Recently my wife and I attended one of these “paint night” events. We both drew works of art which surprisingly looked very good–enough so that we proudly hang them in our house.

Coincidentally, I also saw an add in my yahoo mailbox about an update to the Rebelle painting program. After revisiting that program, I realized how realistic that program is in terms of rendering paint–virtual paint that is. After a few trial runs, I have come up with my work of art based on what seen Bob Ross do in his show.

Check it out below.

I like Rebelle 3. It allows me to paint without the mess of real paint. It allows the ability to mix (smudge or blend) virtual paint with realistic effects. Here are a few things you’ll notice weith Rebelle 3:

• use paper texture, canvas, or none (they have others you can buy to create material surface texture)
• paint with water color, acrylic, ink, pastel, and pencil
• paint blotching effect based on amount of water being simulated in paint
• paint on dry material
• paint on wet material
• dry or wet paint.
• use of stencils
• tilting of canvas which causes paint to drip

All of the above features is what makes Rebelle 3 stand out from its competition. Besides, if you’ve painted before, the simulated mixing and smudging make it a natural to quickly learn.

There is one thing I wish they had–a way to apply paint with palette knife instead of a brush. It would make creating mountains a lot easier–a la Bob Ross style.

Note that if you are going to do the same, it would be best to use a digitizing tablet. Trying to draw with a mouse it tough to do.