I don’t often get excited about software (OK I got a little bit excited about the more recent Blender updates to the animation suite) but today is the release day of Rebelle 7. I’ve been a serial tester of graphics programs and Rebelle Painter has been on my wish list for some time. I’ve literally been hanging out for months like a kid the night before Christmas. (Yeah I did justify the purchase as a gift to myself).

The mix of digital and ‘native’ painting is just what I’ve been missing in my workflow. I love my analogue art making process. For someone who spends all day in front of the screen nothing is better than having real paint to mix or flowing ink and watercolor. Rebelle crosses this boundary and allows me to take the workflow of my traditional painting and use it in my digital art. This is especially important for me. Making games is an art for me – and coming from a fine arts background I really want to inject that into it. No matter how awkward that fit that sometimes is.

I’ve had almost two years off delivering a game with returning to full time work at the Xiabatsu and with the heavy lockdown in Melbourne. But it really gave me a chance to get into oil painting and spend months mixing and painting color patches. I’ve been a ClipStudio convert for some time and it does a semi-decent watercolor effect but that’s really all it is. Being able to mix colors and work with wet or dry paper on Rebelle is simply awe inspiring.