Designed for concept artists and those looking to create speedy sketches in oils, Express Oils is a great addition (and found in both Standard and Pro versions of Rebelle 5). Trying the same feat with the stand oils brushes can result in lag as the large brush strokes try to catch up. These oils do lack the gloss of the main oils brushes, though working in large sized brushes to cover areas quickly with little slow down is a joy. Express Oils is based on Rebelle’s core Oils simulations but is aimed at creating fast sketches, spreading a layer of quick underly paint and quickly covering the canvas.

The addition of Express Oils instantly speeds up the painting process and is a great inclusion for concept artists. While past versions of Rebelle were squarely aimed at the amateur or semi-pro market, this version is aiming to entice pro artists to its canvases. There's little lag when you switch to using Rebelle 5's Express Oils (Image credit: Ian Dean) (opens in new tab) Handily you can also test your colour profiles before exporting. You can also choose how light affects the colour, including transparent, opaque, or semi-transparent mixing for watercolors. Or just blend and mix directly into the painting, as well as colour picking traditionally. Colour blending is as easy as choosing and mixing pigments on a separate palette before applying to the canvas, offering total control over your paint tones.

With so much colour splashing about it’s good to see Escape Emotions has refined its colour mixing and sampling palette. If that isn’t enough for you the Blow Tool enables you to push the wet paint across the canvas, mixing and merging colours and creating intricate and unusual accidental effects. The DropEngine takes things a step further by creating beautiful dripping effects of the paint moving down the canvas – you can set the tilt angle of the canvas to create longer or shorter drips of paint.

The new simulation offers a realistic granulation effect as the paint dries into the paper, bringing every brush stroke to the surface. Watercolours are a highlight in Rebelle 5. Watercolours are a joy to use in Rebelle 5, and offer an easy, quick sketching resource (Image credit: Ian Dean) (opens in new tab)

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