75 Sets of Unusual Photoshop Brushes
By Steven Snell | May 13th, 2009 in Resources
One of the reasons Photoshop brushes are so useful is because of their limitless use. Most of the brush packs that are available for free fall into one of several major categories, such as floral brushes, grunge brushes, splatter brushes, and of course a few others. However, there are also a number of unique and unusual brush packs that you may not be aware of. In some cases, these may prove to be very useful for a particular project.
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24 Responses from Readers
Great selection, Thanks Steven
I think brushes are really overdone in “design” communities like deviant art (where quite a few of these originated). They’re really not versatile at all. The gun brushes, for example, look nice in the preview, but how often are you going to use a monochrome gun in your art? Often enough that you want to install a whole set of gun brushes? Why not just use stock photos? The soldier brushes are great silhouettes, but what if you want to create a print-resolution poster with soldier silhouettes on it? Can’t use the brush, because it gets distorted at high resolutions. Brushes should be used for what they’re meant to do- paint. When it comes to placing images in photoshop, I think we’d all be better served to use custom shapes and stock images. If only the kids at deviantArt would figure that out, imagine the resources we’d have available. Thanks for the effort, but let’s get some .CSH files next time!
Hi Dan,
I don’t completely disagree with you, but I do think there is a use for them, it just has to be in the right situation. Of course they are going to be used less frequently than the traditional styles of brushes, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless. Stock images aren’t always any more flexible than high res brushes. Maybe for the type of work you do they are no good, but that’s not the case for everyone.
Having said that, do I expect anyone to look through this list and find loads of new brushed that they’re going to use in the next few days? Definitely not. But I hope that many people will find one or a few sets of brushes that may work for a project at some point. But my point was mostly to show the diversity of what is available.
Great collection! Urban Scrawl Brushes are definitely my favorite
Thank you for this wonderful selection…
Great selection, can’t wait to start using them. Thanks!
Hey Steven,
I might have come off a little too critical — I completely agree that there is a time and a place for brushes (if I’m artificially distressing an image or creating a textured background, custom brushes are my tool of choice). As far as your point, showing the diversity of what is available, you were definitely successful.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the follow up comment. Like I said, you do have a point, but I’m glad you can appreciate it even if you’re personally unlikely to use these brushes.
Photoshop brushes = cliches = grunge = cheap design
This is a really awesome collection.
Thanks for the heads up on these.
Love the wound brushes. Going to PSD some of my mates and post on sites labelled the morning after the night before. Should be a laugh!
nice collection and really unusual.
Awsome brush sets!
The bone one is the most unusual IMHO, but the rest are interesting nonetheless, they can be handy for some use!
Thank you for sharing!
Excellent collection and and even few that I have never seen before.
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