30+ Best Free Adobe Illustrator Brushes 2021

If you’re looking for new and creative Illustrator brushes to expand your collection, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’re sharing a collection of handpicked and free Adobe Illustrator brushes in various categories.

Whether you’re an artist working on a new drawing or a designer enhancing a digital design, this list has all sorts of Illustrator brushes for everyone. Keep scrolling to explore the collection and be sure to download all the brushes. After all, they are free!

We’ve also created a quick guide on how to add brushes to Illustrator to help you out with installing these.

What Type of Free Illustrator Brush Do You Need?

We’ve broken our collection down into different categories, so you can quickly find just the right Illustrator brush for your project!

  • Pro Brushes
  • Watercolor Brushes
  • Calligraphy Brushes
  • Paint Brushes
  • Texture Brushes
  • Line Art Brushes
  • Ink Brushes
  • Abstract Brushes
  • Hair Brushes

Here are just a few great brushes you can download when you subscribe to Envato Elements.

80+ Watercolor ProBrushes for Illustrator

80+ Watercolor ProBrushes for Illustrator

This is a bundle full of Illustrator brushes with various styles of textures. It includes 83 brushes with watercolor strokes and textures. All of which have been handcrafted by a professional designer. The brushes are available in dry, strokes, thin, and a few other categories and they are compatible with Illustrator CS3 and higher.

28 Shader Brushes for Illustrator

28 Shader Brushes for Illustrator

Shading is one of the most time-consuming tasks of digital illustrations. But, with this pack of Illustrator brushes, you’ll be able to cut that work in half. The bundle includes 28 unique shader brushes in 4 categories made just for Illustrator. As an added bonus, it also comes with 12 textures.

Outstanding Oil Paint Brushes for Illustrator

Outstanding Oil Paint Brushes for Illustrator

If you’re a fan of oil panting-style drawing, this collection of oil paint brushes will come in handy. It includes 50 different brushes that you can use to draw illustrations with realistic oil painting look and feel. The brushes are compatible with Illustrator CS1 and higher.

Vintage Illustrator Brush-Kit for Designers

Vintage Illustrator Brush-Kit for Designers

This brush kit is designed for artists who work with vintage-themed drawing styles. The bundle includes 54 different vintage brushes with ink and pen styles. You can also adjust the width of the strokes without affecting the quality as well. You’ll need Illustrator CC to use this brush set.

Liquid Style Brushes for Illustrator

Liquid Style Brushes for Illustrator

Featuring a retro look and vibe, this pack of Illustrator brushes comes with a trendy liquid style strokes and textures. They are perfect for adding textures and stylistic elements to your various print and digital designs. The brushes are compatible with Illustrator CS5 and higher.

Retro Comic Book Tool Kit – Brushes + Patterns

The Retro Comic Book Tool Kit - Brushes + Patterns

Comic book artists will surely appreciate this bundle of goodies for Illustrator. It comes complete with 84 vector brushes, 4 comic book texture patterns, overlays, layer styles, and everything you need to draw comic-themed illustrations and designs.

Multicolor Mixed Paint Brushes for Illustrator

Multicolor Mixed Paint Brushes for Illustrator

This is a very unique brush kit for Illustrator that features 21 brush strokes as graphic styles that allows you to paint with 3 different colors at once. It also includes 24 color swatches but of course, you can also add your own colors. If you’re new to graphic styles, there’s a tutorial on how to use them as well.

Stipple Brush Set for Photoshop & Illustrator

Stipple Brush Set for Photoshop and Illustrator

Stipple brushes are mainly used to adding texture and depth to drawings but with this bundle of Illustrator brushes, you’ll be able to do much more. It includes 30 stipple brushes for Illustrator and 32 brushes for Photoshop.

Free Watercolor Illustrator Brushes

Free Japan Watercolor Brushes for Illustrator

Free Japan Watercolor Brushes for Illustrator

This collection of beautiful Illustrator brushes feature a set of watercolor brushes inspired by Japanese designs. It includes both paint and calligraphy brushes that are perfect for creative artists and illustrators. The brushes are compatible with Illustrator CS3 and higher.

Essential Vector Brushes for Illustrator

Essential Vector Brushes for Illustrator

This is a free sample brush pack from a premium bundle. The free samples include various vector brushes you can use in Illustrator, including watercolor brushes, charcoal brushes, marker brushes, and more.

Free Creative Watercolor Illustrator Brush Set

Free Creative Watercolor Illustrator Brush Set

A bundle of creative watercolor brushes for Illustrator. These brushes feature realistic watercolor texture designs with both strokes and splash designs. They are most suitable for creative designers.

Free Multicolored Illustrator Brushes

Free Multicolored Illustrator Brushes

This set of free Illustrator brushes feature multicolored brush stroke designs. It includes 57 different designs you can use with your various creative projects.

Free Calligraphy Illustrator Brushes

Free 10 Calligraphy Illustrator Art Brushes

Free 10 Calligraphy Illustrator Art Brushes

If you’re looking for brushes for your calligraphy artworks, this brush pack is perfect for you. It includes 10 free calligraphy brushes for Illustrator featuring hand-crafted designs.

Free Artistic Sketch and Calligraphy Brushes

Free Adobe Illustrator Grunge Brushes

This set features a collection of simple and free Illustrator brushes you can use with both your sketch artworks as well as calligraphy designs. The brushes are free to use with your creative projects.

Free Paint Illustrator Brushes

12 Free Wax Crayon Effect Brushes for Illustrator

12 Free Wax Crayon Effect Brushes for Illustrator

A collection of bright and colorful brushes for Illustrator. This bundle includes 12 wax crayon brushes you can use to paint, draw, and add texture. These are pattern brushes and they will repeat along the path you draw.

12 Free Brush Stroke Illustrator Brushes

12 Free Brush Stroke Illustrator brushes

A bundle of free Illustrator brushes featuring watercolor and paint-style brush stroke designs. This pack is completely free to download and use with your creative projects.

Preppy Art – Free Illustrator Brushes

Preppy Art - Free Illustrator Brushes

Made from real paint strokes, this free pack of paint brushes for Illustrator is a must-have for every designer and artist. It includes 29 brushes in vector format with textures inspired by designs from the 1960s.

Marker Pen Strokes Free Illustrator Brushes

Marker Pen Strokes Free Illustrator Brushes

This set of free brush pack comes with a set of Illustrator brushes that feature marker pen stroke designs. It includes 64 different brush designs you can use to add texture and draw stylish illustrations.

Patts Brush Collection Free Sample

Patts Brush Collection Free Sample

Patts Brush collection is a premium Illustrator brush pack. The artist was kind enough to include a free sample set of brushes for you to try and use with your personal projects. You can download them for free.

Free Texture Illustrator Brushes

Free Spray & Hatch Illustrator Brushes

Free Spray & Hatch Illustrator Brushes

This is a collection of creative Illustrator brushes you can use to add texture to your designs. It includes two different styles of brushes featuring 10 spray painting brushes and 10 hatch texture brushes. All free to download.

30 Free Vintage Shading Brushes for Illustrator

30 Free Vintage Shading Brushes for Illustrator

Use this big bundle of shading brushes to give a vintage look and feel to your various graphic designs. It includes 30 brushes with various styles of designs. You can download them all for free.

Free Scribble & Scrawl Brushes for Illustrator

Free Scribble & Scrawl Brushes for Illustrator

Just as the name suggests, this brush set is designed for scribbling and scrawling. It includes 44 brushes featuring various styles. They are all perfect for drawing illustrations with child-like designs.

55 Free Illustrator Vector Brushes Collection

55 Free Illustrator Vector Brushes Collection

This is actually a premium brush pack that includes 55 high-quality texture brushes for Illustrator. Somehow the brush pack is still free to download. You better grab it while it lasts.

Free Wax Crayon Texture Illustrator Brushes

Free Wax Crayon Texture Illustrator Brushes

This free bundle features a set of 40 unique Illustrator brushes that feature creative wax crayon style textures. These are perfect for adding depth and textures to your drawings. The brushes are compatible with both Illustrator and Affinity Designer.

Small Wonders – Free Texture Illustrator Brushes

Small Wonders - Free Texture Illustrator Brushes

Small Wonders is a bundle of premium Illustrator brushes. But it also includes a free sample of the brush pack that includes a few texture brushes you can use in your personal design projects for free.

Free Line Art Illustrator Brushes

Free Outline Brushes for Illustrator

Free Outline Brushes for Illustrator

This set of free outline brushes for Illustrator will surely come in handy when you’re working with line art designs. This brush set features 60 different brushes including dashed, rounded, abstract, and various other brush styles.

Free Natural Line Art Illustrator Brushes

Free Natural Line Art Illustrator Brushes

A set of line art Illustrator brushes featuring natural flowing designs. These brushes are free to download and use with your personal projects.

Paper Tooth Free Illustrator Line Brushes

Paper Tooth Free Illustrator Line Brushes

This is a bundle of high-quality Illustrator brushes designed for creating vector line artworks. The pack includes multiple brushes with various stroke designs with jagged edges.

Free Floral Pattern Brushes For Illustrator

Free Floral Pattern Brushes For Illustrator

Even though this isn’t technically line art, we wanted to include this beautiful floral pattern brush set on our list. It includes 25 floral pattern brushes as well as 25 vector illustrations that work with Illustrator CS6 and higher.

Free Ink Illustrator Brushes

Free 24 Marker Pen Brushes for Illustrator

Free 24 Marker Pen Brushes for Illustrator

A set of marker pen brushes for creative projects. This pack comes with a set of 24 brushes in 6 different styles featuring outline, thick, scribble, messy, and many other styles of marker pen brush designs.

31 Free Hand Crafted Grunge Marker Brushes

31 Free Hand Crafted Grunge Marker Brushes

Another collection of marker brushes featuring hand-crafted brush designs. This bundle includes 31 different brushes with classic grunge designs. You can use them to draw art and craft backgrounds as well.

Free Dry Ink Illustrator Brushes

Free Dry Ink Illustrator Brushes

This free bundle includes a set of creative Illustrator brushes featuring dry ink designs. These brushes are ideal for creative projects and artworks.

Free Adobe Illustrator Grunge Brushes

Free Adobe Illustrator Grunge Brushes

Another free Illustrator brush pack that comes with a set of ink-like brushes with various grunge designs. These are most suitable for digital drawings.

Free Abstract Illustrator Brushes

Free Vintage Banner Brushes for Illustrator

Free Vintage Banner Brushes for Illustrator

This is a very unique abstract Illustrator brush pack that features a collection of banner brushes. These are perfect adding small banner icons and graphics to your artworks and designs.

Free Rope Brush for Illustrator

Free Rope Brush for Illustrator

A creative Illustrator brush featuring a rope-style texture design. This brush is perfect for adding borders and texture to different types of art and graphics.

Free Lipstick Vector Brushes for Illustrator

Free Lipstick Vector Brushes for Illustrator

An Illustrator brush with a lipstick stamp may seem quite odd at first, but it will serve as a great source when designing patterns and backgrounds for creative projects such as greeting cards and banners.

4 Free Doodle Brushes for Illustrator

4 Free Doodle Brushes for Illustrator

This is a small collection of simple Illustrator brushes you can use to draw doodles with hand-drawn look and feel. It’s also perfect for drawing borders and frames as well.

Free Hair Illustrator Brushes

The Hairbrush Kit – Free Illustrator Brushes

The Hairbrush Kit - Free Illustrator Brushes

A must-have brush pack for drawing hair. This set of free Illustrator brushes are ideal for artists and illustrators who work with character illustrations.

How to Add Brushes to Illustrator

Adding brush packs in Illustrator is quite easy. Simply follow the steps below.

  1. First, make sure to extract all the files in the downloaded ZIP file
  2. Then locate the .AI file that contains all the brushes
  3. Open the Illustrator app and go to the Window menu and to Brush Libraries >> Other Library
  4. Now browse to the folder where your downloaded .AI brush library file is located and open it
  5. That’s it!

For more professional and high-quality brushes, be sure to check out our best Photoshop and Illustrator brushes collection.