Procreate 5.4 just landed, and it’s not your usual “we moved a button and squashed a bug” kind of patch. If you spend a lot of time in Brush Studio doing stuff like building, hoarding, or just trying to find that one brush you forgot the name of this update might change how you work.
A Whole Lot of New Brushes
The headline feature? Procreate added 18 brand new brush sets. Not individual brushes but full sets. That’s roughly 180 new tools covering pencils, pastels, inks, gouache, watercolor, oils, and more. They’re natural media-inspired and co-created with brush wizard Kyle T. Webster.
They also finally gave brushes a proper home.
Your Brush Drawer Just Got Organized
For the first time, brushes are split into two main libraries. There’s the Classic Library, which holds your original and custom brushes, and the new Procreate Library, which keeps the fresh stuff neatly arranged. You can create your own libraries, name them, and even sync them across devices via iCloud.
Most exciting? There's finally a brush search bar. No more endless scrolling and hoping.
Big Brush Studio Upgrades
If you’re someone who loves messing with brush settings, 5.4 brings new features that give you more control. You can now add jitter, change stroke roundness, tweak alpha threshold, and use a new visual pressure graph that makes customizing feel way more intuitive.
These changes make it easier to build brushes that actually feel handmade. Think dry nibs, loose ink flicks, or gritty pencils that react just right under pressure.
What Still Needs Work
Not everything made the cut. The long-requested gradient tool is still missing, and selection tools are still a bit limited. It’d also be nice to see which brushes you used in past pieces, or to apply masks across grouped layers. Nothing’s broken, but the wishlist remains.
RetroSupply vs. Procreate’s New Brushes
To put things to the test, we recreated the same drawing twice — once with the new Procreate brushes, and once with go-to tools from RetroSupply like the Classic Pencil and Dry Fountain Pen. The verdict?
The new Procreate brushes are a solid step forward, especially for folks just getting started. But when it comes to texture, feel, and personality, the RetroSupply brushes still have the edge. They’re grittier, more expressive, and they just *feel right*.
And yes, every Retro Supply brush tested worked flawlessly in 5.4.
Final Thoughts
Procreate 5.4 doesn’t reinvent the app, but it gives brush lovers more power, better organization, and genuinely useful tools. If you sketch occasionally, it’s a nice bonus. But if you live and breathe brush texture and flow, this update is for you.
Watch the video above for the full walkthrough including side-by-side comparisons and a time-lapse of the final Dracula sketch. Or just open up Procreate and start exploring. There’s a lot to love.
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