Let me introduce you to The Lettering Toolkit - 15 Procreate brushes specifically designed with modern calligraphy and hand lettering in mind.
I created each of these brushes from scratch, and they provide a diverse range of brushes that will enable you to create many different styles of lettering art.
This set includes monoline brushes, textured brushes, outline brushes and sketching brushes to allow you take your lettering art to the next level.
You can purchase this set from my Etsy Shop by clicking on the image below:
What is a calligraphy brush?
Calligraphy brushes, or sometimes also called lettering brushes have been specifically designed with lettering art in mind. They are not painting or drawing brushes but have been inbuilt with the qualities needed for letter formation and word art.
Are the standard calligraphy brushes in Procreate any good?
The calligraphy brushes that come with Procreate are a good starting point for any beginner hand letterer, and it is fun to play around with the effects you can make with these. If you’d like to move beyond beginner level and take your lettering art further your best options are to start creating your own brushes from scratch, or finding a set of calligraphy brushes to purchase.
What brushes are included in The Lettering Toolkit?
1. Farmhouse Calligraphy Brush
This brush enables you to replicate the popular style of bounce lettering that is sometimes known as ‘farmhouse calligraphy.’ Popular for household signs, wedding invitations and greetings cards. This brush is pressure sensitive if you are using an Apple Pencil allowing you to create think and thin lines. It has a rounded top and a high level of stabilisation (meaning it will smooth out any shakes in your hand!)
2. Thin Calligraphy Brush
This brush is similar in some ways to the Farmhouse Calligraphy brush, but it has less variation in pressure, mimicking a traditional calligraphy pen and ink. This one is great for creating all those traditional calligraphy flourishes!
3. Smooth Monoline Brush
Every hand letterer in Procreate needs a good monoline brush! A monoline brush is simply a brush that has an even thickness whatever pressure you put on it, creating a smooth even tone. This one has a high stabilisation making the strokes nice and smooth.
4. Sketching Pencil Brush
When I first started lettering I underestimated the importance of a good sketching pencil. Sketching your artwork is a great habit to get into and simplifies the composition process. This brush has a realistic pencil-like feel and is a perfect way to get down your ideas before starting to ink your final piece.
5. Dry Paint Calligraphy Brush
I have to be honest this is one of my favourites in this set! It has an inbuilt texture that looks like thick paint strokes, with white spaces appearing in the strokes as it would if you had a real dry brush. It is pressure sensitive to allow you to create thick and thin lines easily.
6. Peeling Paint Calligraphy Brush
In a similar way to the Dry Paint Calligraphy brush above, this brush has a paint like look about it although includes more streakes throughout the stroke which appear like peeling paint.
7. Straw Calligraphy Brush
Another pressure sensitive brush with an straw like texture that will add some interest to your lettering pieces.
8. Flat Ended Chunky Brush
I love using this flat ended brush which gives a very different effect to many of the other round ended calligraphy brushes. This is a monoline brush so will produce a smooth even line throughout but due to the nature of the brush shape will produce thicker lines on the downstroke than the across stroke. Great for lettering in capitals!
9. Textured Chunky Brush
Almost identical to the Flat Ended Chunky brush above but with an added texture which provides some added interest to your artwork.
10. Soft Crayon Brush
A realistic crayon like brush which, like a real crayon, is sensitive to the speed at which you letter each stoke. Great for sketching out a design or for creating a crayon inspired lettering piece.
11.Thick outline Brush
Outline brushes allow you to create the popular ‘bubble writing’ in just one stroke. This one has a thick outer line with the middle part taken out. It’s a monoline brush so produces an even stroke no matter how much pressure you apply.
12. Crackle Monoline Brush
A wonderfully simple monoline brush with a fantastic ‘crackle’ texture. This includes little flecks of white throughout and a slightly rough edge. This resembles a dry marker pen.
13. Crackle Outline Brush
This brush combines the crackle texture with the thick outline brush giving you a heavily textured bubble writing brush. Perfect for creating a vintage style effect.
14. Dotty Middle Brush
This brush is a lot of fun and provides some playful interest to an otherwise ordinary monoline brush. With little dots in the middle of each stroke, this can be used for creating fun lines and borders as well as for lettering words.
15. Thin Outline Brush
Last but not least, the thin outline brush allows you to letter in the bubble writing style with very thin lines. The middle parts can be left blank or filled with a different colour (or left for someone else to colour in!)
Why do I love this set?
This set provides such a range of brushes; calligraphy brushes, monoline brushes, textured brushes and outline brushes. You can use each brush individually to create your artwork or use them in combination together to create some wonderful effects.
You can purchase this set from my Etsy shop along with a set of instructions on how to import them into your brush library.
If you’re still not sure you can grab three of the brushes in this set for FREE and try them out. (The free brushes include the thick outline, dotty middle and thin outline). Click on the image below.
