Yngling || Scribbling and scratching on the paper...

**Yngling** · July 8th, 2009, 04:57 PM

The near-final painting. Won't do much more with it, except maybe the grass, which lacks some depth. Simple as it may be it was a learning experience. I've never really used oils this way, ie few layers, wet-in-wet. I am also very happy with the way the underpainting works. I left it showing in some parts, and it makes the colours more lively. Speaking of colours, the sheer clarity and juiciness of oils is unmatched. I've fallen in love with them again!

**Yngling** · July 13th, 2009, 01:35 PM

Here's a little something from a while ago. This was a postcard for Linguini, as part of the mail exchange started by Grief. She's got the card just now, so I can show it here as well (didn't want to spoil the surprise). I took these cards as an opportunity to experiment a bit as well.

**monotony** · July 13th, 2009, 04:13 PM

that tree painting looks fantastic, mate. you got really good traditional skills.
and your selfportraits are coming along nicely as well!
keep it up.

**Yngling** · July 14th, 2009, 08:20 AM

Thank you very much Monotony. I'm still most comfortable with an actual brush or pencil between my fingers! Hope to do some more painting in the near future.

At the moment I'm really in need of vacation. I need to get my newborn piece done before next monday, that's my priority. In my efforts to get more involved with this community I fear I wanted too much too soon. I've completely lost focus, with no idea where to start. I've noticed this before, I work best when I am completely absorbed by one project at a time. The game project that only just started seemed like a great opportunity, but I find I just don't have the time and the energy for another project besides the newborn contest and regular life, which is hard enough. Being out of the country for 3 weeks, just enjoying the surroundings, sketching and painting around in gorgeous Italy, might help me back on track. I worry too much!

More on the newborn project. It's in it's early stages, but this will be the image I'm going to expand upon. There's tons of wonderful details waiting to be done when I get the lighting/colour on track. There will be more variety in colour later on, and I need more light in there too. The main thing I want to show is that something is happening here.

A little sketch as well. Here too, focus is needed. This is just mindless doodling that's getting me nowhere.

**Yngling** · July 15th, 2009, 06:00 AM

In progress...

**Yngling** · July 15th, 2009, 08:33 AM

A Rembrandt copy. Doesn't do the piece justice of course, but I need to study lighting and colour more, and I happen to like his earthy palette quite a bit. Also good PS practice, used a different, textured brush this time.

**Yngling** · July 17th, 2009, 06:03 AM

With only 3 days left before ultimate DEADLINE, I merrily decided to throw what I had so far out and start anew! Yes, it always happens this way...I actually hated the final digital so far, it didn't resonate with me. So I changed the perspective a bit, did some more thumbnails and am back in the game now. The bulk of it will be traditional, because it just feels better. Also gave me a chance to break out the awesome gold paint! I've been heavily inspired by religious art lately. I blame it on my visit to Rome. Seeing all the fantastic mosaic works and churches has certainly left its impression. But when I saw a ceiling painting by (I believe) Rafael, I was struck by the golden background. The figure was in full-on Rennaisance style, but it worked so nicely against the flat background, that I wanted to have a shot at it as well.

Presented here: the furthest I got with the digital, a few sketches and studies for the new painting, and the underdrawing for the real thing. Ok, back to work for me, because I foresee sleepless nights already as it is!

**Lyno** · July 17th, 2009, 06:26 AM

Really good stuff in here Yngling! Those little tanks are cute

**Yngling** · July 18th, 2009, 06:58 AM

Lyno: Glad you like 'em! They were mighty fun to make.

Quick progress update. Been filling in the base colours. There's some gold in there as well, which works really well in real life, but it doesn't show on the photographs. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good photo of the final, if I want to send it in for the competition...

**ruuhkis** · July 18th, 2009, 10:21 AM

great job Yngling, I like what I'm seeing! perhaps you could sometimes focus a bit more on the abstract whole of your pictures and how the components relate to each other.
I really like the oil painting on the top of this page..! keep it up.

**Yngling** · July 19th, 2009, 10:21 AM

Ruuhkis: Grateful for the crit, although I'm not sure I fully understand? Could you give me an example of where you find this lacking? If you were referring to the last pic, yes, it's a mess...

So...as far as I've got until now. I have approximately 5 and a half hours left to finish and send this. I am tired of it. Along the way I mad some good decisions and a few very bad ones, and I could have spent so much more time on preparations if it weren't for this killing deadline. I'll see to it that the main structure gets more fleshed out, and then try to tie all the loose ends together. I think it could have been so much better. Ah well, with all the effort I put in, I might as well enter it, right? At least I learned a lot of things from this.

Just a little more now!

**O-mie** · July 19th, 2009, 10:52 AM

Looking good so far, I really like your sketches

**Gilead** · July 19th, 2009, 12:03 PM

I love that landscape oil painting. The paper tanks were fun too. Did you design those yourself or buy them? I noticed some had no printing on them. They'd be marketable if you printed up your own version. I could see them being used in table top gaming.
Good stuff all around.

**Yngling** · July 19th, 2009, 05:48 PM

O-mie: That's good to hear. I think that has been one of my major areas of improvement!

Gilead: I made all of it myself! The blank ones you see are just prototypes, in order to check how everything should fit. I made the template in PS and changed the colours around so I could have some variation. It's really not that hard. I could make you a custom design if you'd like

. They are quite fiddly to put together though.

So...this is as far as I'll get with the Newborn piece. It's now 11 o'clock, and tomorrow I have to get up at 5 AM for a 12 hour drive to Austria, so if you forgive me, I'm going to bed. I'll send it in and see what happens. Please, if you like this piece, vote for me in the competition, or if you don't, crit the hell out of it. I'll be on vacation for the next 2,5 weeks, to get some rest. See you around!

**DStraX** · July 19th, 2009, 06:43 PM

great work you got in here! I think you deserve more comments my friend

I like how you show the steps when you make things, it gives some insight

**Yngling** · August 7th, 2009, 03:55 PM

DStraX: Thank you! I feel it helps myself as well to analyze what I'm doing. I'm still very much discovering all the possibilities and ways of working, and I hope that by trying different approaches, I'll discover what works best for me. This journey is a big part of the fun anyway.

So, I'm back from vacation. Saw a great deal of art and interesting things. Alas, time was too short to see it all! I was kind of overwhelmed by all the museums and churches I visited in Verona and Venice. From the 'mad man' Tintoretto, whose monumental canvases were truly awe-inspiring, to the brilliant Giotto and his masterpiece, the Scrovegni chapel. Inspired for sure!

I took with me the staggering amount of six sketchbooks of assorted sizes, but travelling and camping makes it hard to get very much done. Here's my offerings. More to come tomorrow!

**Yngling** · August 10th, 2009, 08:43 AM

More vacation sketches, some a bit damaged because I forgot to take fixative with me for the conté chalk pieces. Some are from life, some from imagination, but I think the subject will reveal that anyway. I've been toying around with some ideas as well, no idea where that might end up.

**Pezz3D** · August 10th, 2009, 08:58 AM

This is just amazing. I gave you 5 stars. Though you piss me off quite a bit, being that you're only 19 apparently and you're creative as all hell and extremely skilled, I can't help but love a lot of this stuff. It seems like you experiment a lot and you have developed some very interesting variations in style. Congrats. I can't wait to see you're work in a couple years, I'm sure it will make my jaw drop quite a few more notches. What exactly are the inspirations behind these styles? Are you trying to capture something in particular before you set out? I'm thoroughly interested.

**Yngling** · August 10th, 2009, 04:12 PM

Pezz3D: I'm honoured

I'm just as curious where I'll be in a few years! I don't intend to waste them, that's for sure.

As for inspiration, it varies from moment to moment. I'm constantly discovering new things. Recently I've been inspired by religious art, which I realize is a very broad category. I'm especially fascinated by some of the more fantastical aspects of it, like paintings and drawings of the apocalypse, by the likes of Durer and Memling, and Bosch too. I also found inspiration in patterns and decoration, Arabian, Celtic and Greek most of all, and medieval book illumination. Rembrandt has been a great source of inspiration, especially his drawings and etchings. 19th century illustrators such as Gustave Dore and Harry Clarke too. I'm a big fan of Emmanuel Malin. Man, I really need to broaden my scope to more modern artists as well!

Your second question is a little more difficult, since I don't really know that myself most of the time. I'm searching for a 'voice', so to speak. I'm a bit of a romantic, that much I have gathered, so mood and mystery are things that I try, succesfully or not, to convey. But as I said, I don't have a firm grip on what 'moves' me. I don't know, I guess I worry too much about these things without doing anything about it. So I just keep'em coming and see what I take with me.

And now the actual update

. Here's a piece I forgot to add earlier, a simple ink sketch. I played with some simple colours on the descent piece. I like where I was going with that piece, and the incorporation of patterns of geometric shapes.

On another note, does anyone experience the stuff I post as overly saturated or very heavy in contrast? I looked at my sketchbook on another computer and it all looked very differently than on my own screen. Maybe I'm overadjusting my scans because of this?

**Kye Am I** · August 10th, 2009, 05:48 PM

Is that Danish I see...? Actually, these character designs on the last page look Nordic. They're amazing, by the way, and that painting of the...well I'm not sure what kind of structure it is, the first draft struck me as a cathedral or something, but it blew me away.

**Yngling** · August 11th, 2009, 10:55 AM

Kye Am I: Close enough. It's not Danish but Dutch, and they are really similar languages in many ways. So, not really Nordic. Though my first name is Yngwie (after the infamous Yngwie Malmsteen

). The construct you're referring too was supposed to be an ultimate cosmic musical device, and to me, the organ is the epitome of awesome instruments

.

Something from today. A bit of experimenting with composition here, after the excellent live class last Sunday. I have yet to get round to doing some movie still studies.

**Yngling** · August 14th, 2009, 09:42 AM

Something I started this afternoon. Im pretty pleased with how it came out, and I am considering to leave it as it is, because further noodling might 'damage' it, I think. I used the story of Gilgamesh as inspiration.

Gilgamesh, after having travelled the whole world in a mad search for immortality, finally arrives at the river at the end of the world. Here he finds giant creatures made of stone, and mistaking them for enemies (Gilgamesh is pretty messed-up at this point) he destroys them. Then he encounters the ferryman, who can take him across the river to meet Utnapishtim, the one person in the world to have been granted immortallity by the gods. The ferryman however infroms Gilgamesh that he himself has just now destroyed the only means to cross these vast waters, the stone creatures that now lay scattered on the riverbank. Gilgamesh is determined, having come this far, to find another way. The ferryman sends him to cut 300 trees, and bind the logs together, to serve as an oar. Gilgamesh completes his task and rows the boat to the other side himself, taking the ferryman with him. This is scene depicted here.

It really is a great story, so I think I'll choose some more scenes, and there are plenty to choose from, and illustrate them as well. Hope you like it too!

**Jesus Food** · August 14th, 2009, 10:30 AM

very beautiful work yngling, uve got to keep this up. cant wait to see more--

**Yngling** · August 14th, 2009, 02:41 PM

Jesus Food: Don't worry, I will! Glad you liked my work.

A sketch I did just now, after spendeing some time looking for a video rental that had a copy of Akira Kurosawa's Ran or Seven Samurai, for composition class homework. But no success

. So I looked up some clips on youtube, and it inspired me to do this. It's all from the head, so costume may be very inaccurate. I really need to study clothing and armor, very interesting and useful.

**Yngling** · August 16th, 2009, 10:04 AM

This is a fun one. I guess flexibility is key as an illustrator. This painting, very much work-in-progress right now, is a commision piece. My mother works with mentally handicapped people (not sure if that's the proper term in English?), and has asked me to paint name plates for three of them, who are getting a new apartment soon. And hey, who am I to refuse a job? Besides, Bert and Ernie are just cool, they're childhood heroes for me

. So basically, this guy loves Bert and Ernie, and with this name plate, he'll be able to recognize his new apartment. That means the plate had to be clear enough to recognize from a distance. His name will be placed on the white rectangle, but due to privacy reasons I won't put it online. I'll have this finished soon.

**conte** · August 16th, 2009, 10:12 AM

dude, you'r machine! i love everything in that thread, very creative!
but my fav is http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1247086626
saved it to my inspirational folder. thanks and keep going!

**Yngling** · August 18th, 2009, 07:58 AM

Inspiration folder? Wow! If only I could give you a better photo! Thanks for the kind words Conte!

I did these movie still studies this afternoon. Pretty fun actually, watching a film and improving at the same time. Should do that more often. Helps with colour and lighting, and a bit of composition too! And Photoshop...still struggling with the brushes, maybe I should make my own custom set?

Bonus point for those who know what movie these are from!

**DefiledVisions** · August 18th, 2009, 08:34 AM

Hey some cool stuff! especially like the works furthest up, got a surreal psychadelic sense to them. Also enjoy your studies.

Both pictures have to be inspired by Pan's Labyrinth! Especially the second piece when she enters the tree. You've captured the scene really well

**ajvenema** · August 18th, 2009, 09:08 AM

its been some time since i watched that movie, but the first thing my mind said was pan's labyrinth as well!

**Yngling** · August 18th, 2009, 05:39 PM

Heh, too easy...I promise the next one will be harder. And thanks for the comments!

Little update: a quick classroom sketch, a character from my sketchbook, and a card I made for Spirit. The card has just arrived, so I can show it here. The cards are a nice thing to do in between other stuff, and experiment a bit. This was done with pastels over a flat colour block-in with acrylics. It works very nicely!