ILLUSTRATION KNOWHOW Drawing and Painting software

 

In this day and age we have a large variety of digital drawing and painting software, but do you know what your options are? In the second of a series, Alina Manolache guides us through some of the alternatives.

I would like to present a few of the more popular options out there and hopefully spark your interest towards one or more of them. All options presented can open a shared file type (psd is the standard) so you can even mix and match different programs for different parts of your illustration process. 

We will look at each software from the perspective of a working illustrator and consider the following factors: The price (as of the time of writing the article), the platforms it’s available on, if it has blend modes, if it supports CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Key). I will also mention what kind of learning resources they have and if there’s anything that makes the software special or different from the rest. My absolute favourite software and the topic of today's article:

Rebelle 7: has amazing simulation of real life media, from charcoal and pastels to watercolours and oils.  There are two versions of the software, normal and pro and you can find a list of differences on their website.

Developer: Escape Motions

Price: 77.99 GBP for the standard version or 129.99 GBP for the Pro version. Escape Motions has sales about twice a year (usually during spring and winter).

Platforms: it’s available on macOS and Windows.

Free trial: 30 days free trial for which you need an account with Escape Motions, no credit card required. 

Blend modes: A list of all the blend modes found in Rebelle 7 can be found in their manual. There are a total of 23 blend modes.

CMYK support: it doesn’t support working directly in CMYK but you can proof your work by selecting the colour profile of your choice and seeing how the artwork looks with that colour profile. However, these options are only available in the pro version.

Rebelle 7 default user interface

Learning resources: Rebelle 7 is well documented; it has a in-depth user guide that you can access with information about all its features as well as tutorials on their YouTube channel. Other creators have also made educational videos for Rebelle as well as full courses.

Specialty: Rebelle 7 has quite a lot of features that build on the idea of mimicking real media and that is its strongest point, and I must say the textures you can get with it are gorgeous. It also has natural pigments where blue and yellow make green and metallic pigments (pro version) as well as other nice-to-have features like a perspective tool, stencils and the ability to export your work at 4 times its original size. 

Rebelle 7 real watercolour simulation

Next time we'll take a look at another amazing software Clip Studio Paint.

* Header image: collaboration by Ell Rose & Tita Berredo

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Alina Manolache's love for fairy tales, watercolour painting, and animals is readily apparent in her first book "Little Red is making friends", which she wrote, illustrated, and self published. In her debut work, the visually stunning illustrations combined with her storytelling evoke undeniable feelings of joy and compassion.

See more of Alina's work here. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.

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Tita Berredo is the Illustrator Coordinator of SCBWI British Isles and the Art Director of Words & Pictures. 

Follow her on Instagram and Twitter or www.titaberredo.com.

Contact her at: illuscoordinator@britishscbwi.org

Ell Rose is the Illustration Features Editor of Words & Pictures.

Find their work at fourfooteleven.com

Follow them on Instagram and X/Twitter

Contact them at illustrators@britishscbwi.org