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Retro Halftone Illustrator Brushes
About the product
The halftones naturally found us as we explored the 1920s-1950s, from early movie posters to book and comic covers. Once necessary for adding depth, texture, and shading to images, they're now a basic thing in every creator's toolbox. Today, halftones offer a convenient, authentic, and incredibly expressive method for recreating old-school visuals for whatever the project is.
The collection is another exciting collab with Olga Lysenkova. She sought to bring both retro print look and halftones to a new level and remaster them to make them as functional as ever. So this is how it goes: together, we've focused on creating brushes that refer to the aged print techniques, where reduced color palettes and dot patterns were enough to convey and complete a visual message. Each brush comes in three halftone texture sizes — small, medium, and large —so you can choose the right one for texturing. Additionally, each brush features pressure sensitivity settings, allowing you to apply texture with a rough, aged effect.
The Halftone Brushes Collection totals 157 brushes. There are classic halftones — dots and lines (with varying thickness and texture density, from sharp, clean edges to hand-drawn patterns) — and more unique designs like waves, zigzags, squares, and more. To help you create the base of your illustration, we've also included four ink brushes.
Art of the Ink Mania
“I was inspired by classic comics, vintage ads, and even old vinyl covers to create a comprehensive retro toolbox. That’s why this collection doesn’t stop at the standard halftone patterns — it includes every shape of halftone you could think of, and which was used over the decades this technique has existed.
Using comic characters in the presentation felt a bit predictable and didn’t really do justice to how versatile the set can be. That’s why you’ll see a lot of space and UFO themes in the illustrations. I really wanted to show off the different techniques and how the brushes can be used.”
Check the promo video on our YouTube channel, and learn more about the process from the Gallery.
More Details
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Halftone brushes create shading and texture using small dots or lines, mimicking the classic printing technique used in comics and vintage designs.
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They’re great for adding depth, texture, and retro vibes to illustrations, posters, comic art, and any design that needs a vintage or stylized look.
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Retro print style is characterized by bold lines, bright colors, and exaggerated expressions. Plus, the halftones are commonly used for shading and texture.
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You’ll need a drawing tablet, design software, and a variety of brushes (like inking, shading, and halftone brushes) to create retro graphics, e.g. illustrations, comic art, book covers, logos, typography, etc.
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Please refer to the dedicated product guidelines page for text and video instructions.
File size: 93 MB
Compatibility: Adobe Illustrator brush library (.ai) — Window → Brush Libraries → Other Library; strokes stay editable vectors.
21 Classic Halftone Dot Swatches
48 Classic Halftone Line Swatches
66 Halftone Creative Swatches
18 Halftone Inverted Creative Swatches
4 Ink Vector Brushes
2 JPG Paper Textures
ZIP package, Direct download
