Introducing Dutch Rebelle Featured Artist, Carla Post, whose main focus has been on watercolor and pastel chalk portraits. Read the interview to learn about her journey to digital painting, the challenges of exhibiting her work in galleries, and more.

Carla Post has been passionate about drawing from an early age, with a particular fascination for faces. Her preferred medium has always been pastels, especially for creating portraits. Throughout her life, she has been deeply interested in various forms of design and creation. Whether working with clothing, wool, silk, or crafting lamps and bags, she thrives on bringing something to life from nothing.

In addition to her love for art, Carla also enjoys photography, with a special focus on animals and nature. In 2017, she purchased her first Wacom tablet, initially for designing logos, creative artwork for web design, and creating brochures, e-books, banners, flags, and business cards. As she delved deeper into the world of digital art, she began drawing digitally and eventually found her way to using Rebelle software.

Hello Carla, let´s start from the beginning of your art journey. What inspired you to become a portrait painter? Do you remember the first portrait you ever painted?

I never really thought about it. I was always attracted to faces, and especially faces that went with colorful clothing. Not sure exactly how this attraction came about… My first portrait was a small dog portrait of one of our hunting dogs at the time, made with colored pencils. Then it started with faces, especially children. One of those first portraits was of a young native American at a powwow.

"It took a lot of time to gain technical skills to be able to paint digitally. When I think about how many hours it all cost, it is a lot, but I now have a lot of convenience resulting from it."

How do you combine technical skills with personal expression in your work?

For me, it took a lot of time to gain technical skills, especially when it came to programs in the Adobe package and later Rebelle. When I think about how many hours it all cost, it is a lot, but I now have a lot of convenience resulting from it. That does not mean that I am ever done learning new things, of course, it is the actual “doing” and working with the tools and repetition of different steps, which ultimately meets my taste.

Perhaps it was an advantage that I first worked with pastels, colored pencils, and pastel chalk for many years. They are impossible to use over and over again; in that respect, the rise of digital drawing is an enormous advance. When it comes to digital drawing, people often think the computer will do it for you. Of course, even though the tools are different, the manual work remains. I still have to do all the hand moves myself, and it took a lot of time to overcome the learning curve, which is often overlooked.

"I like to capture images of people in their natural poses, not staged, often not knowing they are being photographed.  My husband makes beautiful wildlife shots from nature here in the area, so I like to use those as a reference as well."

Have you ever experienced trouble capturing the likeness of a subject?

Oh yes, to great annoyance! Fortunately, I am someone who keeps going until I have hit it. Usually, I ask my husband for his direct opinion. What also often helps is placing the portrait in mirror image or upside down, so that all the fixed guidelines for the view of the subject change, and the mistakes can be seen very quickly.
What is your source of reference for the artwork?
I search through old magazines, of which I use the face, but change the eye colour, hair, and clothing, and then add caps, headscarves, and hats, so it becomes a completely different portrait. That is what I use in my graphic work to, change it to something completely different.
How do you determine the size and scale of a portrait?

I often determine the size by looking at the subject beforehand and immediately taking into account that it can be printed to that particular size.
What medium do you prefer to work with and why?

Before I started to work with Rebelle, I mainly worked with pastel chalk. Since I picked up digital drawing, I like to work with watercolor supplemented with colored pencils and pastel chalk.
Do you think portraits should look realistic, or can they also be abstract?

I like both. The difficulty for me is to move from realistic to abstract, but one should never avoid challenges. Right?

Your art is exhibited often, and thousands of people visit the exhibitions. What reactions do you encounter when they learn these are digital paintings?

Oh, it varies. Anything from disbelief, “How did you do this?”, and people never hearing of digital drawing before, to very positive reactions and admiration.

Once, I received a negative comment that my computer did that for me...and that I ordered the computer to draw this, and then it rolled off the printing belt.
What do you hope viewers take away from your portraits?

I hope they enjoy the subject and the colors, for some the subject may evoke the beauty of nature, for others the radiance of certain faces.

Thank you, Carla, for sharing your thoughts on digital portraiture, examples of your work, and hopes for the future. May your art be seen and appreciated by many. 

Happy Painting, 
Escape Motions Team

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Learn more about Carla Post: www.escapemotions.com/featured-artists/carla-post

The wait is over - Early Access to Rebelle 8 is here! Starting today, you can dive into the most advanced version of Rebelle we've ever created, packed with powerful new tools, smarter workflows, and creative possibilities that blur the line between traditional and digital art like never before.

This Early Access release gives you the unique opportunity to explore and experience Rebelle 8 features before the official launch in September. Rebelle 8 comes in two editions - Rebelle 8 standard, full of great new features and Rebelle 8 Pro, which in addition offers the extra experience of Bristle Brushes, RealShader with SoftShadows, improved NanoPixel 2, Smooth Scaling, advanced PSD import and export, and more. Of course, the Pro edition also includes the already-known Pigments, Metallics, Fractal Image Processing, Color Management, and Photoshop plug-in, which is now natively compatible with M-chips on macOS!

Let's dive into the groundbreaking features that make Rebelle 8 a true artistic powerhouse.

Watch the video introducing the new features:

Rebelle 8 Pro Key Features

Bristle Brushes - Powered by the new particle brush system, bristle brushes simulate the movement and behavior of each individual strand. Every stroke can now respond uniquely to color, smudging, pressure, and more, unlocking a whole new level of creative expression. Rebelle comes with predefined bristle brushes as part of the package, and you can customize them or create your own through the powerful Brush Creator.
We’ll continue refining this feature leading up to the official release.

RealShader - A new generation of realistic Rebelle materials that use environment maps. These maps simulate how light interacts with thick paint, making your brushstrokes look more lifelike. Choose from three built-in environment maps and achieve a much deeper, more realistic oil painting effect.

SoftShadows - Oil brushstrokes can now cast realistic shadows, reflect light based on their shape and color, and exhibit a sense of three-dimensional volume in a real-time painting environment. SoftShadows are deactivated by default. To get the best out of bristle brushes, activate them via Visual Settings > Rendering.

NanoPixel 2 - Export up to 20×20 (2000%) larger images through the improved NanoPixel export, providing dramatically higher resolution and precision. Enjoy the enhanced realism of the brushwork when zoomed in. The export size is capped at 32,000 x 32,000 pixels for all file formats, except TIFF, which has unlimited export size.

Smooth Scaling - A brand-new antialiasing technique that ensures strokes retain their smoothness and clarity no matter how far in or out you zoom, from 0% to 100% scale. This results in beautifully crisp and smooth strokes.

Advanced PSD Import & Export - Preserve layer arrangements, effects, and masks in PSD files more faithfully. As a result, working between Rebelle and other digital art tools will feel smoother and more intuitive.

Custom Reflectivity Textures - Upload your own reflectivity pattern for Metallic materials to bring variety to your metallic artworks.

Escape Motions Connect - Photoshop plugin is also getting an update and now runs natively with Photoshop on M-series chips, eliminating the need for Rosetta mode.

WebSocket Control Input - Enables remote operation of the software via external devices, offering exciting possibilities for interactive installations, live performances, projections, and custom hardware setups through command-line arguments.

"My enthusiasm for the new brush technology, combined with RealShader and Raytracing, has not waned, but grows with every new painting. The bristle brushes are now so well adjusted that I hardly ever have to go into the brush creator to make adjustments. The sliders in the properties panel are completely sufficient to create countless variations in the behavior of the brushes." ~ Georg Ireland, Digital Painter & Rebelle 8 Betatester

Rebelle 8 Key Features

Larger Brushes - Thanks to the new brush engine, you can now push brush sizes up to 3,000 pixels, which is 4.28× larger compared to the previous version. Whether you want to block in backgrounds quickly, create sweeping gestures, or add expressive textures with bold strokes, the new larger brushes give you the freedom to work on a grander scale.

Recent Brushes - Keep track of the brushes you’ve recently used within your current painting project. These brushes are conveniently collected and displayed in a new 'Recent' tab under the Favorites Brushes tool, making it easy to switch back to tools you’ve been using frequently without manually reselecting them.

Symmetry Tool - Create perfectly mirrored artwork with ease using symmetry. Now, whether you're sketching characters, creatures, or just exploring balance, you can paint and still feel like you're using a real brush. 
We’ll continue refining this feature leading up to the official release.

"Rebelle 8 is the final piece of the paint simulation puzzle. The new bristle brushes and real shader system create the most organic and three-dimensional feel I’ve ever experienced in a painting software. Each brushstroke feels unique, forming tiny ridges and subtle hue shifts that mimic the texture and depth of real oil paint, allowing me to get that organic brushwork look. The impasto gets impressively thick, introducing a new level of depth to my digital work. This is by far my favorite version of Rebelle." ~ Ludovico Clovis, Painter & Rebelle 8 Betatester

Instant Paper Preview - Instantly try out all individual papers, canvases, and art surfaces in the software. Choose the perfect paper for your artwork, which can now be purchased separately; no more sets of three. We’ll continue refining this feature leading up to the official release.

Layer Settings - Assign settings per layer, including layer color for better visual organization, impasto settings per layer, adjusting the texture’s depth, and choosing how it blends with the layers beneath. Moreover, control metallic reflectivity individually, per layer, and get precise control over how metallic paints shine and catch light.

Custom Granulation Textures - Upload your own granulation pattern for Watercolor Granulation in the Visual Settings panel.

View at Print Size - Get an accurate preview of how your artwork will look when printed. This tool calculates the display size based on your screen’s resolution (PPI) and the artwork’s actual dimensions, allowing you to see your image at its true physical size.

Paint Selection & Selection Improvements - When in "Paint Selection" mode, you can use any brush preset to paint a selection.

Transform Anchor Point - Move the anchor point of the transformation area. This anchor point acts as the pivot or center for transforming a layer or selection, affecting how it is positioned, rotated, and scaled.

More Features - Besides these fantastic features, you will get even more, including color harmonies, RYB color wheel, improvements in the Filter Layers, faster loading of REB files, updates to the user interface and more.

Get Rebelle 8 in Early Access

To start using Rebelle 8 early, before the official release, log in to your Community account and visit our shop: https://www.escapemotions.com/shop

The pricing for Rebelle 8 remains the same both during Early Access and after the full version release. The standard edition is available for $89.99, while the more advanced Rebelle 8 Pro edition is priced at $149.99, both with 1-Year Free Updates included.

Upgrade from Rebelle 7
If you own Rebelle 7 or Rebelle 7 Pro, you’re eligible for a 50% discount. That means you can get Rebelle 8 standard for $44.99 or Rebelle 8 Pro for $74.99 - both include 1 year of free updates. Moreover, all Rebelle 8 users are eligible to upgrade to Rebelle 8 Pro for the price difference. Log in to your Community account before purchasing to see your upgrade options.

Upgrade from Rebelle 7 for free
Users who purchased Rebelle 7 standard (MSRP $89.99) or Pro (MSRP $149.99) from May 28th, 2025, until the start of Rebelle 8's Early Access are eligible for a free upgrade to the same edition of Rebelle 8, with 1-year free updates included. Log in to your Community account and go to the 'Purchases' tab - Rebelle 8 is impatiently waiting for you. :)

1-Year Free Updates

Starting from Rebelle 8, with 1-Year Free Updates, you’ll receive all new features, improvements, and fixes for a full 12 months from the day you purchase your Rebelle license. And here’s the best part: your license is still perpetual.

That means:

- You own Rebelle forever, no subscriptions.
- You can continue using the version you own even after your update period ends.
- You can renew your update access at any time to get another year of updates.


To ensure long-term stability and compliance, we're committed to offering a 2-year Long-Term Support (LTS) version of Rebelle. This aligns with consumer protection laws, including EU Directive 2019/770, which requires necessary updates to maintain software conformity. In simple terms: your license includes one year of new features and two years of maintenance updates and bug fixes of the version you purchased. You can find more details in our EULA, under 2. Software Updates.


If you decide not to extend the update period, you’ll still keep full access to the last version of Rebelle released during your update window. This is different from a subscription model, where access to the software ends if you stop paying. The price of the renewal of the update period is planned to be 50% off the full price of Rebelle.


You can learn about the new licensing 1-Year Free Updates model on our blog, see our FAQ's, or if you have any unanswered questions, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

Refund Policy

As usual, you are eligible for a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, since we're running Early Access, if you purchase Rebelle 8 now, your refund period ends 30 days after the release of the full Rebelle 8 version, currently planned for September 2025.

Your Feedback Matters

We’re continuing to refine Rebelle to ensure a smooth and bug-free experience. Your feedback plays a crucial role in this process. Please share your thoughts via Help > Send Feedback in Rebelle 8, visit our forum, or reach out to us directly at [email protected].

Let's showcase your creative endeavors with Rebelle 8! Share your artwork in the online Gallery or use #madewithrebelle in your social media posts. We're eager to see what you create! :)

Happy painting!
Escape Motions Team

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Images by Rebelle Featured Artists Georg Ireland, Ludovico Clovis, Karen Bonaker, and Han Sang-sun

With the launch of Rebelle 8, we’re excited to unveil a new and more flexible approach to licensing: the 1-Year Free Updates. We believe it is a better, fairer way to keep Rebelle growing with you while keeping you informed about what's next.

In the past, we typically released a major new version once a year, offering existing users a 50% upgrade discount. While that model worked for a time, it came with a few challenges, both for us and for you, our users:

- First, we often had to delay releasing exciting new features, saving them up for the next big version instead of sharing them when they were ready.

- Second, many potential new users felt uncertain about when the right time to buy was, fearing a major update might be just around the corner.

This led us to rethink how we deliver value, and with that, we’re happy to introduce what we believe is a more transparent and user-friendly system.

What are '1-Year Free Updates'?

Starting from Rebelle 8, with 1-Year Free Updates you’ll receive all new features, improvements, and fixes for a full 12 months from the day you purchase your Rebelle license. And here’s the best part: your license is still perpetual. That means:

• You own Rebelle forever, no subscriptions.
• You can continue using the version you own even after your update period ends.
• You can renew your update access at any time to get another year of updates.

Why This Is a Win for Artists?

With this new model, we’re no longer tied to once-a-year upgrade cycles. No more waiting for major versions. We believe this creates a more transparent, fair, and dynamic way for us to keep delivering the tools you love, right when they're ready.

We can release new features the moment they’re developed and tested, giving you faster access to the tools you need. No more guessing, just continuous innovation and improvements that flow directly to your canvas.

Moreover, we can give exciting sneak peeks of what’s coming way before the release. This means we do not have to keep secrets from you, and you will see into our "development kitchen" with total transparency.

What Are the Benefits of '1-Year Free Updates'?

✅ You will get the latest features without delay

✅ You will know exactly what you're getting when you purchase

✅ You will stay current with ongoing enhancements

✅ You can enjoy a more transparent, fair upgrade path

✅ Your license is still perpetual

✅ No subscriptions! Your license is yours to keep

Even though Rebelle 8 comes with more than 40 new features and improvements, we’ve already got more - a packed roadmap filled with creative and long-awaited tools. With the new licensing model, we’re freer to release them as soon as they’re ready. This makes Rebelle more responsive to your needs. 

'The 1-Year FREE updates' model is about keeping your tools fresh, relevant, and future-ready, without compromising ownership. We believe it’s a more flexible, fair, and dynamic way to grow with you, our amazing community of artists. We’re excited for what this change enables and deeply grateful for your continued support.

Early Access to Rebelle 8 is Almost Here!

We’re thrilled to announce that Early Access for Rebelle 8 is launching next week! You’ll soon have the opportunity to explore the powerful new features and enhancements we've been working hard to bring to life. 

If you decide to purchase Rebelle 8 during Early Access, your 1-Year Free Updates won’t start immediately. Instead, your update period will officially begin on the full version's release day, currently planned for September. That means you'll get a head start on using Rebelle 8 with nearly two extra months. Stay tuned, we can’t wait to see what you’ll create with the next evolution of Rebelle!

Pricing

The pricing for Rebelle 8 remains the same both during Early Access and after the full version release. The standard edition is available for $89.99, while the more advanced Rebelle 8 Pro edition is priced at $149.99, both with 1-year free updates included.

If you own Rebelle 7 or Rebelle 7 Pro, you’re eligible for a 50% discount. That means you can get Rebelle 8 standard for $44.99 or Rebelle 8 Pro for $74.99 - both include 1 year of free updates. Moreover, all Rebelle 8 users are eligible to upgrade to Rebelle 8 Pro for the price difference.

Users who purchased Rebelle 7 standard (MSRP $89.99) or Pro (MSRP $149.99) from May 28th, 2025, until the start of Rebelle 8's Early Access are eligible for a free upgrade to the same edition of Rebelle 8, with 1-year free updates included.

System Requirements

System requirements remain the same as with Rebelle 7:

Minimum:
Intel i5 or equivalent AMD processor, 4 GB RAM, 1,5 GB hard disk space, a graphics card with 1 GB RAM (OpenGL 3.3 required for Rebelle Pro), Windows 10 (64-bit) or Mac OS 10.15

Recommended:
Intel i7 (6th gen or newer), equivalent AMD processor, or Apple Silicon (M-series) chip, 16 GB RAM, 1,5 GB hard disk space, a graphics card with 2 GB RAM: NVIDIA gtx760 for FullHD, NVIDIA gtx1060 for 4K screen, or equivalent graphics card, Windows 10 (64-bit) or Mac OS 11 and newer, Wacom or Windows Ink-compatible tablet.

We are grateful you are with us on this exciting journey and would like to send a BIG THANK YOU for your great support.

See you next week!
Your Escape Motions Team

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Cover image made in Rebelle 8 Pro by Daniel Ibanez | Visit Portfolio