Liiga Smilshkalne 🔜 MCAmsterdam

@liiga.bsky.social

8058 Followers 530 Following

Artist from the mysterious and far away land of Latvia. Mostly drawing for Magic: The Gathering these days. Big on shinies and coffee. She/her Prints: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/liiga/ Links: https://bio.site/liiga

A video of the artist proof getting a nice wiggle against the light to show off textures and shinies.
A 6.3x8.8 cm painting of Liliana from Magic: The Gathering, holding a very starry spell that wraps around her and dissipates into space. Pencil for scale
A 6.3x8.8cm acrylic painting depicting a fiery cat surrounded by disembodied paws, clawing up the environment. There's a delicious shiny moth in front of it and the cat's mouth is open so good luck, moth. Pencil for scale.
A video set to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker ballet, showing off the original tokens.
A photo of a white Himalayan cat covered in tokens. One's about to get bitten because he thinks flat things are delicious.
I charge the paint with light, turn off the lamp and PHWOOM! it lights right up.
6.3x8.8 cm predominantly blue acrylic painting of a hooded mage meditating in a lake. The sky above him shows the big dipper constellation, while the water reflects five moon phases.
"Stoke the Flames" for Magic: The Gathering. It shows a group of Tarkir shamans summoning a fire dragon out of a volcano in the battle against the Phyrexian invasion.
6.3x8.8 cm painting of a little bunny sat by a makeshift altar to a fallen friend, surrounded by cempasúchiles and monarch butterflies. Pencil for scale.
"Enduring Innocence", Magic: The Gathering card.
A "reveal" video involving my cat's paw and a bit of wiggling.
A 6.3x8.8cm painting of a mareep bouncing around Duskmourn, surrounded by shiny moths. Pencil for scale
Trying to show off the different surface textures, varying levels of shine, foiling and fancypants paint reflections.
Photo of a small painting - 6.3x8.8cm of Chandra from Magic: The Gathering being all fiery and screamy. Pencil for scale.
Wiggling the little painting this and that way to show off the effects. The colors are more accurate in the still image, but this has the shinies!
A photo of a small acrylic + fineliner (+ foil + shenanigans) painting on the back of an artist proof, 6.3 x 8.8 cm. It shows Chandra from Magic: The Gathering full of fire and rage.
A photo of Bucha, a Himalayan cat (who is screaming as of writing this text because nobody loves him) sitting under an orange umbrella indoors
A video of the little painting getting moved this and that way to show off the effect paints.
A photo of a small - 6.3 x 8.8 cm acrylic painting of a glowy happy lamb gamboling through the dark misty halls of Duskmourn. There are lights embedded in the distant wall with suspiciously mothlike shapes all around them.
A photo of a small (6.3 x 8.8 cm) painting on the back of a Magic: The Gathering artist proof. It shows an orangey sword dissolving (explosively) into a whole bunch of sweet peas. Pencil for scale
A digital painting of a "Swamp" in space. This one's about stars gone nova drifting towards oblivion like a bunch of waterlilies of explosive death.
The alter in question! Thank you for commissioning me!
Photos from the event! Top photo shows everyone involved in making the Things Happen. Bottom photo shows a group of creative goobers full of coffee and marker fumes. Photos courtesy of Elysha Hayley.
A photo of yours truly by the Leyline Nexus logo
Wiggling the little painting around on an upside down clipboard (so it doesn't fall off) to show off the foiling
An acrylic painting on the back of an artist proof of the foil Island Magic card from the Edge of Eternities set - so 6.3 x 8.8cm big. It shows Liliana casting a very shiny (in a golden kind of way) spell with tiny black stars scattered around it. She's set against a blue background, with a few, less prominent stars to it. The lineart is also done with acrylics - I'd normally use a fineliner for this sort of thing, but I wanted the lines to be finer than that while still maintaining a good amount of color, so used a brush instead.
A drawing of an armored corgi walking proudly alongside his master in an arena.
A graphic thingy showing the face of yours truly alongside some of my cards.
A digital illustration showing fractal growth pouring out of an opalescent stone egg and then just growing and growing and growing.
A pair of creamy white moth earrings with dark golden eyes sitting on a creamy white tile. They're attached to gold plated wires and hooks.
An itty bitty painting of Elspeth, the planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering, as a white mouse clad in silver armor with golden decorations. She's wearing a white cape and holding a spear that took more than one try to get to look right. Behind her, white sweet peas are arranged in the shape of wings (because Elspeth is an angel) and she's making friends with an orange butterfly. This is on the back of my Swords to Plowshares artist proof, which also involves sweet peas. Pencil for scale!
An acrylic painting on the back of a Screaming Nemesis artist proof - a 6.3x8.8cm card. It shows a darkened, smoldering angel kneeling in hot clouds, tearing herself in half starting with the face. Starlight full of eyes pours out. The eyes are raised above the painting (using glass beads, gel and a shiny medium) so they distort the paint behind them in a fun way.
"Harsh Annotation", a Magic: The Gathering card.
A digital painting of a fractal dolphin turning into a calligraphic eagle - both are magical, and the whole thing is happening above a round pool of water because I thought that would make for a really neat spot on the Strixhaven campus.
The initial messy sketch - pencil first, then the fineliner so I know what I'm doing there, and then some quick colors with markers until I got too indecisive on the color scheme and decided to play with that digitally.
A small acrylic painting with outlines done with a liner pen featuring a macaroni penguin wizard casting a spell. It's a spring spell because the spring could hurry up and get much springier. Maybe this will help.
A close up featuring the opalescent egg and all the swirly twirly plants pouring out of it (quite literally).
A digital illustration showing fractal growth pouring out of an opalescent stone egg and then just growing and growing and growing.
The 'Ceaseless Conflict' card for Magic: The Gathering Secrets of Strixhaven Lorehold commander deck.
A close up of the man's face
A digital painting showing a conflict between a man and a woman clad in armor inspired by the Akkadian, Sumerian and Assyrian styles, with weapons to match. She is stabbing him in the throat, and he is cutting her through the waist, the injuries filling with bright light from within, and flesh turning into stone around them. They're surrounded by countless afterimages, and set against two suns.
Freshly signed "Nature's Rhythm" card from Magic the Gathering. The ink didn't bead at all! No streaking either. The Schneider marker is generous like that.
My two Milwaukee Inkzall fine tip markers side by side. The one to the right is a year older (as far as I can tell anyway) and sent to me from US; the other I bought locally from a store (building materials one not Uncle Ivan's Assorted Forgeries, mind you). There's that dot on the one to the right that's marked with an arrow - it's absent on the left one. The ink is a different shade, but it adheres about the same from both versions. Unsure if these are regional differences or if there's been a change in manufacturing over time.
Same card, angled and lit differently in an attempt to show the thickness of the ink. The oil Sharpie didn't catch any light, but it's similar to Gundam, Edding and Schneider.
A card with black marker tests; the white card is inside a plastic cover that I tried my best to smudge up with my fingers to emulate the waxy surface of some Magic cards (seems to be a thing with some US printings since roughly MH3).
Photo of an adult cat, visibly full of crimes
The score from the color comparison game - it says 0.0019.
A photo of two Magic: The Gathering cards - Genesis Wave and Archdruid's Charm - signed in my Archdruid style. There's a woodsy dark gold texture on the letters, and they're surrounded by small, enthusiastically leafy branches.
A photo of "Brainsurge", a Magic: The Gathering card illustrated by yours truly that has been freshly embellished with a very shiny signature.
A photo of a MTG Swamp card from the Edge of Eternities set (illustrated by yours truly), embellished with a very shiny signature and surrounded by the tools involved in its making (it's a little time consuming). Not pictured are a couple of tubes of paint and gloves because they were throwing shadows and ruining the a e s t h e t i c.
The "Lionsmane" card for Android:Netrunner, featuring the same jellyfish. The flavor text reads: "Step closer," you dream you hear. "Feel my embrace."
A digital painting in an assortment of reds, depicting a stylized lion's mane jellyfish. The tendrils are super whooshy and split into colorful wave patterns as they get closer to the viewer. There's a bright, ominous glow coming from the 'head' of the jellyfish.
A small acrylic painting - the size of a regular playing card - of Rogue from X men blowing a kiss and slapping her butt. The background is full of peaches.
A very colorful digital painting showing a scene where a relatively small black hole is causing an awful lot of problems at a settlement. The potholes alone are going to be disastrous. Also the first time I had to draw a spaceship! Since I'm a lot more familiar with explosions, I put a bunch of those over the biggest ship and immediately felt much better.
An itty bitty painting of Elspeth, the planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering, as a white mouse clad in silver armor with golden decorations. She's wearing a white cape and holding a spear that took more than one try to get to look right. Behind her, white sweet peas are arranged in the shape of wings (because Elspeth is an angel) and she's making friends with an orange butterfly. This is on the back of my Swords to Plowshares artist proof, which also involves sweet peas. Pencil for scale!
A picture of two versions of the Magic: The Gathering card "Mathemagics", with regular and extended art.
A digital painting of a pleasant park on Quandrix campus full of carefully maintained grass, water sculptures, tall trees and a physics defying reality shift causing the whole thing to spiral into infinite spiraling fractals and then maybe a few more loops for a good measure. In the foreground there are three figures, possibly two students and a professor. In the middle background there are three figures, possibly three students. In the further background there are three figures, possibly...
Myntasha, Honored One for Magic: The Gathering 2019 Heroes of the Realm. A magical deer with crystal horns is formed through ancestral spirits converging from fairy stones amidst a snowy forest. The scene is lit by the moon shining through the gaps between pine branches above the deer's head, and the moonlight casts rainbows upon the snow.
An itty bitty painting of Elspeth, the planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering, as a white mouse clad in silver armor with golden decorations. She's wearing a white cape and holding a spear that took more than one try to get to look right. Behind her, white sweet peas are arranged in the shape of wings (because Elspeth is an angel) and she's making friends with an orange butterfly. This is on the back of my Swords to Plowshares artist proof, which also involves sweet peas. Pencil for scale!
An itty bitty (8.8x6.3cm) painting of Nissa (planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering) holding a magical starflower spell. Some of the spellery is dripping down by her feet and sprouting behind her, gently lifting her into the air. Painted in acrylics (the shading on her eyelids just about did me in) with pencil for scale.