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Sketchbook Brushes, Set 1

Illustrator Brushes from My Sketch Book – Set 1

(Originally posted on Illustrator Freebies, July 3rd 2013)

More years ago than I care to admit (OK, 21), I graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a degree in fine art printmaking.

Whilst I don’t own many of the prints any more, I do have many, many sketch books dating back to when I started my degree in 1988 all the way to today and they’re filled with all sorts of motifs and tiny sketches of things I found interesting at the time.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some brushes, symbols and patterns made from some tiny sketched elements from the early 90’s.

They work particularly well as round borders.

Circular motifs drawn in Illustrator

Circles drawn in Adobe Illustrator

and thanks to the new Illustrator CC, rectangular borders as well 🙂

With tint and hue colouring they can be used with any colour of your choice.

Square borders drawn in Adobe Illustrator

Square decorative frames

Decorative hand drawn frames

I like to use brushes of this type with clipping masks to create cut-out style borders.

Left: watercolour texture from Sad Monkey on Deviant Art

Right: Felt textures from Pugly Pixel (website no longer exists).

Retro badges

File DownloadDownload the free set for Adobe Illustrator


Copyright Sarah Bradberry, July 3rd 2013. All rights reserved.