Video tutorial

Most Used Sculpting Brushes in Blender

This guide turns the video walkthrough into a practical reference. It covers the six core sculpting brushes used in Blender 3D: Clay Strips, Smooth, Grab, Inflate, Crease, and Mask. Each brush has a distinct role, and together they cover most day to day sculpting tasks.

Use this page as a quick overview before you sculpt. Start with Clay Strips to build volume, refine forms with Smooth and Grab, and finish with Crease and Mask for clean detail and controlled edits.

Watch the video Brush breakdown Workflow tips

Clay Strips Smooth and Grab Inflate and Crease Mask control

Core sculpting tools explained Brush size and strength control Masking for clean edits

Video walkthrough

The full tutorial video covers the brushes in context and demonstrates how each one behaves on a sculpt.

Brush breakdown

Clay Strips

Clay Strips is the go-to brush for building volume quickly. It lays down broad strokes of clay-like material and helps you establish the main forms without getting lost in detail.

Adjust brush size to move between large blocking and smaller passes. Control strength to decide how aggressive the buildup should be.

Smooth

Smooth refines surfaces and blends transitions between forms. It is essential for organic shapes and for cleaning up noise after you add volume.

Hold Shift while sculpting to temporarily switch to Smooth. Lower the strength for subtle blending, or increase it to flatten rough areas fast.

Grab

Grab lets you pull, push, and reshape your model. It is perfect for adjusting proportions, improving silhouettes, and refining poses.

Use it early to fix large issues before you add detail. A few controlled grabs can save hours of rework later.

Inflate

Inflate adds or removes volume by expanding or shrinking the surface. It is useful for muscles, wrinkles, and subtle organic bulges.

Use Inflate to emphasize detail without changing the overall shape too much. Small passes build natural variation.

Crease

Crease creates sharp lines and edges, ideal for folds, wrinkles, and defined hard transitions. It pushes the surface into a tighter line than Clay Strips or Inflate.

Adjust brush falloff and smoothness to control how sharp the crease feels. Lower smoothness gives a harder edge, while higher smoothness softens the transition.

Mask

Mask protects areas from sculpting changes. Paint masks to isolate parts of the model so you can work safely on the rest.

Blur masks to soften transitions and use invert to switch protected and editable areas. This makes focused edits fast and predictable.

Workflow tips

The most reliable sculpting results come from working large to small and keeping your brush choices intentional. These tips keep the process clean and repeatable.

Block first: Use Clay Strips and Grab before any fine detail.

Smooth often: Blend transitions to keep surfaces readable.

Control intensity: Adjust size and strength instead of overworking.

Sharpen late: Use Crease after the forms are stable.

Mask for safety: Protect areas before aggressive edits.

Useful links

Blender sculpting hotkeys · Installing brushes in Blender · Best sculpting brushes in Blender

More VK GameDev products

Explore more brush packs picked at random from the catalog. Refresh the page to see a different mix.