Art Of Övgü Yeles

✨🦢✨Here to a new chapter,

For the first time in ages, I drew something for myself, for a story I have been developing for the last year. I honestly am so happy to be able to work on something for the pure joy of it and have no expectations of success or failure which in my opinion gave me more freedom to really see what I wanted to do and how I wanted to draw. I’m happier and more hyped than ever to explore their world and play with snowy landscapes .

While still deciding on a title, this story is a love letter to my craft and to myself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The final keyframe I worked on for my portfolio. Loved working with the lighting. I wanted to portray the chaos and the grand presence of the cathedral itself; as if it’s a character in the story.

✨ Notre Dame De Paris✨

✨Escape from the Dungeons ✨

The dungeons grew softer as we descended—thicker, jumbled walls giving way to sharp edges and broken cages framing despair. Thin beams of light faded into gloom. Esmeralda sat like a caged bird, trapped in the maze of endless stairs and dead ends, hoping Frollo would keep his word and help her escape. The shape language goes from naturally cracked to more structured as we get closer to the exit.

I used to hate working with line but it turned out to be one of my favorite things to do as I was working on this project , never thought I would enjoy sketching out layouts but here we are xD It was so interesting to design the set and making sure it worked well from multiple angles for both using it to storytell with shadows or reflections aside characters.

•This work is part of my visual development project based on “Notre Dame de Paris” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

✨Shadow at Val D’amour✨

This is probably my favorite scene from the project. It was such a relief to design the set. I wanted that soft romantic atmosphere to collide with Frollo’s presence. Even Phoebus is the one gets stabbed, I wanted to focus on Esmeraldas expression and highlight her , since she will be held guilty for Frollo’s crime.The foreground ended up being blurred, but honestly, painting the charcuterie plate was my favorite thing to do. XD It made me feel like an oil painter.

✨ ANARKH ✨

Probably one of my favorite scenes, it was so fun to design the set and make sure it worked well from multiple angles. I GOT TO PAINT STAINED GLASS and so many other props and trinkets. I absolutely love maximalist environments and this scene and overall set were such a pleasure to work on.

One of the core scenes I think many people know from the book, where Esmeralda shows compassion by giving him water .I framed the characters and scene through lighting and the details of the cathedral.

I created countless rough sketches for the Court of Miracles. The concept was to show the clash between refined Parisian architecture and the less structured gypsy camps. I incorporated Vardos (traditional gypsy caravans) to give the overall set a more rounded, welcoming appearance, while the distant horizons featured sharper buildings and trees to emphasize the contrast.

Early street design I did for the Kidnap Sequence, I used beams of light to somewhat evoke a prison-like feeling. The buildings get more collapsed and damaged as the scene progresses.

Several Vardos (traditional gypsy caravans) I designed for the project. Taken inspiration from both actual caravans, cathedral windows and shockingly some tapestry designs. Also a sketch I did for the mock layout of the camp.

I decided to use a monotone palette and let the shadows carry the story, rather than showing the action directly on screen. The approach was heavily inspired by the mood and visual language of film noir and German expressionism. Which in my opinion also enhanced the overall mystery aspect of the scene.

Probably one of the most challenging keyframes I’ve done for the project. Crowd shots have always been a struggle for me, until I jumped into this project.

It’s one of the first scenes I got to work on. I decided to incorporate a fire fan instead of sticking with the classic tambourine, which gave me the chance to experiment more and add some drama to the composition. It also helped create a more distinctive shape language. I ended up sketching over 20 composition ideas just to explore how I could use fire to frame the characters. Not sure if those sketches will ever see the light of day, but who knows, maybe there will be an art of book.

I designed the props to be made from scrap materials and easily found items, like reused horse-shoes, worn-out leather, tree bark, or even simple things like used skewers and wooden sticks.

“Our Lady of Paris” is envisioned as the middle ground for the events, embodying the novel’s central duality. The cathedral’s design reflects its frightening yet welcoming appeal. Without altering its core structure, I decided to enhance its silhouette by adding spire-like towers to the roofs.

It took me soooo long to render this—honestly, this is actually my second attempt at rendering the structure. Definitely ended up being a milestone piece, both for my portfolio and for my art journey as a whole. I also designed a few surrounding buildings to help show the scale of the cathedral in comparison!

✨My portfolio project is finally complete!!! ✨

Let’s start with some of the exploratory stuff I did back then. While looking into the art styles of the story’s time period, I noticed hatching played such a big role. I tried bringing it into my own work. It ended up becoming more of a way to add depth and let elements fade softly into the background, rather than serving as a foundational style.