I’m pretty confident the skills you learn in Rebelle would transfer back into the real world, where you’re painting on real watercolour paper. You could do any watercolour course and apply the realworld techniques digitally, without spending a fortune on paints and papers. Rebelle is therefore better for watercolour, a medium which is heavily influenced by the thickness, wetness and tooth of the paper.You’ll see the difference as soon as you try it. All other software out there mimics the effect of paint interacting with paper. There is a genuine, physics based interaction between paper and media. Rebelle paint interacts with the paper.I find kids love these features but few professional illustrators make use of them, partly because of printing limitations, partly because of wanting to avoid… kitsch? Artrage features lighting effects which allows for metallic textures and glitter, and Artrage 6 offers more control over lighting direction than Artrage 5.But this is no copycat mashup - Rebelle still does its own thing. They utilise the best UI features from Artrage, Paintstorm Studio and Adobe products. The Rebelle team seem to have made careful study of what’s out there. If you already know one of these programs you’ll easily learn the other, because they are similar.Rebelle is quicker to learn because there is less to know.If you’re working on a piece which requires maybe 50-100 layers, Rebelle isn’t going to be the software you’re using from start to finish, but is still useful if you want to create some layers in magnificent watercolour, which you can then export and use in a different piece of software. Basically, the developers don’t MEAN users to make heavy use of layers. I have read the manual cover to cover and now I’m sure of it - though I found it unbelievable - you can’t group layers.

The reason I could never fully utilise Rebelle 3 as my main digital art software is its very limited layer management. But if watercolour is not your thing, Artrage has a lot more functionality. The short answer: nothing matches Rebelle 3 for digital watercolour simulation.

If you have to choose, which should you buy? In my case, would I get much use out of Rebelle when I’ve been an Artrage fan since 2011? With both, you can pick up your pen and start drawing right away. They are both excellent, lower-priced digital art software which replicate real-world media and painting techniques. Artrage by Ambient Design, and Rebelle, by Escape Motions, are in some ways similar.

Artrage 6 review