When you want the best Adobe Illustrator brushes to bring your work to the next level, you come to RetroSupply.
Why? Because we’ve taken the time to source archival materials and work alongside professional Illustrators to recreate the one-of-a-kind retro effects and Illustrator Textures you want. We’ve even created easy-follow tutorials and courses to help you get the most out of your new Illustrator brushes!
Our endless hours of scouring yard sales and flea markets to find the vintage samples with the perfect halftone and crosshatching effects and (unhealthy) obsession with making it stupidly simple to add these same effects to your own work are why we’re able to offer the best Adobe Illustrator brushes on the market today.
In fact, we love our products so much, we’ve compiled a list of our ten best Adobe Illustrator Brushes and brush packs you’ll want to try like, right now.
01. The Complete Collection for Illustrator
Cost: $197
Designer: RetroSupply
Need a full arsenal of the best Illustrator resources including brushes, textures, and graphic styles? Grab The Complete Collection for Illustrator and never worry about Illustrator effects again (and save some serious loot).
With over 43 different Illustrator brushes, textures, templates, filters, and guides, you’ll have everything you need for creating incredible designs with vintage effects you don’t have to spend hours creating. And if that wasn’t good enough, we’ll give you a special code for 30% off every future Illustrator product we drop.
02. DupliTone for Illustrator
Cost: $29
Designer: RetroSupply
When it comes to achieving perfect halftone shading, no Illustrator brushes do it better than DupliTone. The five star reviews don’t lie, DupliTone makes it shockingly easy to add seamless halftone lines and dots to your Illustrations. And since each halftone brush has been hand-tuned to perfectly align with the other Illustrator brushes in the set, you won’t lose precious time trying to get intricate texture and variations just right.
03. The Vector Brush Toolbox
Cost: $49
Designer: RetroSupply
With over 200 handcrafted vector brushes from 6 of our best-selling Illustrator brush packs, the Vector Brush Toolbox is a retro cartoonist’s dream come true. With it, you’ll enjoy every sponge and ink splatter brush, halftone, pencil, charcoal, and watercolor brush you’ll ever need for vector drawing. With this pack, you’ll get:
- RetroGrain: brush and sponge textures ($19)
- VectorHero: Ink Brushes ($19)
- VectorSketch: Charcoal Pencils ($19)
- VectorTone: Pattern Brushes ($19)
- Drygoods: Chalk Brushes ($19)
- InkWash: Ink and Watercolor Brushes ($19)
And since many are sourced from mid-century catalogs, posters, and advertisements, adding authentic textures and strokes to your own illustrations has never been easier. You’ll just have to see for yourself!
04. Gouache Shader Brushes
Cost: $19
Designer: RetroSupply
If you want a brush pack that easily pays for itself after one project, our Gouache Shader Brush Pack is it. With 52 gouache-inspired texture brushes, you’ll effortlessly add rich gouache effects to your work sans the hours of searching for odd textures and masking weird angles.
Don’t believe us? Check out Adam Grason’s work. He uses this pack all the time to create killer works of art like this!
05. Grave Etcher
Cost: $29
Designer: RetroSupply
Number 5 on our list of best Adobe Illustrator brushes, Grave Etcher. This Adobe Illustrator brush pack is filled to the brim with 118 killer brushes designed to create tasteful engraving effects that work for a broad range of Illustration styles.
With this pack, you’ll be able to apply short, medium, and long brushes in minutes, not hours, for a brush pack that’ll pay for itself in one project. This pack has been used to create gorgeous engarving work for posters for Dead & Co., Dave Matthews Band, and Wilco.
06. VectorHero
Cost: $19
Designer: RetroSupply
If you’ve ever dreamed of recreating 1950s inspired illustrations with your own special twist, then the Vector Hero Brush Pack for Illustrator is for you. What makes this collection of Adobe Illustrator brushes one of the best, you ask? Quite frankly, the process it took to make them so realistic.
We gathered a huge library of commercial art from the ‘40s and ’50s and studied how the ink performed on paper, from the ink pools left behind when the pen first touched the paper to how the stroke thickness changed with more or less pressure.
Then, very carefully, we recreated these unique, intricate characteristics in vector form for you to use in your own work. You’re welcome.
07. VectorSketch
Cost: $19
Designer: RetroSupply
When it comes to getting the best Adobe Illustrator brushes for that hand-drawn look, nothing compares to our vector brushes.
Much like our Vector Hero pen pack, the Vector Sketch Pencil Pack for Illustrator was created from vintage 1950’s commercial art to give you the unmistakable vintage look of hand-drawn Illustrations (without all the smudging, of course).
08. InkWash
Cost: $19
Designer: RetroSupply
Want to watercolor without the water (or learning curve?) Ink Wash Vector Brushes for Illustrator are here to make it happen.
With 30 ready-to-use vector ink and water brushes, you’ll effortlessly add depth and shadow to your watercolor-inspired illustrations with the best collection of watercolor brushes you can get your grubby little paws on!
09. Drunk Sailor
Cost: $29
Designer: RetroSupply
Listen, we all love stippling work, but we could do without all the hand cramping. That’s why we created the Drunk Sailor Stippling Brushes for Illustrator. These are on our list of best Adobe Illustrator brushes for one reason: simplicity. Plus, they look fantastic.
With the click of a mouse (or swipe of your pen), you’ll spice up your illustrations fast with pressure-sensitive stippling brushes and liners and specialty brushes that’ll seriously blow you away.
10. RetroGrain
Cost: $19
Designer: RetroSupply
Diversity is the name of the game for the Retro Grain Brush Pack for Illustrator. Last but certainly not least, this collection of 32 classic Illustrator grain texture brushes are the easiest way to add authentically gritty, grainy, and grungy texture and shading to your Illustrations.
You’ll love the incredible amount of detail these brushes give you and that they’re sourced from real materials for 100% legit retro shading brushes you can count on.
So, what’s it gonna be? The Complete Collection, or the glorious Gouache shaders? No matter which of these best Illustrator brush packs you go with, we want to see how it goes! Share your masterpieces with us on Instagram @retrosupply!