Brushes review
A focused raster painting app for Apple Pencil work, with layers and customizable brushes.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Brushes is a raster painting and drawing app for iPhone and iPad, aimed at artists who want a focused canvas for sketching and painting with Apple Pencil. Its workflow centers on customizable parameterized brushes, pressure-sensitive controls, layers, color tools and a file-based painting gallery. The app supports both light and dark appearances, and it can open paintings created with Brushes 3 and Brushes Redux.
Brush creation and layer handling are the main strengths. Brush parameters can be adjusted or used to create custom brushes, while Apple Pencil users can configure a pressure curve and pressure-based brush behavior. Layers can be locked, hidden, rearranged, merged, adjusted for opacity, assigned blending modes and transformed. Unlimited undo and redo support experimentation, and continuous autosave helps preserve work as it develops. Images can be imported, then paintings can be exported as PNG or JPEG files. iCloud Drive and local storage provide two places to keep documents, with Camera Roll available as an integration for image access.
Brushes is sold as a paid app under one plan named Brushes, with no free plan. Its scope suits solo artists and small creative workflows that prioritize direct raster painting over a broader production suite. The app does not provide animation or vector drawing features, so illustrators needing motion graphics, scalable paths or a wider tool ecosystem should choose an alternative built around those capabilities. It is available on iOS, and support is provided by email. Choose Brushes for a compact Apple Pencil painting workflow with strong layer controls; look elsewhere if cross-platform access, extensive integrations or animation are central requirements.
Brushes pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Custom parameterized brushes with pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil controls
- Layer locking, blending, transformations and unlimited undo/redo
- Continuous autosave with iCloud Drive or local document storage
- Where it doesn't
- Raster-only workflow without vector drawing tools
- No animation features for motion-oriented projects
- iOS-only app with email support and limited integrations
Brushes fact sheet, pricing and score →
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