Rebelle 2

KEEP IT REAL Escape Motions’ budget program is the latest evolution in digital art software, which attempts the recreation of traditional media.

After launching the program for the first time, Rebelle feels like a low-calorie version of Photoshop. There are noticeably fewer tools and menus. The list of brush tips is a lot smaller (at least in the program’s default installation package) and there appear to be fewer options.

But this program is a different beast from Photoshop. In the top left corner is a small set of realistic-looking paint brushes with different shapes. Yet clicking them doesn’t give you a variety of shapes, but rather different painting media.

Furthest on the left is watercolour, then acrylic, pastel, coloured pencil, ink, marker and spray paint. Within each of these is a submenu of brush tips, each with a clutch of options.