Rebelle 8 review: This impressive painting software let me turn my MacBook into a full-blown canvas

Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:15:00 +0000

Description:
Rebelle 8 from Escape Motions is all about recreating the real-world effect
of painting with brushes and paints on a canvas in a virtual environment.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Taking
a photo and altering it, like you can do with Adobe Photoshop, is old hat these days, as so many apps allow you to do just that. But if youre an artist who loves to paint, this type of software cant replicate the feel of watercolours, oils, acrylics, and pastels as theyre applied onto a canvas.

Some developers saw this as a challenge: how to replicate painting on a
canvas in the digital world. Escape Motions Rebelle is a serious competitor
in this field, and have introduced a few new features with their latest 8th version. Lets take a look at it. You can check out Rebelle 8 by clicking here . Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Rebelle 8: Pricing & plans A multi-platform software package One-off license at a cost that wont break the bank Free trial available Theres a lot of good news for people who like to own - actually own - multi-platform software: first of, Rebelle is available for Windows and Mac users (sadly, Linux fans are all too often left out of the loop, as they are here).

Even better, theres no option to rent the software: you purchase it with a one-time fee of $90. Which is quite reasonable for software of this caliber, especially since youre allowed to install it on up to three computers.

There is a more advanced version, called Rebelle Pro for $150. Finally,
Escape Motions offers a very generous 30-day trial so you can check out the software and see how it works for you.

You will have to create an account with them in order to access it, but all they ask is an email address - you keep your credit card details to yourself. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

All in all, this feels like a very good start. Rebelle 8 available to buy
from developer Escape Motions by clicking here . Pricing & plans: 5 / 5 Rebelle 8: Interface (Image credit: Escape Motions // Future) A well-designed interface Familiar enough to ease you in if youre new to Rebelle Different enough that theres going to be a bit of a learning curve If this is your
first foray into Rebelle, youll find the interface very similar to other
image editing applications. You have two sidebars, one on either side. The left one focusses on your brushes, while on the right, you have your layers, color selections, and navigational options.

The rest of the screen real estate is devoted to your canvas, but thats not all there is to it. Hop on over to the Menubars Window menu to see other tools, which are available by default as floating windows.

However the interface is highly flexible, enabling you to dock these windows into either sidebar, be it as their own unique dedicated area, or sharing the space with other tools - when that happens, a small series of tabs will
appear above that shared section, allowing you to switch between them.

This allows you to create a unique setup to match what you need to see as you digitally paint your projects. Youre also able to export this layout to make it easy to set up Rebelle on another computer with your customized personalised setup.

Overall, the interface is similar enough to not feel intimidating, but different enough that it will take you a few minutes to understand where everything is, and what it does. But the main takeaway is that its well designed, and is easy enough to understand that it wont take you long to get the gist of it. Interface: 4 / 5 Rebelle 8: Tools (Image credit: Escape Motions // Future) So many brushes to play with, and so many parameters to explore Lots of different types of canvases Create truly unique projects as long as you can handle some of the quirks The tools available are pretty much all the various brushes you can work with - and there are so many. You start with selecting the type of brush from the top left section of the interface, like an acrylic brush, or one for watercolors, inks, pastels, etc.

Beneath that is another panel, with a handful of parameters to customize how the selected brush will paint on your chosen canvas, and you could easily leave it at that, but that would be ignoring the dozens of options further down the sidebar.

For instance, the Express Oil brushes have sub-categories, such as Round, Glaze, and Flat, and if thats not enough, a drop down menu allows you to browse through and purchase additional ones.

The options and flexibilities are immense, and it can be a lot of fun to
paint digitally in that way. You also have all the advantages of working on a computer, such as having multiple layers, cloning sections, erasing others, the lot.

There were a few things I was disappointed by, the biggest one being that I could only have one project open at a time. As someone who far too often has too many ideas on the go, this felt unnecessarily restrictive to me.

Another had to do with controlling the canvas itself. I work on a laptop and use a multi-touch trackpad for everything, but even with all the options I could find disabled, that canvas would move or suddenly zoom in or out at random moments.

Thankfully theres a handy and simple keyboard shortcut to bring it all back
to the centre, filling the screen, but it got really annoying by the end. I think the lesson here is dont use the trackpad when doing serious artistic work with Rebelle.

Also, despite using a powerful computer to test this out (a laptop with an M5 chip), I felt like sometimes I had to wait a few seconds for the software to render the stroke I made. This app needs a lot of power. Tools: 4 / 5 Rebelle 8: What's new? (Image credit: Escape Motions // Future) No revolutionary wow additions Relatively small improvements makes creative life much easier Version 8 brings a few refinements to this software package - nothing earth shattering, but theyre welcome additions nonetheless. Here are some I felt were important to mention.

The Canvas Panel has been streamlined, making it easy to select a new type of paper and see all those you dont yet have, but are available for purchase - you can even test this new canvas prior to acquiring it (if this constant advertisement is not your thing, use the filter options to remove those as
yet un-owned canvases from the list).

On the other side of the interface are your favourite brushes. Thats nothing new. But right next to them is a new tab, featuring all the latest brushes youve used in your current session. This is a most welcome way to help you keep track of what youve been working with without you having to do anything.

When it comes to painting, theres always been a limit to how big a brush can be. In the standard sidebar, thats usually up to 100. Switch to the Creator Brush panel and you can now go up to 3,000 which is almost big enough to
cover an entire canvas with one brush stroke.

Theres also a new Symmetry tool which essentially cuts your canvas right down the middle and everything you draw on one side is instantly mirrored on the other.

And last on my list is the Line tool which always allowed you to easily draw parallel lines, but now lets you add perpendicular ones as well, which can save you a heck of a lot of time. Should I buy Rebelle 8? (Image credit: Escape Motions // Future) Buy it if... Youre a creative whos always loved the feel of the brush on your canvas, are looking for a way to reproduce this digitally, and love the fact you only need to pay once to own the software. Don't buy it if... Your creative outlet doesnt extend to replicating how real-life brushes work in a digital environment, and youd be much happier
with the likes of Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro instead. How I tested Rebelle 8 I fired up my trusty M5 MacBook Pro for this review of Rebelle 8. I sadly couldnt test the software on my PC laptop - its high time I upgraded anyway - although it does show that Rebelle needs more oomph than a lot of other software in its category.

The minimum requirements are an Intel i7 chip with 16GB of RAM, and my PC
cant match that. Considering the computations needed to simulate how
real-life paint and brushes behave, Im not surprised at all that Rebelle 8 would need more power than Photoshop.

But on my Mac, aside from the issues I highlighted in the review, I had no complaints, and the gallery on Escape Motions website shows how realistic the paintings done with Rebelle can end up looking. For more creative tools, we tested the best photo editors and the best digital art and drawing software .



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