Maria Friberg Berntsson

Welcome! [Sticky post]

mariafb — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:06:52 +0000

Welcome to my artlog and my world of fantasy creatures! Scroll down for latest news, in the gallery You will find some examples of my paintings, to see more you can always visit my deviantART page. Now, head on to the main menu to navigate around the site. Thank you for visiting and I hope You will enjoy your stay!

Portrait of a Mouse

mariafb — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:14:09 +0000

Here’s my latest painting “Portrait of a Mouse”. I wanted to do a classic historical portrait but with a sort of surreal twist. I hope you like it, the question is , who is the mouse? Enjoy your cheeze balls and take a larger look at this image in the Gallery.

I really enjoyed working with a bit more surreal theme, probably will be more of this sort. I did take some shots along the painting process, might post these steps if anyone is interested.

I’m also working on some children illustrations, since I’m a mum to a 2,5 year old girl who loves stories and fairytales, I kind of make up little stories for her and naturally draw some sketches. I hope I can show some of these in the near feature(needs some touching up). Have a good week! ♥

I can’t beleive it!

mariafb — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:11:17 +0000

Three days ago, when I logged in to deviantArt, I thought my message center (1000 messages and rising) had gone totally crazy. Must be a massive bug, but…it turned out I had been honoured with my second Daily Deviation! It’s my latest work Goodbye that’s been featured, you can check it out here.
So, not much painting has been done, I’ve been busy answering messages and notes.

In other news, lot of birthdays coming up, I really hope I can get all the gift paintings ready in time. Busy, busy! ♥

New sketch+fixing the design

mariafb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:46:14 +0000

As some of you have seen , I’m trying to clean up the design of this artlog, but, oh, I made some blunders and the internet connection gave me trouble, but I think I can fix things to look as I want it shortly.

I also thought I should show a rough sketch of what I’m drawing, yes, I know, it’s another portrait, I can’t help myself, but this has a little twist(if I don’t change my mind in the end).

Goodbye

mariafb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:24:57 +0000

It’s been a long time since I posted, but I’ll try to correct this now. I’ve had the very much dreaded artblock, that awful thing! I could come up with sketches but it was almost impossible to finish anything. I don’t know why this is, could be that I’m trying out new ways and tecniques, I feel that there is something I need to express, but it comes out the wrong way.
So my latest painting “Goodbye” started out as a doodle and it was not until I listened to the song “Goodby Milky Way” by Enigma, that I finally knew what I wanted to do. It’s a beautiful song and if you want you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y92cEvYJxfA
The final image and closeup pictures can be found in the gallery ( along with the wonderful lyrics).
Photoshop CS2, wacom tablet, no references used.

Aquarium

mariafb — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:28:23 +0000

I’m back from vacation, a trip with our boat in the Swedish islands and skerries and so my newest piece is inspired from water. It started out as a practise in water bubbles and then evolved.

Beware of what species you put in your aquarium!

Personal references used for the face and parts of the fish. Photoshop CS2, about 3 days work. Credits to Dianae’s water tutorial http://dianae.deviantart.com/art/Simple-Water-Splash-Tutorial-89945904

Larger view and closeup shot in the Gallery.

The Lindworm

mariafb — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:12:20 +0000

Here’s the final result of my project “Thora and the Lindworm”. I have shortened the name to “The Lindworm”. A larger view and closeups in the gallery.

Background story: Thora Borgarhjort(Þóra Town-Hart or Þóra borgarhjörtr)receives an adorable baby lindworm as a gift from her father Herrauðr, the Earl of Götaland (in Sweden).
Alas the lindworm grows and takes Thora hostage, demanding to be supplied with one ox a day (or more).Thora is eventually freed by a young man in fur-trousers named Ragnar, who then obtains the name of Lodbrok (”hairy britches”) and becomes Thora’s husband.
What happened to the Lindworm? It was of course killed by Ragnar.who became a great hero. He appears in many legends and folklore tails and it is beleived his story is based off viking sagas.

The lindworm was like a giant snake, sometimes it had frontlegs and sometimes also wings (although that was not so common in scandinavian lindworms, more so in England, then they were called wyverns and France, vouivres).One can for example see lindworms in viking runestones.
There are two forms of lindworms, one is like an enchanted prince in disguise, and gave fortune if you met one. The other was very dangerous, like an evil dragon, it moved by biting it’s tail and rolled like a wheel.

Technical stuff: PhotoshopCS2 about 40 hours. No special reference used, except for studying my hand holding my daughters plushie in front of the mirror. For the scales I found a texture that I used at CG textures [link]

Thora W.I.P 2

mariafb — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:02:55 +0000

Here is the second WIP on “Thora and the Lindworm”. I’ve blocked in colors and starting to add details, but it’s still much more work to do. I hope you like it!:D

Thora and the Lindworm W.I.P

mariafb — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:15:01 +0000

Here is a sketch of my new project, based on a northern folklore tail, Thora and the lindworm. More W.I.P’s will follow.

The Huntress

mariafb — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:03:30 +0000

Yes, I’m back and finally finished “The Huntress”. I’ve had a bad inflammation in my neck and shoulders so it was almost impossible to sit by the computer, that is why this painting is so delayed.

The huntress was from the beginning meant to be a tuff, fears amazon/viking like female, but as I painted she just refused to look mean and didn’t fit in the background, a forest. I saw a documentary about Tolkien and was influenced by the land and people of Rohirrin, so I changed the background. I also thought she needed some companions on her hunting, so she got a bird and a dog. Her hairdo was inspired from George Lucas Star Wars movies, no special character, just some hairdo that would fit on a female in one of the bar scenes. References was used for the shape of the bow and for the bird. My friends dog modeled for yes, the dog.

To see a larger image please visit my gallery.