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Rebelle Master Study: Learning from Rembrandt
Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:10:21 +0200
Rembrandt’s paintings have a unique presence, not because of excessive detail, but because of how deliberately everything is placed. In his later work, forms seem to emerge from darkness, light is used with restraint, and the surface itself becomes the focus. It’s a way of painting that prioritizes structure, atmosphere, and materials. In this study, Featured Artist Jacinto September explores the mindset of Rembrandt while painting a portrait.
Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/gNKQ_K0EdBo
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) was a master of light, shadow, and psychological depth, and one of the most influential painters of the Dutch Golden Age. His work is defined by a direct, observational approach, where structure emerges through the interplay of light rather than strict line. Instead of relying on a polished finish, he built form through layered paint, controlled edges, and a strong sense of value hierarchy. His process reveals a constant search—adjusting, simplifying, and reinforcing what matters most. For study, his work offers insight into how clarity can come not from refinement alone, but from bold decisions, selective focus, and a deep understanding of how light defines form.
Rather than copying a specific painting from Rembrandt, the focus of this study is on understanding how the master painter approached painting, from building a dark ground through organizing shadow masses to gradually introducing light and texture. The goal isn't replication but clarity: simplifying the painting into simple stages and allowing the painting to develop naturally from there. Jacinto September explores these principles while painting a portrait of an elderly man.
Palette and Brushes
A limited palette is where everything begins. For this study, Jacinto works with a selection of mainly earth-based pigments: white, yellow ochre, cadmium red, lamp black, raw umber, burnt umber, and Van Dyke brown. This kind of palette closely reflects what Rembrandt often used, especially in his later years. These colors naturally harmonize since they're warm and muted. They sit close in value and temperature, which makes it easier to control relationships rather than chase contrast through saturation.
Alongside the palette, let’s keep the brush selection minimal, just five brushes. Not for limitation's sake, but for focus. Rembrandt's work shows a deep sensitivity to how paint is applied, not how many tools are used. Inside Rebelle, this becomes especially important, as the brush behavior directly affects how the paint surface develops over time.
Background Layer
The painting begins in darkness. A warm, dark ground sets the foundation, not just visually, but structurally. Instead of building shadows on top of a light surface, the process is reversed. The light needs to be revealed gradually, so we start with a dark umber-based background. This approach was central to Rembrandt’s later work. It unifies the painting from the very beginning and prevents the shadows from becoming fragmented or overworked.
Tip: In Rebelle, allow slight variation in the background by subtle shifts in opacity and texture. This helps create a surface that remains active throughout the entire painting process.
Mass Drawing
Rather than drawing lines, the focus here is on placing the shadows. This stage is about identifying the largest, most important shapes, where the head turns away from light, where forms connect, and where they dissolve into the background. Rembrandt approached structure through mass, not outline. The likeness should not be forced. It should emerge naturally when these shadow relationships are accurate. Keeping things simple at this stage is essential. The more unified the shadow shapes are now, the stronger the painting will feel later.
Block-In Stage
With the structure in place, the next step is to introduce middle values. This stage bridges the gap between shadow and light. Color is introduced, but still in a very controlled and simplified way. No refinement yet, just placement. Rembrandt's palette supports this beautifully. Earth tones allow subtle shifts without overpowering the value structure. Let colors mix slightly on the surface, rather than over-blending. This helps maintain that natural, painterly variation. It's also important to keep this stage as blocky and as loose as possible, to be able to refine and develop these color shapes later.
Modeling Stage
The painting starts to take form at this stage. Light is introduced gradually, while shaping the planes of the head and creating depth. This stage isn't about jumping straight to highlights, but building toward them with control. Rembrandt's light is always selective. It reveals what matters and allows everything else to fall away. As the form develops, the surface becomes just as important as the tonal values. Thicker applications of paint are introduced in the lightest areas, and this is a characteristic often seen in Rembrandt's later work, where highlights were built up with denser, more opaque paint. This contrast between transparent shadows and thicker lights creates a strong sense of hierarchy and focus. Inside Rebelle, this can be explored through its thick paint system, allowing light passages to feel placed and physical rather than blended. The edges in the painting are also refined here, some softened into the background, others kept sharper to guide the viewer's eye. This helps the figure emerge naturally from the surrounding darkness.
Final Thoughts
What makes Rembrandt's work so powerful is simplification, not complexity. A clear separation of light and dark. A limitation in terms of color. A balance between control and suggestion. This study isn't about replicating a specific painting, but about understanding a way of thinking.
By working from darkness, simplifying early, and building form with shapes, the painting develops naturally, rather than being forced into a finished state. And with tools like Rebelle, it becomes possible to explore these traditional ideas in a way that still feels tactile, responsive, and grounded in traditional painting principles. Try it yourself.
Happy Painting,
Escape Motions Team
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Learn more about Jacinto September: escapemotions.com/featured-artists/jacinto-september
Reference image: pin.it/7yBFhcHq6
How to Create a Craquelure Effect in Digital Painting
Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:48:42 +0200
Cracked paint, aged surfaces. Craquelure is one of those tiny imperfections that make artwork feel real. Traditionally, cracks appear on works of art naturally, after decades as paint layers dry, shrink, and react to tension. In Rebelle, you can recreate this beautifully aged appearance using granulation maps. The best part? You stay fully in control of where the cracks appear and how strong they are, without having to wait tens of years. :)
In this tutorial, we’ll create a flexible craquelure workflow that works especially well for oils, acrylics, and textured mixed-media paintings. Instead of using a single flat crack texture, we will gradually build the craquelure in multiple passes to create subtle and realistic variation.
Step 1: Prepare Granulation Map
First, find one or more granulation images that contain crack patterns suitable for a craquelure effect. We recommend using multiple textures with different crack structures to create more natural variation across the painting.
Resize the images to 1,024 × 1,024 px and save them as PNG files. If your texture is inverted, invert the image colors so the cracks stay dark against a lighter background. If necessary, refine the contrast using Levels or similar adjustments to make the crack structures more defined.
Import the images into Rebelle through Visual Settings > Watercolor Behavior and enable Granulation. From the granulation menu, select Custom Image to load your own granulation map.
The original granulation maps we used are available on the link at the end of this blog.
Step 2: Create a New Layer
Import your painting, then create a new layer at the very top of your layer stack. This layer will hold the craquelure texture separately from the original painting, giving you full editing flexibility. Set this new layer to:
- Opacity: 90%
- Blending Mode: Luminosity
The Luminosity blending mode helps the cracks affect the brightness and structure of the paint without heavily shifting the original colors underneath. This makes the cracks feel naturally embedded into the painting surface rather than simply placed on top.
Step 3: Convert the Layer into a Clipping Mask
Set the craquelure layer as a Clipping Mask for the painting layer below it. This ensures the effect stays inside the painted areas and does not spill outside the artwork.
Step 4: Paint the Craquelure
Use your watercolor craquelure brush to start painting the cracks. It should have enough water to rewet the surface. Focus mainly on areas where the paint would naturally feel thinner, dry, or worn. The granulation effect will become visible as the paint begins to dry, allowing the crack texture to emerge naturally within the surface. The original craquelure brush we used is available on the link at the end of this blog.
Avoid covering the entire artwork evenly. Natural craquelure is irregular and unpredictable; subtle variation is what makes the effect believable.
Step 5: Build Multiple Passes
After the paint dries, paint over selected areas again where you want stronger cracking. Some areas can remain almost untouched, while others become heavily cracked. This variation creates a much more realistic aged surface.
Our Tips for More Realistic Craquelure
Combine Multiple Granulation Maps
While painting, switch between different Granulation Maps. Different maps create different crack structures and surface behaviors. Mixing them prevents the effect from looking repetitive or procedural.
Adjust the Image Size
You can combine the effects of scaled Granulation Maps. Since the map is a 1,024 x 1,024 PNG image, with a larger image size, the map is tiled across the whole canvas. Therefore, a good workflow is to start with a larger image size where the cracks will be smaller, then reduce it later for finishing details. This helps preserve texture detail while creating more natural variation.
Erase and Repaint Areas
Use the Eraser tool to remove cracks from areas where they do not feel natural. You can later repaint those areas using another Granulation Map, a different crack scale, or softer or sharper brush settings. This back-and-forth process creates a much more organic result than using a single pass.
Work on Multiple Layers
Instead of building all cracks on one layer, try separating them:
- one layer for subtle cracks
- one for larger fractures
- one for edge damage or distressed spots
This makes editing much easier later. You can selectively erase, blur, soften, or strengthen individual crack groups without affecting the entire surface.
Give Your Painting a Vintage Look
Besides the obvious cracks in the paint, the old paintings often have a yellow surface, ranging from a subtle tone to a very dark appearance. To recreate this effect, we experimented with a new layer on top of the layer's stack filled with greenish yellow. We set the 'Color Burn' blending mode on this layer and the opacity to 20. This subtle adjustment adds warmth and depth to the image, creating the impression of an aged varnish that has naturally darkened over the years.
Craquelure is one of those subtle details that can completely transform the character of a painting. A few carefully placed cracks can add a sense of texture and realism that would otherwise take years of natural aging to achieve. If you create your own craquelure effects in Rebelle, we'd love to see them. Share your results with the community and show us how you bring centuries of character into a brand-new painting.
Keep it creative!
Your Escape Motions Team
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Download resources: https://www.escapemotions.com/download/craquelure-resources.zip
Original cover image by Rebelle Featured Artist Georg Ireland
Original example images by Douglas Molino, Daniel Ibanez, Carles, Ludovico Clovis, Karen Bonaker
This blog post and video tutorial were inspired by this forum discussion. Special thanks to @Cygenta for raising the craquelure question and to @cheriekitten for suggesting the use of granulation maps.
Spring DTIYS Challenge 2026: Winners Announced
Thu, 28 May 2026 12:59:57 +0200
Spring has come and gone, but the inspiration of the season is still shining through every brushstroke, sketch, and splash of color! We’re excited to announce the winners of the Spring 2026 Draw This in Your Style Challenge. This year, artists from around the world brought fresh creativity to our featured prompts, transforming them into imaginative works filled with personality, storytelling, and springtime charm.
A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who joined the challenge and shared their talent with our community. We received an incredible collection of 400 entries, each one offering a unique perspective and artistic voice. From bold reinterpretations to delicate details, every submission captured the spirit of creativity and growth that makes this challenge so special.
Grand Prize Winners
Out of all entries, our team chose 3 artworks that stood out the most. These artists will receive grand prizes, a drawing device from Huion and Rebelle 8 Pro or equivalent Escape Motions shop credit. We thank Huion for their continued support of this challenge.
1st Prize: Renewal by Gloria Vanessa Nicoli
Gloria recreated all 5 prompts in her style. The romantic interpretation of the Renewal portrait captivated our eyes. We were enchanted by the artist’s masterful composition of shapes and colors, her delicate stylization, and especially the warm glow in the painting, which creates a positive and somewhat dreamy atmosphere. Excellent!
Visit on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYIHKuNjwAc/
2nd Prize: Flowers & Fairies by Sammypiu
We were delighted to recognize the painting of a delicate fairy rider with flowing hair and flowers that attract bees. We were impressed by the convincing combination of realistic and stylized drawing, a subtle hint of humor, and masterful handling of light, reflections, and the sharpness of the spatial plans. Congratulations!
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYXiU9MGm6b/
3rd Prize: Ladybug by Iyel
We also appreciated this very humorous, positive-toned painting of a ladybug, whose wings will surely shine with purity. The artist masterfully works with water reflections, a bold color palette, and decisive stylization of shapes. We were delighted by the wit and playful detachment present not only in the composition but also in the subject matter itself. Well done!
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYXft0tmvIr/
Prompt Winners
Five artists poured their creativity into this challenge when preparing original artworks. Now, each of them selected one winning piece that truly captured the spirit of their prompt. Below, they share the thoughts, emotions, and inspiration behind their chosen artworks. Each winner will receive Rebelle 8 Pro or equivalent shop credit from Escape Motions.
Ladybee by Renata Souza
Antonella Fant had a really difficult decision to make, as more than 150 artists decided to recreate her Ladybee artwork. This is what stood out to her in the winning artwork: "I loved this illustration because it keeps all the key features of my character while bringing them into a unique and distinctive style, where you can truly recognize the artist behind it. The character’s expression and sweetness are qualities I always try to convey in my own illustrations, and I loved seeing them interpreted in a style different from mine."
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DX-bErjHwJX/
Spring: Last Snow by dark.visage
Pluvium Grandis chose this interpretation of Last Snow for its fantastic brushwork control and strong placement of smaller shapes and textures. Overall, the painting is pleasantly balanced and really gives the feel of the cold start of spring!
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYU5g_QjtUV/
Flowers & Fairies by Shubham Kumar Vats
Sky's original drawing was a very serene scene, a short glimpse of a very quiet moment between the fairy and the environment. When she saw this entry, Sky absolutely adored how it completely flipped the vibe. It is dynamic, and now what was a calm scene has become something that you might lose if you blink. The composition and the rendering style are also very eye-catching!
Zobraziť tento príspevok na InstagramePríspevok, ktorý zdieľa shubham kumar vats (@shubham.kr.vats)
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DX9Ne6AEYIx/
Renewal by Frank Alm
Reg found Frank's piece incredibly striking and passionate for the theme of spring and her prompt, Renewal. He represented his country, Cuba, in the flowers, expressing love and pride for his identity. The gravity-defying water droplets captured nature's renewing, seasonal cycle, and the flowers transforming into butterflies was a fantastic concept for spring. Overall, this artwork is very fitting and inspirational!
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DXm9K4mCe6W/
Ladybug by Alperen Ayan
Alperen has expanded the modest little glade of the prompt into a delightful communal bathing spot. The original prompt creator, Thomas Chamberlain-Keen, loved the role reversal of the ladybird, but again, it's the technique that really pulls in. There's a wonderful depth in the layers of foliage, but the space feels cosy and covered with the dappled lighting. The beautiful figures feel so naturally posed, with a modesty reminiscent of classical paintings. Finally, the brushwork has a lovely, loose flow that complements the lush greenery and mimics the flow of the water.
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYY-85oG2pn/
Honorable Mentions
Among the many remarkable entries, countless artworks truly stood out, and unfortunately, we could not recognize them all. The following is a small selection of honorable mentions that deserve special recognition.
Last Snow by Corin
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYXYRS-DF-i/
Ladybug by Dave Baker
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYHtlHXjGA2/
Renewal by Ingrid Dcruz
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DXcliV7nAe-/
Ladybee by Arya Silvart
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYYZ_cFiKiT/
Flowers & Fairies by Eliana Bastidas Puentes
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DX4rGxlCR_i/
Last Snow by Eloi
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYX_1nBCky0/
Renewal by Lilao
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYPj6t0jgzo/
Flowers & Fairies by Maria Reis
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DX-eCI0kXT4/
Ladybug by Ishaan Verma
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYUqWxKDwU-/
Last Snow by Dino Eracleous
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYOCiHmiquK
Ladybee by Lesly
View on Instagram: instagram.com/p/DYVSJaumOri/
Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge and shared your creativity, passion, and hard work with us. We were truly impressed by the talent, originality, and effort shown in every submission. Seeing so many unique ideas and artistic styles made this challenge incredibly inspiring and enjoyable for everyone involved. Whether your work was featured or not, your contribution helped make this event a success, and we sincerely appreciate the time and dedication you put into it.
Stay creative,
Escape Motions Team
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