media brushes emulate various types of mediums, such as charcoal, colored pencils, crayons, and more.

The brush set includes:

• 29 varied brushes

Note: These brushes are only compatible with Procreate 4 and later.

Pencil Brushes for Sketching

This collection contains over 70 pencil brushes to help you achieve the effect of sketching and drawing with a traditional mechanical pencil on paper. There are 4 groups of brushes for various finishes, including line art, scratch, soft sketch and charcoal.

This bundle consists of:

• 70 sketching brushes for Photoshop

Note: These brushes were created for use in Photoshop, and may not work as effectively in other software, such as Clip Studio Paint and Procreate.

Procreate Brush Pack

For those missing the feeling of physical hand-drawn work, this pack is perfect for you. These realistic Procreate brush pencils were created to emulate analog drawing with the ease of digital methods and has a plethora of options to choose from, so that you have plenty to explore.

This pack contains:

• 44 pencil brushes for Procreate
• 7 paper textures in both color and transparent
• PDF cheatsheet

What do artists use to draw digitally besides these amazing brushes? Check out Cubebrush’s extensive library of resources to experiment with all the best tools in the CG world today!