Brushing Brilliance: Exploring the 10 Best Inking Brushes for Artists
If you’re an artist who loves working with inks, you understand the significance of using the right tools to bring your creative visions to life. The quality of your inking brushes can make a substantial difference in your artwork, determining the level of finesse, precision, and overall brilliance in your strokes. In this article, we will dive into the world of inking brushes and explore the ten best ones that artists swear by.
Introduction: The Art of Inking
Inking is an age-old art form that has been used by artists for centuries to create captivating illustrations and artworks. The use of inking brushes allows artists to add depth, texture, and contrast to their drawings, bringing them to life with stunning clarity. Whether you are a traditional artist or a digital illustrator, having a set of reliable inking brushes in your toolkit is essential.
What to Look for in Inking Brushes
Before delving into the best inking brushes available, it’s crucial to understand the key factors to consider when choosing the perfect brush for your artistic needs. Some important aspects to keep in mind are the brush tip shape, bristle material, handle length, and overall comfort during use. The right brush will provide you with better control, smoother lines, and the ability to achieve various effects in your artwork.
Top 10 Inking Brushes for Artists
1. Rusty Nib Inkers for Procreate
Draw til yer dead with over 130 pro-quality distressed inking brushes for Procreate, from rough and gritty to smooth and delicate and everything between. Each brush is built from scratch using original analogue brush and texture samples to create a diverse and powerful set of tools that combine the tactile beauty of ink on paper with the convenience of a modern digital workflow. With a huge range of authentic stroke styles, textures, edge effects, poses and brush feels The Rusty Nib Brush Set is as realistic as it is diverse. We’ve got you covered whether you’re re-creating the gritty aesthetic of scanned print ephemera or aiming for the subtlety of real india ink flowing onto the page.
Here’s what you get:
- 122 x Distressed Inking Brushes in total including:
- 37 x Nibs and Tech Pens
- 14 x Brush Pens
- 43 x Brush Inkers
- 08 x Flat Brushes
- 05 x Sumi-E Brushes.
- 07 x Ink Washes and Watercolors
- 08 x Bonus Effects Brushes
- 1 x Installation Guide
- 1 x Printable Brush Preview Booklet
- Free updates.
Key features:
- Huge variety of textures, edge effects and brush poses to suit almost any drawing style.
- Built from high-def analogue source materials and designed for pro-quality output.
- Intuitive and easy to use whether you’re a weekend warrior honing your craft or a full-time pro chasing deadlines and dreams.
- Easy to navigate brush list with dividers separating brushes by style.
- Includes easy-to-use ink washes and watercolors with realistic bleed and blend effects for authentic results.
2. Georg’s InkTober 2020 47 Brushes Set
InkTober 2020 Is Here! Brace yourself with 47 amazing new Procreate 5X sketch, ink, dual color wash, and marker brushes from my latest MegaPack XXL Inktober update!
For all 31 official Inktober 2020 prompts, you’ll find a corresponding #BrushTober “Brush Of The Day”!
FREE Updates
[Oct 6, 2020] Added the Inktober DRAINING DUDE marker, updated Pencil DHAMPIR BLADE 5 and Elder WAGONIZED RODENT 6
[Sep 30, 2020] Added 14 Warm-Up and Sidekick brushes to boost your Inktober creativity![Oct 01, 2020] Added 15 Warm-Up and Sidekick brushes to boost your Inktober creativity!
Check my #GeorgBrushes Wiki & Database for more info, download instructions, tips & tricks: http://wiki.georgbrush.club
Please feel free to tag your artwork @georgvw #georgbrushes #inktober
Happy Inking!
3. 100+ Unique Brushes, Textures & Effects
Highlights:
9 professional collections for Photoshop and Procreate.
35 customizable grunge textures.
Wide variety of brushes – crosshatching, inking, neon, pattern, ink, sketching.
Neon alphabet kit.
The perfect collection to create unique logos, illustrations, patterns, and more.
Previews:
Pricing:
Normally this collection of design resources sells for $70, but for a limited time only you can get all 9 brushes, textures and effects collections for just $17. That’s a big 76% off the regular price.
Click the BUY NOW button to snag this deal today!
Deal terms:
Delivered as an instant download, after completing your purchase.
May be used for commercial or personal purposes. Licensed on a per user basis.
4. Inkers Procreate Brush Set 3515192
Ink like you’ve never Inked before!
A set of 12 inking brushes for Procreate that I use in my day to day illustration and lettering work.
Many hours have been spent fine tuning and tweaking these brushes to create a set of responsive, natural brushes. Hopefully you enjoy using them as much as I do!
There is a range of different styles from thick and solid to textured and broken.
The Brushes Below is a quick summary of each brush included in the set:
- Smooth like Butter – Simple and solid, perfect for outlining.
- Built to Last – Similar to SLB brush above but has a different nib shape giving it a different feel when lining.
- Bobble – Adds a bumpy, bobbliness to the more straightforward inkers above. Perfect if you want that bit of texture to your lines without too much texture.
- Straggle – A little distortion and texture starts to add a subtle but uneven finish to your lines.
- Prickle – Gives you that ‘my Posca pen is running out’ feel when lining but works equally well when used to fill and colour in.
- Dry Sponge – A bit like drawing with a tiny sponge… It gives you a solid line with a little bit of texture and grittiness in.
- Drag – Takes the unbroken, grittiness to another level giving you a brush that works equally well as a liner or filler inner (I’m not sure that’s a phrase)
- A New Stipple / The Stipple Strikes Back / Return of the Stipple – A collection of 3 gritty, broken inkers that give you a ton of texture either as a liner for less detailed stuff or to fill something in as a simple shader.
- Draggy Dots / Dotty Dots – For when you want some textured dots in your work.
Thank you
Thanks so much for checking my brush set out. If you decide to buy them and use them please do let me know how you get on! I love to see work created using the brushes i’ve made!
5. Procreate Ink Box
**NOTE: These brushes are for the iOS app Procreate for use with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
–They DO NOT work in Photoshop–**
–Updated with 12 new inking brushes!–
26 custom inking brushes for Procreate app! Here’s a variety of pens and ink brushes for drawing comics and the like. There are fine line pens, smooth and silky inkers, and even some crunchy texture brushes. All of the brushes take advantage of Procreate’s streamline feature to help you achieve the smoothest curves and lines.
Check out the Info.txt file for help installing to Procreate.
Have fun! I can’t wait to see what you create! Hit me up on twitter @benlew.
6. Procreate Brushes Starter Kit 3060368
Introducing ‘’Procreate Brushes Starter Kit’’, a sample collection of 16 Procreate brushes from some of my sketching, drawing & painting sets! This kit is great for those who’d like to get a few useful brushes, but don’t necessarily want to purchase all full sets. It includes a nice selection of brushes inspired by traditional media tools such as pencils, ink, charcoal and paint. If you prefer, you can also buy the sets separately.
What’s included: You will receive a ZIP containing a .brushset file that includes the 16 brushes, as well as a JPG swatches sheet for a quick preview of all the brushes.
To use these brushes, you will need:
- The iPad app Procreate (the brushes will only work in Procreate)
- An iPad + stylus: even though the brushes will work with other iPad models and third party styluses, I recommend the iPad Pro + Apple Pencil combo, as they’re currently the most precise & accurate tools for drawing in Procreate. The brushes were created & tested using an Apple Pencil so I cannot guarantee that they will behave as advertised with third party styluses.
7. Procreate Palette – Harvest TIme Colors
8. Broken Inkers for Procreate
Runny Inking Brushes for Procreate The Broken Inkers brush set is the perfect brush set for creating realistic inky pen effects in Procreate. This brush pack is ideal for a wide range of uses including comic books, cartoons, hand lettering, and more.
- 8 runny inking brushes for Procreate.
- Kit includes a wide range of runny inking Procreate brushes including drizzles, gloops, beaded ink, blotchy ink, and more.
- Works great for comic books, cartoons, illustrations, lettering, and more.
- High quality brushes developed and tested by professional illustrators.
- Includes easy-to-follow Procreate brush download instructions and brush quick reference sheet.
An Illustrator’s Secret Weapon If you’re a cartoonist, comic book artist, or illustrator these brushes are your new secret weapon. Retro illustrators use to “season” their pens to get this effect. Their exact methods were a closely guarded secret. But we’ve cracked the code and converted these “seasoned” pens into runny inkers that will make your friends beg to know how you got the effect. How Are Broken Ink Pens Made? Runny pens are the result of a variety of culprits including ink drying and gumming up the tip, air pressure, or a misaligned feed and nib setting. Whatever the reason, a runny inker can create excellent looking illustrations filled with quirky character and surprises. The problem is it’s hard to make a pen behave this way. That’s why we made the Broken Inkers Brush Set for Procreate. These Procreate brushes make it easy to capture the dribbles, gloops, blotches, and other textures an old ink pen can create. Here Are the Pens You’re Getting These inking brushes for Procreate give you a wide range of effects in eight professional made brushes including: Beaded Inker: Create a line of beaded ink drops that look so natural you can practically smell the carbon and solvent used to make the ink. Drizzle Inker: Get a fine line of drizzly black India ink that is perfect for more detailed line work. Blotchy Inker: Watch thick blobs of ink make a controlled mess with this classic inker. Gloopy Inker: A thick toothy line of black ink that responds accordingly to pressure. Made for exaggerated tapering. Lolly’s Skipping Ink: Why’s it called Lolly’s Skipping Ink? I can’t remember anymore (blame it on the ink fumes). This inker is complete chaos. Old Faithful Inker: Add just a touch of dribble to your work with the Old Faithful Inker. Inspired by the illustration work of Shel Silverstein. Chumpy Inker: Old Faithful’s trouble-making older brother. This pen gives you plenty of control but has a rebellious streak. Jiggly Inker: What a friggin’ mess! The Jiggly Inker is like a flash flood of dark ink rolling across the page. Use it to create gigantic blobs of black or crude cartoons and lettering. If you’re looking for runny inking brushes for Procreate this pack is for you. Just look at the preview images to see all the possibilities this diverse set of Procreate brushes offers. Grab ’em now and capture the look of quirky illustrations, comics, cartoons and more.
9. 80+ INK- & SKETCH Brushes Bundle 1393089
- 2 INK Brush Sets for Comic & Cartoons: 40+ premium brushes, nibs and inking pens crafted with love and passion. This versatile brush set is inspired by the various inking styles of famous comic artists like André Franquin, Albert Uderzo, Bill Watterson, Charles M. Schulz, Walt Kelly, George Herriman and Will Eisner. I use this custom set for 90% of my professional inking.
- DIRTY DOZEN Set: 19+ ink brush pens, Sumi brushes, splatter brushes, as well as new grunge paint and gritty shading brushes. I created them over the course of several weeks for a new comic/game project, for which I had to develop a rough, hand-drawn and grungy look & feel.
- MANGA & ANIME Brush Set: 25+ traditional Japanese ink and paint brushes, screen tones (seamless pattern brushes as well as transparent PNGs) and shading brushes. It comes with everything you need for creating professional manga, traditional East Asian drawings and anime style comics. The brushes are also great for cartoonists, illustrators, and character designers.
- PENCILS & SKETCH Brush Set: 8+ custom pencils, drawing pens and sketch brushes
- FREE Updates & NEW Brushes!
NOTE: You need Procreate (iOS App) to use the brushes, a pressure sensitive stylus is recommended. The shown illustrations are fan art sketched & inked with these brushes in the spirit of the original artists/copyright holders.
10. 80 INK PEN & SKETCH Brushes Bundle
This affordable bundle contains more than 80 of my professional ink, sketch and drawing brushes for Procreate (iPad/iPhone app). I use them every day for my personal and professional work as comic artist, character designer, and illustrator.
You’ll get:
- 2 INK Brush Sets for Comic & Cartoons: 40+ premium brushes, nibs and inking pens crafted with love and passion. This versatile brush set is inspired by the various inking styles of famous comic artists like André Franquin, Albert Uderzo, Bill Watterson, Charles M. Schulz, Walt Kelly, George Herriman and Will Eisner. I use this custom set for 90% of my professional inking.
- DIRTY DOZEN Set: 19+ ink brush pens, Sumi brushes, splatter brushes, as well as new grunge paint and gritty shading brushes. I created them over the course of several weeks for a new comic/game project, for which I had to develop a rough, hand-drawn and grungy look & feel.
- MANGA & ANIME Brush Set: 25+ traditional Japanese ink and paint brushes, screen tones (seamless pattern brushes as well as transparent PNGs) and shading brushes. It comes with everything you need for creating professional manga, traditional East Asian drawings and anime style comics. The brushes are also great for cartoonists, illustrators, and character designers.
- PENCILS & SKETCH Brush Set: 8+ custom pencils, drawing pens and sketch brushes
- FREE Updates & NEW Brushes
Happy Inking
Care and Maintenance of Inking Brushes
To ensure the longevity and optimal performance of your inking brushes, proper care and maintenance are essential. Regularly clean your brushes after each use, shape the bristles, and store them appropriately to avoid damage. With proper care, your brushes will serve you well for years to come.
Tips and Techniques for Inking
Mastering the art of inking requires practice and experimentation. Try different techniques like cross-hatching, stippling, and feathering to create various effects. Don’t be afraid to explore and push the boundaries of your creativity.
Conclusion
Inking is an art form that allows artists to add depth, dimension, and personality to their illustrations. By choosing the right inking brushes and employing various techniques, artists can create mesmerizing and impactful artwork. So, explore the world of inking brushes, experiment with different styles, and let your creativity flow.
FAQs
Q1: Are synthetic brushes as good as natural hair brushes for inking?
Yes, high-quality synthetic brushes can perform just as well as natural hair brushes for inking. They are durable, versatile, and a great cruelty-free alternative.
Q2: Can I use inking brushes for other art mediums?
Inking brushes are specifically designed for use with inks, but they can also be used with other mediums like watercolors and acrylics, depending on the brush type.
Q3: How often should I clean my inking brushes?
It’s best to clean your inking brushes after each use to prevent ink buildup and maintain the brush’s performance.
Q4: Can I use calligraphy brushes for inking?
Yes, calligraphy brushes can be used for inking, especially if you want to add expressive and bold lines to your artwork.
Q5: Do digital inking brushes offer the same level of control as traditional brushes?
Digital inking brushes offer a high level of control and customization, making them suitable for various styles and preferences, similar to traditional brushes.
