I’ve had a couple of people ask me how to install brushes to GIMP, it’s quite easy really:

First, download a set of brushes. Try deviantArt.com, they have an excellent selection of free brushes for GIMP, that’s where I got the brushes I use for the digital paintings I’ve been doing.

The brushes will probably come in a ZIP, or RAR, archive. Open the file using winZIP/winRAR (Windows) or arK (KDE), or FileRoller (GNOME). Select all the brushes in the archive and unarchive them to:

Windows:

C:/Program Files/GIMP2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes

Linux:

/home/username/.gimp-2.0/brushes

NOTE: in Linux, you may have to ’show hidden files’ to see the .gimp directory.

Your directory structure might be slightly different if you’re using a newer version of GIMP, but dig around a bit and you’ll find the brushes directory.

Now load up GIMP and you should see your new brushes! If not: click the ‘refresh’ button (bottom right) in the brushes tab.

Good luck!