To combine brushes in Procreate Pocket, tap the paint, smudge, or erase tool twice to open Brushes, tap the first brush to make it the Primary (it turns bright blue), and swipe right on a second brush in the same set to make it the Secondary (dark blue). Then tap Combine at the top of the Brushes interface. The new Dual Brush takes the Primary brush's name, and you can edit each component and change the Combine Mode in Brush Studio. Default Procreate brushes can't be combined directly in Pocket, so duplicate them first and combine the copies.

What a Dual Brush actually is

A Dual Brush merges two single brushes into one. It uses each brush's editable shape and grain, so you get one stroke that carries the character of both. A hard-edged inking brush and a gritty texture brush, for example, can become a single tool that draws a crisp line with a rough surface.

If you work in After Effects, the logic will feel familiar. The Combine Mode works much like a layer Blend Mode, controlling how the two brush components mix. You're effectively compositing two brush layers into one stroke, and you can tweak each independently afterward.

Before you start: the rules that trip people up

Most failed attempts come down to a handful of constraints:

• Both brushes must be in the same brush set. If the brushes live in different sets, move or duplicate one into the other's set first.
• Only single brushes can be combined. An existing Dual Brush can't be combined with another brush.
• Default Procreate brushes can't be combined directly in Pocket. Duplicate the default brush, then combine the copy. Procreate's full iPad app has relaxed this rule in newer versions, but the Pocket handbook still lists it as a limitation.
• The Primary brush decides the name. You can rename it afterward.

Step-by-step: combine two brushes

1. Open the Brushes interface

In a canvas, the paint, smudge, and erase tools sit in the top toolbar. If the toolbar is contracted, tap the ellipsis to expand it. Tap the tool once to activate it and tap it again to open Brushes.

Brush sets are listed on the left, and the brushes in the active set are on the right. You can swipe the top center handle upward to expand the interface and see more at once.

2. Find both brushes in one set

Tap the set that holds your first brush and scroll the list on the right. If your second brush is elsewhere, hold it and drag it into this set. You can also duplicate it (see the organizing section below) and move the copy.

3. Select Primary and Secondary

Tap the first brush. It turns bright blue, marking it as Primary. Then swipe right on the second brush. It turns dark blue, marking it as Secondary. The word Combine appears at the top of the Brushes interface.

Choose the Primary deliberately, because its name carries over.

4. Tap Combine

The two brushes merge into a single Dual Brush with qualities of both. Try a few strokes on the canvas right away. Procreate Pocket remembers your settings, so you can switch between brushes without losing adjustments.

5. Rename if needed

Tap and hold the new brush, choose Rename, and type a name on the iOS keyboard. Clear names matter once you have dozens of hybrids. Something like "Ink + Grit" tells you more than a copy of the Primary's name.

Edit the component brushes

A combined brush isn't locked. To refine it:

1. Open Brush Studio by tapping the Dual Brush twice.
2. Look at the top of Brush Studio, where previews of both component brushes appear.
3. Tap the preview of the brush you want to adjust. It highlights in blue.
4. Change its settings. Edits apply only to the selected component.

This is where Dual Brushes get powerful. You can make the texture component larger or rougher without touching the shape component. Treat it like adjusting one layer in a comp while the other stays untouched.

Change the Combine Mode

The Combine Mode controls how the two components interact. It defaults to Normal.

1. Enter Brush Studio on the Dual Brush.
2. Tap either component preview to reveal the Combine Mode panel.
3. Scroll through the list and tap a mode.

The result updates live in the Drawing Pad, so you can scrub through modes and watch how the stroke changes. If you want a deeper understanding of what each mode does, Procreate's Blend Modes documentation covers the same underlying idea.

Experiment systematically. Pick one pair of brushes, cycle through several modes, and save the combinations that work as separate brushes by duplicating before you make major edits.

Uncombine a Dual Brush

If a hybrid doesn't work, you can revert it:

1. Open Brush Studio on the Dual Brush.
2. Tap either preview to reveal the Combine Mode panel.
3. Tap the lower preview image (the Secondary), then tap Uncombine.

The Dual Brush separates back into its two original component brushes.

Troubleshooting: why Combine won't appear

If the Combine option never shows up, check these in order:

1. Are both brushes in the same set?
2. Is either brush already a Dual Brush? Existing Dual Brushes can't be combined further.
3. Is one a default Procreate brush? Duplicate it and use the copy.
4. Did you swipe right on the second brush? A simple tap changes your active brush instead of choosing a Secondary.

Organize brushes so combining is painless

Since combining depends on set membership, a bit of organization saves time.

• Duplicate: Tap and hold a brush and choose Duplicate to create a copy in the current set. It keeps the name with a number appended. Swiping left on a brush also reveals quick Share, Duplicate, and Delete options.
• Move brushes between sets: Tap and hold a brush, keep your finger down, and drag it to another set, another library, or a location in Files. While still holding, tap other brushes to add them to the group you're moving.
• Dedicated combo set: Create a set just for experiments and drop copies of the brushes you want to mix into it. Your originals stay intact.
• Libraries: Pinch the Brushes interface to reach your other brush libraries. You can keep stamp brushes in one library and drawing brushes in another.
• Be careful with Delete. It's permanent and removes the brush from Pocket and from Files. Recovery is only possible from Recently Deleted within a grace period.

Brush sets can be reordered, and you can pick up several at once, but Procreate doesn't currently let you nest or group sets inside folders. Some users report that multi-select moves can be finicky with long lists, so move in smaller batches.

Where combined brushes fit in a motion pipeline

Procreate Pocket is a sketching and texture tool, but for motion designers it can feed real production work. Hand-built Dual Brushes are useful for:

• Painted textures, grain, and mattes you'll bring into After Effects as layers.
• Frame-by-frame or rough-animation drawing where stroke character matters.
• Style references: boards and paint-over frames that define a look before you build it in 3D or in a comp.

Because each stroke is a deliberate combination of shape and grain, the output has a consistent hand-made character that's hard to fake with generic brushes. Export your artwork as images and bring it into After Effects, Photoshop, Blender, or Cinema 4D as you would any other asset.

Using your brushwork as a reference in Styleframe

Once you've built a look in Pocket, you may want to carry it into moving imagery without redrawing every frame. You can export your artwork as an image and use it as a reference in other tools, such as Styleframe.

Quick reference

Combining brushes takes seconds once you know the constraints: same set, single brushes only, and duplicates for defaults. The real value comes after the merge, in tuning each component and cycling through Combine Modes until the stroke does something neither brush could do alone.

To combine brushes in Procreate Pocket, tap the paint, smudge, or erase tool twice to open Brushes, tap the first brush to make it the Primary (it turns bright blue), and swipe right on a second brush in the same set to make it the Secondary (dark blue). Then tap Combine at the top of the Brushes interface. The new Dual Brush takes the Primary brush's name, and you can edit each component and change the Combine Mode in Brush Studio. Default Procreate brushes can't be combined directly in Pocket, so duplicate them first and combine the copies.

What a Dual Brush actually is

A Dual Brush merges two single brushes into one. It uses each brush's editable shape and grain, so you get one stroke that carries the character of both. A hard-edged inking brush and a gritty texture brush, for example, can become a single tool that draws a crisp line with a rough surface.

If you work in After Effects, the logic will feel familiar. The Combine Mode works much like a layer Blend Mode, controlling how the two brush components mix. You're effectively compositing two brush layers into one stroke, and you can tweak each independently afterward.

Before you start: the rules that trip people up

Most failed attempts come down to a handful of constraints:

• Both brushes must be in the same brush set. If the brushes live in different sets, move or duplicate one into the other's set first.
• Only single brushes can be combined. An existing Dual Brush can't be combined with another brush.
• Default Procreate brushes can't be combined directly in Pocket. Duplicate the default brush, then combine the copy. Procreate's full iPad app has relaxed this rule in newer versions, but the Pocket handbook still lists it as a limitation.
• The Primary brush decides the name. You can rename it afterward.

Step-by-step: combine two brushes

1. Open the Brushes interface

In a canvas, the paint, smudge, and erase tools sit in the top toolbar. If the toolbar is contracted, tap the ellipsis to expand it. Tap the tool once to activate it and tap it again to open Brushes.

Brush sets are listed on the left, and the brushes in the active set are on the right. You can swipe the top center handle upward to expand the interface and see more at once.

2. Find both brushes in one set

Tap the set that holds your first brush and scroll the list on the right. If your second brush is elsewhere, hold it and drag it into this set. You can also duplicate it (see the organizing section below) and move the copy.

3. Select Primary and Secondary

Tap the first brush. It turns bright blue, marking it as Primary. Then swipe right on the second brush. It turns dark blue, marking it as Secondary. The word Combine appears at the top of the Brushes interface.

Choose the Primary deliberately, because its name carries over.

4. Tap Combine

The two brushes merge into a single Dual Brush with qualities of both. Try a few strokes on the canvas right away. Procreate Pocket remembers your settings, so you can switch between brushes without losing adjustments.

5. Rename if needed

Tap and hold the new brush, choose Rename, and type a name on the iOS keyboard. Clear names matter once you have dozens of hybrids. Something like "Ink + Grit" tells you more than a copy of the Primary's name.

Edit the component brushes

A combined brush isn't locked. To refine it:

1. Open Brush Studio by tapping the Dual Brush twice.
2. Look at the top of Brush Studio, where previews of both component brushes appear.
3. Tap the preview of the brush you want to adjust. It highlights in blue.
4. Change its settings. Edits apply only to the selected component.

This is where Dual Brushes get powerful. You can make the texture component larger or rougher without touching the shape component. Treat it like adjusting one layer in a comp while the other stays untouched.

Change the Combine Mode

The Combine Mode controls how the two components interact. It defaults to Normal.

1. Enter Brush Studio on the Dual Brush.
2. Tap either component preview to reveal the Combine Mode panel.
3. Scroll through the list and tap a mode.

The result updates live in the Drawing Pad, so you can scrub through modes and watch how the stroke changes. If you want a deeper understanding of what each mode does, Procreate's Blend Modes documentation covers the same underlying idea.

Experiment systematically. Pick one pair of brushes, cycle through several modes, and save the combinations that work as separate brushes by duplicating before you make major edits.

Uncombine a Dual Brush

If a hybrid doesn't work, you can revert it:

1. Open Brush Studio on the Dual Brush.
2. Tap either preview to reveal the Combine Mode panel.
3. Tap the lower preview image (the Secondary), then tap Uncombine.

The Dual Brush separates back into its two original component brushes.

Troubleshooting: why Combine won't appear

If the Combine option never shows up, check these in order:

1. Are both brushes in the same set?
2. Is either brush already a Dual Brush? Existing Dual Brushes can't be combined further.
3. Is one a default Procreate brush? Duplicate it and use the copy.
4. Did you swipe right on the second brush? A simple tap changes your active brush instead of choosing a Secondary.

Organize brushes so combining is painless

Since combining depends on set membership, a bit of organization saves time.

• Duplicate: Tap and hold a brush and choose Duplicate to create a copy in the current set. It keeps the name with a number appended. Swiping left on a brush also reveals quick Share, Duplicate, and Delete options.
• Move brushes between sets: Tap and hold a brush, keep your finger down, and drag it to another set, another library, or a location in Files. While still holding, tap other brushes to add them to the group you're moving.
• Dedicated combo set: Create a set just for experiments and drop copies of the brushes you want to mix into it. Your originals stay intact.
• Libraries: Pinch the Brushes interface to reach your other brush libraries. You can keep stamp brushes in one library and drawing brushes in another.
• Be careful with Delete. It's permanent and removes the brush from Pocket and from Files. Recovery is only possible from Recently Deleted within a grace period.

Brush sets can be reordered, and you can pick up several at once, but Procreate doesn't currently let you nest or group sets inside folders. Some users report that multi-select moves can be finicky with long lists, so move in smaller batches.

Where combined brushes fit in a motion pipeline

Procreate Pocket is a sketching and texture tool, but for motion designers it can feed real production work. Hand-built Dual Brushes are useful for:

• Painted textures, grain, and mattes you'll bring into After Effects as layers.
• Frame-by-frame or rough-animation drawing where stroke character matters.
• Style references: boards and paint-over frames that define a look before you build it in 3D or in a comp.

Because each stroke is a deliberate combination of shape and grain, the output has a consistent hand-made character that's hard to fake with generic brushes. Export your artwork as images and bring it into After Effects, Photoshop, Blender, or Cinema 4D as you would any other asset.

Using your brushwork as a reference in Styleframe

Once you've built a look in Pocket, you may want to carry it into moving imagery without redrawing every frame. You can export your artwork as an image and use it as a reference in other tools, such as Styleframe.

Quick reference

Combining brushes takes seconds once you know the constraints: same set, single brushes only, and duplicates for defaults. The real value comes after the merge, in tuning each component and cycling through Combine Modes until the stroke does something neither brush could do alone.