I've long been a fan of fantasy artwork (well who hasn't!), but hadn't really gotten around to creating some myself until attending the first Northern Lights Workshop in Stockholm in 2012. The teachings of Jesper Ejsing, Petar Meseldžija and Justin Gerard opened my eyes to many things, such as how to tell a story. To make paintings more then mere pretty pictures. This learning is something I incorporated into the centaur image for instance, giving three layers of the story. At first you see a family of centaurs dancing, but soon you notice a young human hunter spying on them from behind a tree, leading you to the third layer - a menacing father centaur returning home to his family. Portraits are one of my favorite things to work on. As a youngster I used to paint oil paint portraits for people through word of mouth, charging a measely 20 dollars or so per painting to get some pocket money. I did so many that I lost track, but I'd estimate to have painted and drawn at least 50 around that time. To this day, making a portrait is something that excites me. An efficient way to create concepts and even fully fledged digital paintings of anything symmetrical, be it a person, an ornament or an icon, is align two instances of the same smart object together. The following paintings have been done in such a way. Check the video link for the devil man to see it being done.