Top 5 Procreate Anime Brushes: Guide for Beginners

Written by Daisie Team

Published on 11 July 2023 7 min read

Whether you're a seasoned artist or a beginner exploring the world of digital art, Procreate's powerful features and intuitive interface make it a standout choice. Especially when it comes to anime art, Procreate's range of brushes elevates your work to the next level. This blog will guide you through the top 5 anime brushes Procreate offers, highlighting their unique features and how to utilize them effectively.

1. Get to Know Procreate

Before we dive into the details of anime brushes Procreate offers, let's first understand what Procreate is and why it's such a popular choice for creating anime art.

What is Procreate?

Procreate is a renowned digital art app, designed exclusively for iOS. Loved by artists all around the globe, it's a complete art studio you can carry around in your pocket. This app offers ultra-high-definition canvases, a full-featured layering system, and hundreds of handcrafted brushes. It's a fantastic tool for creating anime artwork, making the most of the iPad's capabilities.

Why Use Procreate for Anime Art?

Procreate's versatility and user-friendly interface make it a top choice for anime artists. Here's why:

Customizable Brushes: Procreate's brush library offers a wide array of brushes, including specific anime brushes. What's more, every brush is customizable, allowing you to modify its properties to suit your style.
Intuitive Interface: Procreate's interface is designed with artists in mind. Its minimalistic design doesn’t clutter your screen, giving you the maximum workspace.
Advanced Layering: Layering in Procreate is a breeze. You can easily manage multiple layers, adjust their opacity, blend modes, and much more.
Quality: Procreate supports high-resolution canvases, which means your anime art will look crisp and sharp.

Now that we know what Procreate is and why it's great for anime art, let's move on to exploring the different types of anime brushes Procreate offers.

2. Explore Anime Brushes in Procreate

Procreate's brush library is diverse, housing a vast collection of brushes, each designed to bring a unique touch to your artwork. It's like having an art store right at your fingertips! Now, let's understand the different types of anime brushes Procreate offers and how to choose the best one for you.

Types of Anime Brushes

There are several types of anime brushes Procreate offers, each with its unique texture and effect. Here are a few:

Line Brushes: These are perfect for outlining and refining your anime characters and scenes. They offer smooth, clean lines that can be adjusted for thickness and opacity.
Texture Brushes: Want to give your artwork a specific feel or appearance? Texture brushes are your go-to. They're great for adding details like hair, skin, or clothing textures.
Shading Brushes: These brushes help you add depth and dimension to your art. They're great for creating shadows and highlights, giving your anime characters a more three-dimensional look.
Blending Brushes: They help you seamlessly blend colors together. Ideal for creating gradients or smooth transitions between different shades.

How to Select Brushes

Selecting the perfect brush can be a bit like choosing the right tool for a job. You need to consider the task at hand, your personal style, and the effect you want to achieve. Here are a few tips to help you make the right choice:

Consider Your Style: Every artist has a unique style. Do you prefer clean lines and minimal textures, or do you love to play with intricate details and rich textures? Understanding your style will help you select the brushes that best suit your aesthetic.
Experiment: Don't be afraid to play around with different brushes. Sometimes, a brush you may not have considered initially might end up being the one that adds the perfect touch to your artwork.
Modify: Remember, every brush in Procreate is customizable. You can adjust the size, opacity, and even the pressure dynamics. So, if a brush isn't working exactly how you'd like, tweak it until it does!

Now that we've understood the different types of anime brushes Procreate offers and how to select them, let's dive into the specifics of the five top brushes.

3. Learn to Use the First Anime Brush

Now that we've covered the basics, let's leap straight into the heart of it all: the anime brushes Procreate offers. We will start with the first brush: the Sketching Brush, a favorite among many artists.

Brush 1 Features

The Sketching Brush is the go-to tool for outlining your anime artwork. Here's what makes it so special:

Smooth Lines: The Sketching Brush creates fluid, curved lines that are perfect for sketching out your anime characters and scenes.
Pressure Sensitivity: The line thickness changes depending on how much pressure you apply. This dynamic feature allows you to create bold outlines or light sketches with the same brush.
Customizable: You can adjust the brush's size, opacity, and even the pressure dynamics to suit your style.

Create Art with Brush 1

Now, how do you use this fantastic tool? Here's a quick guide:

Start with a Sketch: Use the Sketching Brush to lightly draw out your anime character or scene. Remember, this is just a sketch, so don't worry about being perfect. The goal is to map out your composition.
Refine Your Lines: Once you're happy with your sketch, increase the brush size and pressure to create bold, clean lines. This is where your art really starts to take form.
Add the Details: Now, decrease the brush size to add the finer details. This could be anything from the facial features of your anime character to intricate patterns on their clothing.

And voila! You've created your first piece of anime art using the Sketching Brush in Procreate. But this is just the beginning. Let's explore the next brush Procreate offers.

4. Master the Second Anime Brush

Now that you've got a handle on the first brush, let's move on to the second one. The Soft Airbrush– a preferred tool for adding depth and shading to your anime art in Procreate.

Brush 2 Features

What's so special about the Soft Airbrush? Here are its notable features:

Soft Edges: Unlike the Sketching Brush, the Soft Airbrush creates soft, diffused lines. This makes it perfect for adding soft shadows and gradients in your anime art.
Opacity Control: The opacity of the Soft Airbrush adjusts based on the pressure you apply, allowing you to create subtle shades and tones.
Large Coverage: With a larger brush size, the Soft Airbrush can cover large areas quickly. This makes it great for laying down the base colors in your anime art.

Create Art with Brush 2

Ready to start using the Soft Airbrush? Here's how:

Apply Base Color: Start by using the Soft Airbrush to apply a flat base color to your anime art. You can adjust the brush size to cover large areas quickly.
Add Shadows: Next, choose a darker tone and use the Soft Airbrush to add shadows. Remember, the pressure you apply will affect the opacity, so start light and build up your shadows gradually.
Create Highlights: Finally, use a lighter tone to add highlights. This will give your anime art a 3D effect, making it really pop on the canvas.

And there you have it—your anime art now has depth and dimension, all thanks to the Soft Airbrush. But don't stop there, Procreate has even more brushes for you to discover. Onward!

5. Navigate the Final Three Anime Brushes

Let's continue our journey and expand our toolkit further, exploring the final three of our top five anime brushes in Procreate.

Brush 3 Features

Next up is the Textured Brush. This brush is a favorite among anime artists, and here's why:

Grainy Effect: The Textured Brush adds a grainy effect to your strokes, creating a unique texture that's often seen in anime backgrounds.
Pressure Sensitivity: Similar to the Soft Airbrush, this brush's opacity and size respond to the pressure you apply, giving you control over the intensity of the texture.

Create Art with Brush 3

Ready to try out the Textured Brush? Here's a simple way to start:

Texture Background: Use the Textured Brush to add a detailed background to your anime art. This can help create a more immersive environment for your characters.

Brush 4 Features

Fourth in line is the Ink Brush. This brush is ideal for creating clean, crisp lines, and here's why:

Sharp Strokes: The Ink Brush creates sharp, clean lines, perfect for outlining your anime characters and adding fine details.
Pressure Sensitivity: The thickness of your stroke will adjust based on the pressure you apply, allowing you to create varied line weights with a single brush.

Create Art with Brush 4

Here's a quick tip for using the Ink Brush:

Outline Characters: Use the Ink Brush to outline your anime characters. You can adjust the pressure to create thicker lines for emphasis and thinner lines for finer details.

Brush 5 Features

Last but not least, we have the Watercolor Brush. As the name suggests, this brush mimics the look of watercolor paint, and here's why it's great for anime art:

Blendable Colors: The Watercolor Brush allows colors to be blended smoothly, creating a soft and dreamy effect that's perfect for anime art.
Transparency Control: You can control the transparency of your strokes with this brush, allowing you to build up layers of color just like you would with real watercolor paint.

Create Art with Brush 5

Ready to give the Watercolor Brush a spin? Here's how:

Add Color: Use the Watercolor Brush to add color to your anime art. Start with a light wash of color and gradually build up the intensity.
Create Blends: Blend different colors together to create smooth gradients and transitions. This will make your anime art look more natural and visually interesting.

And that wraps up our guide to the top 5 anime brushes in Procreate. Remember, practice makes perfect—so don't be afraid to experiment and make each brush your own. Happy creating!

If you're eager to dive deeper into the world of digital anime art, we highly recommend checking out the workshop 'Animating with Procreate and Photoshop' by Nyanza. This comprehensive workshop will teach you how to create stunning animations using your favorite Procreate brushes and seamlessly integrate them with Photoshop. It's the perfect next step for beginners looking to level up their digital anime art skills.